When a teacher says, "Students, don't talk in class," do you immediately shout, "Hey, not everyone was talking!" or do you parse out that if you weren't doing the thing being criticized then the critique is not directed at you?
No matter what you do for a living, I can't really think it's productive for police to tell someone, "Why don't you just quit your job?" in response to harassment.
Thank you. Perhaps I don't understand the need to constantly drill home semantics. When I read an article that says, "Hey guys, how about you stop date raping? Here are some horrific stats", I don't suddenly feel outrage because I'm a guy, although I certainly identify as male. As I am not a date rapist, the article is neither insulting nor accusing me.
And yet, time and again, whenever a fringe or attacked group complains about being fringe and attacked, people start pouring out of the woodwork to defend the honor of the 'silent majority' who shouldn't have to read about the plights of those groups.
The religious analogy is getting OT, but the same applies. When someone decries the works of ISIS or the government of Israel, it adds little to the conversation (and shows an insane amount of defensiveness) to jump in and yell #notallMuslims or #dontbeanantisemite. At that point your group identity has clouded your ability to engage in rational discussion; you're Don Quixote charging full steam ahead at a windmill dragon.
Imru’ al-Qays;128165060 said:
When someone writes an article demonizing black criminals and black crime should we expect black people reading the article to say to themselves "oh I'm not a black criminal so I've no reason to be offended by this article"? Really? Come on.
I felt this analogy would be used as well, and it's an apt point. If there is an article lamenting inner city gang life, female-degrading hip hop music, or the lack of LGBT progress in the black community, what can I come in and say? But anyone writing a serious piece on crime and poverty would probably be educated enough to examine the sociology surrounding drug and crime-ridden areas, instead of just throwing out "lol black people" like an Ann Coulter-esque snark troll.