Ultimately that feels like a very nihilistic viewpoint to me, and although I believe it bears a certain amount of merit I also don't believe that that level of cynicism helps anybody. I will be the first to admit that often liberals confused tokenism with diversity. I also think there are some problems that need to be seen and solved through racialised lens, and I think modern liberalism is afraid in America is afraid to address these problems in that manner.
But I also believe that liberal politics and liberal politicians advocate solutions that move us towards a better future and one in which we are more likely to be able to address these problems. Modern American conservatism moves us towards death -- which feels extreme, somehow, but also correct to say.
Agreed 100 percent. I do believe there is a really big problem with Asian men being stereotyped as herbivores in modern society. I do not believe that the solution is to push a brand of toxic masculinity onto Asian men in the hopes that this gets more of them laid. That's just perpetuating the patriarchy, especially when they are encouraged to exploit power dynamics in order to get what they want/feel like they deserve.
I agree with everything you have to say here.
It is indeed nihilistic and I tend to be rather aggressive when I post in threads about marginalized groups but I do not let my online persona interferes with my daily life.
I'm an outsider who isn't affected by police brutality, american's war tendencies, tax reforms, monetary policies, a deeper systemic level of racism that I have to look over my shoulders every day. I'm also from a wealthy Asian country and my dad has rode the wave of my country developing transition from 3rd to 1st world.
They couldn't tag as me as bitter or had a self-persecuting complex when I post in these threads as many of those issues don't affect me. But that to me, it's precisely the time when I choose to post. I find it disgusting how inconsistent and flippant the morals these people have and they are either willfully oblivious or deliberately disingenuous when it serve their interest.
It's not like I dislike all liberals and whatsnot. I did like Ellen Page because despite being a victim of sexism and homophobia, she shows empathy and compassion towards other marginalized groups that she thought are having it worst because they face the same issues + racism as well.
Your outsider status does not make you privy to some sort of transcended actualization. All it does it exclude you from understanding what it is like for us inside.
All people are hypocritical. Movements have elements of hypocrisy in them. To try and both sides the two parties in the US is incredibly regressive for minorities, women, and marginalized groups. The "liberal" side is not perfect. However, the liberal wing of America consists of people who are more open to inclusiveness and equality.
Take the emasculation of Asian men. Some of the posters in this thread will remember my views and posts on this on GAF. Hollywood emasculates Asian men. Hollywood is also more liberal than the rest of America. Sure, you can look at this and infer, well, Hollywood = liberal, Hollywood = emasculates Asian men, therefore liberal = emasculates Asian men.
But to do that requires that you think in a deliberately ignorant manner on how conservatives view Asian men. Conservatives believe in things like Japanese internment camps, or rather, herding up Asian men (and women), regardless of citizenship, and putting them in camps in the desert without adequate food, water, medicine. Taking their land and money and lives. They're willing to go that far- if they "ran" Hollywood, the portrayal of Asian men would be the same
and would not change, unlike what is (slowly) happening in Hollywood.
Yes, Hollywood suffers from tokenism. "We made one Asian man okay, that's all we need." No, that's not enough, and I encourage people to say so.
But, they tried.
They (begrudgingly?)
listened to the liberal ideas of inclusiveness, inclusion, and equality. The reason why it even moved one centimeter is because of what liberalism stands for in the US. If they were conservative, we wouldn't even have this (and would never get it, because what conservatives now in the US stand for is really anti-inclusiveness, anti-diversity, and white supremacy).
There are only two sides in America, and only one of them will even attempt to listen to us.