Post #2481985

@Tooden@aus.social in this subthread I'm taking atheists to task for mistaking the form of the injustice (organised religion) for its root cause. What I see in your comments is precisely the same phenomenon, but aimed at men rather than theists. I do understand that patriarchy saturates all other forms of inequality and injustice, and yet nonetheless: Patriarchy is the form, not the cause If tomorrow we took all men away to their own planet somewhere (yet still manage to reproduce the species somehow), Earth would not automatically transform into a peaceful, equal society. Not in one generation, not in many generations. We would still have to fight racism and ableism and class prejudice and everything else amongst the women and non-binary people who remain. Why am I so sure of this? Because I am a woman and yet I've had to do so much work on myself to understand and counteract my own prejudices. And I've still got so much more work to do. I cannot, will not, externalise the blame onto men. I am just as much part of humanity, its systems, and its failings. I refuse to be a feminist version of Dawkins, here. "Man" and "woman" are social constructs, and maleness and femaleness largely are, too. Humanity constructed patriarchy, we constructed religion, we constructed race, we will continue to construct systems of fuckery for as long as we are human. Patriarchy is perhaps the oldest and most entrenched form of injustice in the world. It's still not the cause of all our problems. Our minds are. And yet still I have hope that we as a species can learn to consciously compensate for this tendency of ours. Not by pointing the finger at one group of people and one form of injustice, but thru a widespread habit of self-focused critical thinking. Now I suspect you may be already working on a counterargument to everything I've said, and sure, but I'd rather you take it to your own post at this point. I would like to draw a line under this in this particular thread. @thatfrisiangirlish@blahaj.zone