I’m TAing an intro to proofs and set theory class, and the instructor just sent this kids’ book about infinity out to the class. It’s pure MS Paint Lovecraftian nighmare fuel: https://www.math.brown.edu/~res/farm.pdf
a gay person, laughing and having a fun time on the internet: luke skywalker is gay
a straight person, crying in agony: no…. that’s impossible….More accurate:
A tumblr-gay*: Luke skywalker is an autistic pansexual trans man! It’s totally canon!
Any normal person: ummm there’s not really any evidence to that? He has a wife and kids. So, no, I don’t really agree with that.
Tumblr community: STOP OPPRESSING US! EVERYONE HAS TO BE GAY AND FAT AND MENTALLY ILL OR WE ARE BEING LITERALLY KILLED! LUKE SKYWALKER IS A TRANSMYSOGYNIST, ABLEIST SLUR AND WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!
Conservatives: GAY PEOPLE ARE AN ABOMINATION! ONLY PEOPLE WHO MAKE 300,000 DOLLARS A YEAR SHOULD HAVE HEALTHCARE!
Liberals: Okay… Guys… I know the refugees in Cologne are sexually assaulting women… But it’s not their fault! And you can’t say anything to them because that’s their culture! But look at how mysogynistic the conservatives are! (Don’t argue, please. It’s triggering)
Meanwhile, the world has actual problems bigger than the game of oppression bingo going on here.
*translation: a genderqueer Demiboy gray ace lesbian who is sexually attracted to people’s names who start with the letter Q
a gay person laughing and having a fun time on the internet: luke skywalker is gay
this person: has a complete breakdown
Here’s the part that made me thoughtfully stroke my imaginary beard:Ms. Delmaro told him the trouble had come from a spirit that was stalking him. She needed $28,000, then $28,000 more. Michelle had grown cold so suddenly, he thought, that the spirit explanation sounded right, and so he paid.
Recall that this was a woman who’d made it explicitly clear that she had no romantic feelings for this fellow. A reasonable person might note Michelle’s complete lack of interest and come up with a few more plausible explanations for her coldness than “evil spirits.” But for this guy to follow that thread, he’d have to give up on an article of deeply-held faith: that any woman he wants is rightfully his and just needs to be collected. Much easier to believe in poltergeists, and pay to have them removed.
Believe it or not, I’m not unsympathetic to the man, who must be very lonely. But when I see how desperate he was to have his delusion of entitlement confirmed, when I read that he found “Michelle is influenced by evil spirits” easier to swallow than “Michelle is a human being with preferences and agency,” I find it harder to feel too sorry that someone took him for what he was willing to pay. “Men gonna men,” as the New Yorker’s Caitlin Kelly tweeted; they often ignore women’s explicit stated opinions, and it’s always annoying, so why not get a Rolex out of the deal? The real travesty is that Michelle didn’t get a cut. The other travesty is that I didn’t think of it first.
*
(via kidhedera)