steveo, here, you make the argument that "extreme leftists" reacted poorly to your factual statement.
The interesting point is that I have been shouted down on here for stating what I think are clearly factual points. I heard Jordan Peterson state recently words to the effect that the idea of the western world being a repressive patriarchy is abhorrent. I completely agree with this comment.
But in recent posts, it now seems to be about a difference in opinion.
Maybe it's not me with the problem. Maybe it's the leftists who can't seem to discuss issues calmly, rationally and with respect for differences of opinion.
The patriarchy and it's influence is a subjective assessment of different cultures. Institutionalised racism is another subjective assessment.
Differences in opinion, subjective assessments. But interestingly enough, you also immediatley flip back to us having a problem identifying objective facts:
Another problem that extreme leftists have is clearly an inability to differentiate between facts and theories. Even within that theory you need to be rational - how bad is the racism for instance.
It's hard to argue against why you think our discourse is so bad because I can't tell whether you genuinely think your beliefs are fact supported while ours are not (I obviously disagree), or whether you think we're just not tolerant enough of differing opinions (which we of course see as denial of objective reality).
So I'm just going argue against the statement below, if you'll allow me. I am a calm person and I'm a rational person, and I think you'll find that reflected in my counterargument.
I don't believe that the western world is a repressive patriarchy. I don't believe that racism is somehow institutionalised within society.
I
really want to tackle both issues, but I recognize that it's probably best to stay focused. We've talked more about the patriarchy thing in the last several posts, and I consider institutional racism a virtual slam-dunk anyway, so I'll focus on the patriarchy for now.
The Western World as a Repressive Patriarchy
I'm going to use the following definition of the word patriarchy,
a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
and I'm going to use the United States as a proxy for the Western World.
Just 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
1 Just 21% of congress is female.
2 Every US President and Vice President has been male. For the first time in 2019, more than 10% (18%) of wide release studio films will have a female director at the helm.
3Personally, I think it should be incumbent on you to explain why such disparities exist, rather than incumbent on me to show that the disparities are driven by a patriarchal society, but I'll do the latter anyway. The first and most obvious reason is simple consequence: The "boy's club" effect. Man have the power and make the rules, so it's impossible for there not to be some level of gate keeping.
Women's suffrage in the United States is only 99 years old. Much of the country was built while explicitly leaving women out of the process. Though it was Federal law, some states didn't ratify the amendment until decades later, which points to lingering hostility towards the idea of women voting even after it became legal.
Title IX, which ended legal discrimination by sex in education, is less than 50 years old. Women have just now reached parity with men when it comes to the attainment of 4 year degrees.
4 Finding more representation in prestige professions and executive leadership is clearly more difficult when you have faced legal or cultural discrimination on your path to higher education.
In addition to explicit, and legislatively permitted gate keeping, there is a large cultural element at play that elevates men at the expense of women. 6 in 10 women report having been sexually harassed, with more than half of them saying that it happened in the workplace.
5 Even pointing out that this is a problem is starting to face a growing backlash in society.
Consider how women of consequence are covered by the media. Everyone knows who Buzz Aldrin is. The world's most famous second place finisher. Comparatively fewer people have heard of Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist whose software helped put Aldrin and Armstrong on the moon. Watch closely how the news media covers Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, and the other female presidential candidates as the 2020 race heats up. Try and observe how much attention is given to things like emotional temperament, and then compare this to how the same or similar behavior is covered, not covered, or just considered permissible by men. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had an absolute meltdown in his confirmation hearing, during which he was flippant with Senators, refused to answer questions, and unless you're gullible enough to think that "Devil's Triangle" refers to a drinking game, almost certainly lied. None of this was disqualifying to make him one of the most powerful people in the country.
I strongly believe that the public and the media has a blind spot for men when it comes to behavior that would be considered non-permissible for women.Women struggle for adequate representation in popular media as well. An overwhelming majority of on screen speaking roles in Hollywood are held by men.
6 Male speaking lines dominate Oscar winning films. It's not even close.
7 The popular culture that we make and that we elevate sends a pretty clear message. Most people of consequence are men, while women are relegated to supporting roles. These attitudes are found up and down every facet of our society, and they contribute to the empirical fact that women are underrepresented in positions of power.
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I'm interested to hear why you either don't think the facts support my conclusion, or in what way I'm irrational or disrespectful. T.I.A.
References:
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_CEOs_of_Fortune_500_companies2https://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-20183https://www.thewrap.com/female-director-woman-hollywood-studio-progress-five-times-more-history/4https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/5http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/04/sexual-harassment-at-work-in-the-era-of-metoo/6https://pudding.cool/2017/03/film-dialogue/7https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXeensjU0AAG5uH.jpg:large