CrosstimbersOkie wrote:
> What's the source of his hatred?
I continue to be astonished by the similarity of this discussion
with discussions I used to have in the 1990s with feminists
when I was writing about gender issues.
Feminists are always calling men "misogynists" -- haters of women. I
interviewed hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of men and women on gender
issues in the 1990s. I don't believe I've ever run into a man who
says he hates all women. There are many divorced men who hate their
ex-wives, but never one that hated all women.
But I heard many women talk about how they hated all men. They talk
about testosterone, how all men in the patriarchy are abusive and
violent, how men starve and impoverish women, how men conspire with
one another to discriminate against women. This vitriolic hatred of
men is characteristic of feminists, and of lesbians even more so. The
methodology in any situation is to blame men even for the most heinous
crimes of a woman, including torturing or killing her own children.
In my online conversations in the 1990s, I used to play the game
of quoting feminist works to illustrate the feminist hatred of
men.
I had dozens of examples of this. Here, for example, is a quote from
Andrea Dworkin, who is considered by feminists to be a goddess:
Andrea Dworkin wrote:
> We want to destroy sexism, that is, polar role definitions of male
> and female, man and woman. We want to destroy patriarchal power
> at its source, the family; in its more hideous form, the
> nation-state. We want to destroy the structure of culture as we
> know it, its art, its churches, its laws: all of the images,
> institutions, and structural mental sets which define women as hot
> wet fuck tubes, hot slits.
Here you can see the explicit feminist nihilism, even though Dworkin
was a Boomer, not a Gen-Xer. And you can also see the vitriolic
hatred that feminists have of men (and, incidentally, of women).
The other interesting thing is that when I posted one of these quotes,
I'd always get the response, "She's a RADICAL feminist, which makes
her different." Then I would say, "Soooooo, that means that you think
that Andrea Dworkin is wrong?" "No, she's not wrong. She just
expresses things her own way." "Sooooo, that means that you agree
with her?"
That's usually the point where I would be explicitly accused of being
a "misogynist." Apparently, someone who quotes the vitriolic
hate-filled statements of feminists must hate women. It was
fascinating logic.
My conclusion from all this is that feminists were/are embarrassed and
ashamed of their own hatred of men, and were in a great deal of denial
about what was going on, especially their own hatred of women.
So now, incredibly, I'm in exactly the same situation, as a Boomer
dealing with Gen-Xers. Let's briefly list some of the points I've
been making:
- Over the years, I've seen many e-mail messages and forum postings
from Gen-Xers, including both of you, expressing extreme vitriolic
hatred of Boomers, and usually Silents as well.
- I've pointed out a huge difference between the 1980s and today:
In the 1980s, when Boomers were prosecutors, if you committed a crime
you went to jail. Today, when Gen-Xers are prosecutors, if you
commit a crime, then you go free because you're a victim of the
vague Boomer conspiracy.
- I've quoted Randolph Silliman Bourne from the Lost Generation,
saying that morals and ethics are a worthless duty imposed by the
previous generation (the Missionary Generation). "[The moral life]
becomes not a claim upon us of painful obligation, but a stimulus to
excellent spontaneity and summons to self-expression."
- I've quoted Bourne explaining why morals and ethic should not be
taught to children, because it's "warped and blighted": "The best
intentions of parents and teachers have turned their characters into
unnatural channels from which they cannot break, and fixed unwittingly
upon them senseless inhibitions and cautions which they find they
cannot dissolve, even when reason and common sense convince them that
they are living under an alien code."
- I wrote about the Breitling commercial, which glorifies Gen-X
behavior that I find absolutely appalling, but which apparently sells
lots of watches to Gen-Xers.
- I pointed out that by expressing your vitriolic hatred for your
parents' generation, you're teaching your children hatred, even
though, fortunately, your children apparently ignore you.
So now, even though I've expressed no hatred of Gen-Xers as a group,
and in fact do not in any way hate Gen-Xers, and in fact I can't
recall ever meeting a Boomer who says he hates all Gen-Xers, I'm being
accused of hating Gen-Xers by a Gen-Xer who has repeatedly expressed
the most vitriolic hatred of Boomers, and who is one of many Gen-Xers
who I've heard express vitriolic hatred of Boomers. It's fascinating
logic.
As Yogi Berra said, It's déjà vu all over again!
John