AboveUp

Purple Link · @AboveUp

12th Oct 2014 from TwitLonger

The best part about a lot of the Social Justice types, and a lot of the people championing them, is the way they preach diversity and inclusion while also railing against the privilege people have not based on their actual status in life, but solely on their skin color and gender. If you're straight, white, and/or a man, you instantly rolled easy mode and have a fuckton of privilege, meaning you don't get to have a say on a lot of issues. In spite of that, a fairly large chunk of people championing this belief system are middle class white people, and quite a large chunk of people signal boosting it, especially in games media, are men.

The moment you disagree or even question the slightest notion brought forward by these types, the more of a bigot you are, even if the extent of your disagreement is not being outraged at something that has a bigger effect on you than it has on them. A few friends of mine have shown up on blacklists for simply disagreeing they should be outraged at something. For instance, a Brazilian person was blocked by an American games journalist for not being outraged at a Street Fighter character from Brazil for existing.

In the same sense, I'm told that a lot of things I enjoy, or my lack of outrage at something means that I endorse rape culture. A claim that somehow as common as it is outrageous. In absolutely no sense whatsoever do I condone rape or sexual violence towards any living human being, but my opinion on this matter isn't important because I'm a straight male, so I couldn't possibly know anything about sexual violence, right? As someone who actually has been sexually assaulted, and has actively been made fun of by women (in fact, one of them was my boss at the time) over this fact. The hypocrisy in people using the same rules about gender identity they claim they want to break as a reason to invalidate my voice about something I've experienced sickens me. Under the guise of gender equality, women are the only ones who should be believed on this subject in circles that debate these issues. Despite it not being an issue entirely exclusive to them.

But I'm still incredibly privileged, right? How could I possibly know how hard people have it out there? Have had it out there? People covering luxury products, media, tell me how my life was set to easy mode by virtue of birth. How white people ruin everything by being so privileged and lacking understanding for real life issues. That's all cool and all, and yeah, a lot of people lack perspective when it comes to these things, but to say that this is a race or gender exclusive thing is crazy. I grew up poor. Very poor. In fact, growing up there have been moments where there wasn't any running water. There wasn't electricity. Court bailiffs stopped by to claim goods. Child security came with threats to take my little brothers away. I was kicked out of school because I couldn't afford it anymore. Domestic disputes rising to the point that all the furniture at home is broken, and no, there is no money to replace any of this stuff.

Even in my adult life there was a moment where, after having to return to live with my family for a short while, I ended up homeless.

You know what I mostly saw at the homeless shelter? White men. You want to know who got more help in returning to society and getting out of the homeless shelter? Women and minorities. I could've thrown a tantrum at that, could have gotten angry, called it unfair, and railed against everything, but that wouldn't have done anything. Besides, if other people are getting more help, good on them. It means that at least they're getting help. That's still a massive step upwards from nobody getting any help.

I'm not going to lie, I *am* privileged. The same thing goes for anyone saying they fight for social justice, equality, feminism, or anything really. We all live in a society where there are enough safety nets for people to get back on my feet if something goes horribly wrong. Identity has very little to do with this.

What gets to me is when other want to shut me up because of my identity, especially over things I have more personal experience with than them, and especially over something as stupid as video games. Don't get me wrong, I fucking love video games. They've gotten me through a lot things in life. But my connection to them doesn't mean I get to say what has a right to exist in them or not, nor does anyone else. I don't want video games to represent me or my life experience, I've fucking lived it already and am still living it every day as is. I want them to be fun and engaging.

PS: No, that doesn't mean diversification is a bad thing either. But you shouldn't demand it from studios churning out the games with protagonists you don't like since that only leads to token ethnic caricatures that don't appeal to anybody.

PPS: If there's anything wrong with this twitlonger thing, blame it being 5am here as of posting.

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