Somewhat unsettling cases of inequality

 

The Social Justice Warriors normally jump on any and all differences in outcome as a proof for oppression. Well, not any and all, because somehow the fact that working class white boys (and white boys in general) underperform in schools, or men are overreprensented in workplace deaths, suicides, homelessness, and all that jazz, is conveniently ignored, or are explained away by the absolutely moronic "the Patriarchy hurts everyone". (So why is it called patriarchy?)

There are two very interesting articles I ran across lately in this very topic. The first is a Swedish article demonstrating that men face discrimination in female-dominated workplaces. (And they were the only group shown to be discriminated against in this experiment.)

The second is a more serious one demonstrating that men do not get the appropriate help from mental health support services. The prevailing "wisdom" is that men are too macho (you know, Patriarchy) to ask for help. This paper demonstrates that they do ask for help, they just do not get it, hence the high number of suicides.

So there you have it. No Guardian op-eds, no US Senators bringing it up, no WHO reaction, no outrage. While SJWs keep saying that compassion is not a finite resource, and that it is not a zero sum game any time some moronic Republican senator brings up some hair-brained whataboutism about how white men are literally the only persecuted group (which is also an idiotic thing to do), they very much dispense with it selectively. Perhaps compassion is a finite resource.

The circles of identity politics - or whatever are we going to fight against next?

A relatively old case, but an interesting one which demonstrates how identity politics works. It is a simple one: a woman stabbed her boyfriend, and essentially got away with it with a slap on the wrist.

It is, I have to say, probably enraging a few people -after all, the judgement goes against any sense of justice, because the defendant is a woman. (See: women are wonderful effect -no wonder they get reduced sentences for comparable crimes, right?)

So I was holding my breath when I saw the Guardian headline complaining about injustice with the following headline from two years ago: The Lavinia Woodland case exposes equality before the law as a myth… could it be? The Woke of the Woke, the Flagship of Identity Politics actually stood up against a gross injustice, even if it is about a woman, you know, a person who is suppressed by the systemic forces of a Patriarchy? Maybe now we can have a level-headed discussion about sentencing policies that are so ridiculous it is hard to know where to start to describe them? That maybe the Guardian may point out that women are favoured which leads to miscarriages of justice (not in a legal sense, but in a moral one).

Well, fuck no. Of course not.

The Guardian found a different narrative.

Now it is not heroic, abused women in the yokes of the Patriarchy; after all, a woman is now a beneficiary of this Evil System.
Now it is the minority women against the evil white supremacy which puts them into prison.

There is a kernel of truth in this argument. It is undeniable that money and status played a role in this case. In fact, one can argue, it is the only factor that played any role in the judgement. A poor woman (white or non-white) would not have gotten away so easy. And yes, there is racism in the justice system.

However, deliberately staying blind to the larger injustice - the different sentencing standards for different genders- just because it does not fit into our narrative -well, this is the repugnant part of identity politics. A man would have gotten an even harsher sentence poor or not. And your narrative about the poor, abused women -well, very few criminals are criminals because they chose that life based on a school competency test. Your compassion is only reserved for one part of the population, and you do not see any reason why you should extend it to other human beings who are not in your in-group. If it is about men, your in-group is women, if it is about a white woman, your in-group is minority women. Since everything is relative, you can move the goal posts as much as you like -as long as you keep the victim/oppressor narrative. You are warping reality even when what you say is factually true. Because what you do not say matters, too. You can make fake news without uttering a falsehood, as it is demonstrated so well in this case.