Tuesday Has No Phones

I haven't said much about the current "putting the 'con' back in 'non-consentual'" situation since 1) busy and 2) anyone who thinks I'm into victim blaming clearly doesn't know me very well and I assume that those of you still reading me these days at least have a passing familiarity with what my opinion is in these situations.

That being said, every so often someone is so wrong on the internet that I have to say something.

As for example.

First of all, I'd love to know when she got elected to speak for all pagans. 'cause yanno there's only one single kind and all pagans agree on everything ever and no pagans in the history of all of paganism have ever once debated basic religious tenants like "What are our core philosophies?" or "Shall we have one god, or two?" or "What toppings shall we put on our pizza, so mote it be?".

You know it's going to be a good one when it starts with how personal responsibility is important to pagans because as we all know every other religion out there is all about shoving responsibility onto other people. I mean if I had a nickel for every time the Dalai Lama lost his temper because somebody made his tea too hot, or all the times Saint Therese said "Fuck it, why don't you take the damn garbage out?" I know I would be a very rich woman. Though perhaps Rabbi Hillel put it best when he said "If I am not for myself, who will be for me to put the blame on, especially when things get fercockt?"

Sure it's possible for us to say no to eating an entire cheesecake. But that's because rarely does cheesecake take the form of a human being who is in some way trying to block/harass/intimidate/attack/in some way do harm to us. Because if cheesecake is this problematic for you, I daresay understanding the ins and outs of paganism may not be your biggest problem.

Mind you, we are talking about a post where people are apparently eating mud for the vitamins, so possibly cheesecake is a large and looming problem. It is not for me to say.

Regardless, while the idea of personal responsibility, (c) PaganCo Enterprises, LLC, is a good one as a broad concept anyone with personal responsibility should be able to ask themselves "Is telling someone that they are at fault for not removing themselves from a potentially dangerous situation a thoughtful and compassionate post for my LJ? Am I showing personal responsibility of my own by claiming this point of view is related to paganism, as though pagans everywhere don't have enough to deal with with their far too common reputation of being either Satanists or twee Hot Topic fans who think being pagan means naming themselves Sylvyr Blacke Rayvyns Rosee and talking about how they're Team Jacob because he's of the earth? Could I perhaps be spending my time more productively with a slice of cheesecake and a marathon of the Golden Girls?" and then answering those questions in a way that will not make a ton of folks out there on the interwebs look at your post and say "...dude."

I'm all for personal responsibility. But there's huge differences between recognizing and making amends for when you've fucked up verses being in an uncomfortable to dangerous situation and not being able to teleport yourself out of it because you're nothing but a slacker. And yes, the latter involves victim blaming. Because you are blaming the victims. It's not a hugely complicated set of words. If so, perhaps tackle that in your dictionary before trying to teach concepts like personal responsibility to others.

And now I'm going to be personally responsible for taking myself to bed.

...not dirty.

Work is BUSY. Dept meeting, boss leaving on vacation next week. Tons of stuff to do and it all has to be done NOW!!!!!

Don't mind me as I cling to my couch and my cats.

And also ( Share links )

Today's definition of made of fail. Because as we all know it's super fun to co-opt horrific events from Nazi Germany for the purposes of whaddya call it? Oh yeah - ANYTHING. Lord almighty how does that even need explaining to people? Shouldn't this be right up there with the lesson on how you breathe in this invisible stuff around you called air and then a short time later you breathe it out again and that's how you keep your body from becoming unhappy?

And yanno, I realize this is waaaaaaaaaaaay down on the list of crimes here but under the category of "Even when you're wrong you're wrong" can we also point out Metaphors: Your friend, your enemy? Because yes you CAN use Harry Potter to talk about issues of racism and classism and slavery and war because the books do that already. You don't have to yank from real life events because the books have done the scutwork on the symbolism and allegory for you. Also? Half the frakking point of JKR's writing is the Dickensian use of names. How is it possible to be playing in the world of Rita "DO YOU GET IT? SHE'S A BUG" Skeeter and Remus "Werewolf McDidWeMentionTheWerewolfThing" Lupin and be saying to youself "You know, we lack for both the tools and the precedent to come up with an original name for our RPG so let's just grab the Nazi thing because clearly people will understand that there were no alternatives."

Fail fail fail fail FAIL.

[With a tip o' the hat to zvi_likes_tv and jennem for the heads-up]