So I was going to go out on another dish-adventure today but it's been raining for most of the day and there's even snow up on the mountains so that didn't happen. Instead, I've got a post for you that could be seen as making light of a serious issue (because it kind of is) but is really just me sharing one of the weird things my brain does when confronted with a serious issue. Basically I wanted to go on a rant about something but then I remembered how much I hate trying to write out my thoughts on serious issues because I get really frustrated whenever I can't fully say what I want to say and also I'd rather be playing with legos right now. Anyway, I do want people to know what I think about this but I'm saving the full rant for another day when I can actually concentrate on it. Just thought I'd say that as a disclaimer or something because OMG ANXIETY okay seriously now onto the post.
One of the problems with having a strong obsessive-compulsive streak is that it tends to make me want to argue against blunt, all-encompassing 'such-and-such is always this or that' statements. I also have to make it very clear whenever I'm making a generalization because I know there are exceptions and I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes or whatever, so a lot of my time is spent going 'okay so things are like this EXCEPT when this or maybe sometimes this could happen or-'
THIS IS ANNOYING. Especially for me. See, you don't have to worry about it because you can't read my mind (and if you can… why don't you go do something a little bit more useful with your life? Seriously, that's kind of rude) but I get to live in my mind all the time so I get to hear the stupid arguments my brain makes ALL THE TIME.
Now, granted, there are times when this can be useful. For instance, when someone's making a hurtful statement or is blatantly wrong and the consequences of said person being wrong are… well, pretty bad, then it's good to argue and point out when someone's generalizing or whatever. The thing is, my brain also does this when I hear statements that I agree with.
Take the phrase 'rape is never okay.' On a logical, rational level, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. The very definition of rape is having sex with someone without their consent, and I don't think it's fair to force an activity on anyone, especially one that can result in so a multitude of physical and mental health problems. The excuses rapist apologists throw out there, like 'I'm a man! I can't control myself when I see a hot piece of ass like that!' or 's/he shouldn't have gone out drinking if she didn't want to get raped,' 'she should've been wearing a burkha,' or 's/he didn't actually say no so s/he must have wanted it' are, to put it bluntly, complete bullshit*.
But then my brain kicks in, and it decides that, since not everything in the world is in black and white, that there MUST be an exception to the rule. And then it has to go and find it. Oh, and it also has to make it fit in with my beliefs, because otherwise my brain would just be a total asshole. The result? Usually something like this:
Rape is never okay. Okay, well, maybe there's someone out there who… no, wait. Oh, I know! If there's an evil virgin out there whose virginity is literally destroying the world through some evil virgin-magical force of evilness and they're refusing to lose their virginity because, well, evil… then, well, maybe. But the odds of that happening are pretty slim so yeah, rape is never okay.
So basically my brain takes the BS excuses from whoever I'm arguing against and comes up with extreme hypothetical scenarios where maybe their arguments would be valid, but I don't like to share them because… well, you know, they're pretty stupid and impossible so there's really not any sort of point in sharing them.
*If you disagree with this statement, then I can only say the following: You don't have to agree with me, but I don't have to respect you for being an asshole.
No comments:
Post a Comment