The general idea of a lot of online conservative media, seems to be that cruelty is fine, because the tables have turned and being a minority is super-duper cool and popular now, so if you make fun of a trans person, or a fat person, you're actually punching up, not down.
This narrative, in my opinion, screams so loud of the need to touch some grass, or maybe just to attempt placing yourself in someone elses shoes. It's also strange to me that the people devoted to denouncing victimhood, are oblivious that they inadvertedly defend their actions by painting themselves as the under-dog. Read these bios: an irreverent viral content and news review show offering an against-the-grain, laid-back perspective on today’s culture; The Michael Knowles Show cuts through the madness of our politics and culture; Fed up with the talking heads? Matt gives you a no-holds-barred take on today’s cultural, religious, and political issues. It's its own form of victim culture that builds justification for a holy war on the freaks and liberals. Also, it annoys me to shreds how these guys will make half their schtick being non-politically correct, and then very clearly dancing on some line that sometimes seems like just as thin of a line as any political correctness. Take this video by Brett Cooper, about a morbidly obese trans influencer. Brett will make little giggles over the influencer's videos, talk about how it's "ironic" that ... thinks men should be masculine men, and refuse to call her "she." But if you're going to be this against the grain, why not ... say anything? Call her a man then! It's so clearly tiptoeing around a line of what will be an acceptable level of cruelty towards a fat trans person that the cruelty certainly slips through, it's just empty of the actual words, or thoughts for that matter, like a mean girl in a school cafeteria or something. It's just that dril tweet about "turning a big dial taht says "Racism" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right." Sometimes "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" is true, but honestly, with these bitches, just say what you're thinking, let us hear it. I'm tired of this half-assed social commentary. Either say what you have to say, or don't post. At least when they say what they want to say, it's cruel, but we get to see them flail on Joe Rogan, or something. At least the left says what they think, right? All Cops Are Bastards, Eat the Rich, etc. I may not agree, but at this point the bar online is so low, that I am once again begging conservatives to try to use words instead of making faces while watching videos of fat people. I don't personally think the answer is political correctness, because we all know politically incorrect people that don't know the terms but beat you out on genuiniuety of heart every day of the week. But sometimes, political correctness and politeness, is just mixed toghether to be one and the same thing, and I think that's were I feel more conservative than these american pundits. I like politeness - I think it should play a huge role in how we approach each other. I don't think we should be crude, I don't think we should use bad words - call me orwellian - I don't think we should constantly fall down to some type of survival of the strongest political debate. I don't think we should laugh at misfits online, and I don't think we should draw lines in the sand where anything is allowed as long as it's towards those guys.I cannot stress how dissimilar this is to just any cruelty, that always makes sure to justify itself somehow. Georges Bataille (my fave) talks pretty extensively about how cruelty in war in tribal cultures (and really in modern culture - it's uncertain why Bataille even makes the distinction) is a feature more than a bug. During war the most vile treatment of the enemy is accepted and taken for granted, a type of violence that would otherwise be condemned and civilisation-threatening. Bataille makes the point that he thinks pre-christian societies was aware that this was a moral sin, in some way, and passed over the border knowing this and thus considered it almost a sacred thing. I don't exactly trust Bataille as an antropologist, but I think what he's saying about passing over to the forbidden, knowing that it's still forbidden, is appealing, because I think that whether or not that was the spirituality of primitive societies, it is a valuable way to approach forbidden thoughts and actions in every day life. Sometimes we have to breach rules and taboos - sometimes we do it without wanting to. There's a human instinct to rationalise away the bad we did - to explain not only why we had to do it, but also why it's not wrong that we did it; ideally, why it was actually virtuous to do so. Natalie Wynn's great contribution to online culture is detangling how a lot of online morality is just human cruelty and envy trying to justife itself (Watch Cringe, Cancelling, & Envy.) So at least in Bataille's hypothetical primitive society, there was no deluding oneself that violence was good, actually, there was just an understanding that crossing the line was sometimes necessary, and that doing so was a sacred, forbidden, venerable action. Today it seems almost impossible to imagine this type of action, that is at once forbidden and doable - it's either or. And it builds up justifications that makes the action go hay wire and pulls down social rules with it. It's this war mindset - the culture wars - I think, that makes not physical violence, but inhumane cruelty, just totally accepted in online spaces. There's a war going on and your team is loosing, so it's totally okay to abandon some lousy morality and simply kick like a dying screeching animal. But I think morality disappears all toghether when you do this. A shell of morality is left in its place. And not to sound cruel myself, but one thing that makes this maybe work in physical war, is that when you're out torturing the captives, it's kind of hidden away from the civilians of your homeland, at least. The cruelty is contained - in theory, it doesn't need to flood in to general society (in practice of course, it does - death in war numbs us to human value, especially when it's constantly available to us.) But a general cruelty that's just practiced online is open for everyone. Culture wars become the culture. Ironically they're trying to shape the culture, while creating absolute garbage culture. I doubt anyone is deeply moved, or changed, by this media culture. They're created under a sort of gauce of don't worry guys, this is war times, soon society will return to the good ol' days when all of this wasn't a problem. I just have a feeling these guys will never be the ones to bring us to that place, of flourishing humanism and virtue. It's pretty difficult to get yourself out of the trenches - psychologically, emotionally, spiritually - especially if you're convincing yourself you're not doing something wrong down there in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9eu2bvxjlK8 more brett mocking fat ppl