Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
lol he’s not wrong though, case in point:
Sorry, left wing rhetoric isn’t concerned with overdosing and homelessness? Progressive initiatives are heavily concerned with solving both of those things.
Somehow, DEI initiatives are problematic because they’re too focused on specific genders/races/etc. But initiatives centred around homelessness and drug addiction are problematic because they’re not focused enough on a specific gender? And then too problematic if they focus on the fact that indigenous people are disproportionately represented in both, of course. But I don’t see any evidence of any sort of denial that “men” are excluded in conversations around drug abuse and homelessness.
I find this a little bit frustrating, to be honest, because it seems like the problem is, ultimately, it’s problematic to focus on any gender or race if it isn’t young white men. I know that’s not what you’re meaning to say, and I know that’s isn’t the general sentiment for most people discussing this (I think for one or two people it is for sure), but you can see how this conversation is mostly people pointing out solutions that create different problems.
You (the general “you”) can’t be both against DEI or initiatives that include a a dedicated race/gender focus and also feel young white men aren’t being focused on enough. You’d want to augment, not dismantle.
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First of all, I was attempting a parallel conversation to the debate about DEI. I don't think that this is the cause of the young male mental health crisis.
Likewise, I don't think initiatives targeting LGBTQ or Indigenous peoples are in opposition initiatives looking to help young men as a whole ( BIPOC men included). Moreover I was not trying to mislead with those statistics, Indigenous and LGBTQ youth are at the highest risk.
That said, I agree with Telal Asad's chapter "Thinking about Agency and Pain" in his 2003 work
in Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity . Pain is inherently subjective, and to communicate it in a way that others can understand is inherently impossible. So, when someone experiences either mental of physical pain, it is in effect the worst pain that person can imagine. and therefore a terrible thing. With that in mind, saying "other groups of people have it worse, so you don't really have a problem", is not an effective rhetorical tool. In fact it undermines what are otherwise common goals. I would go as far as to say that It does no harm to these collective goals to acknowledge that young white men face problems that are specific to them and it is within the scope of left wing ideology to help them.
Yet, my point remains, most young men, and more specially white men ( though I do not think this is a problem for men of most cultural backgrounds) do not feel as if left wing rhetoric is sympathetic to the causes of their emotional turmoil. Let alone the symptoms of it. Be that right or wrong, justified or not. A part of that is that you need to write an essay to say that their plight is worth acknowledging without people saying "other people have it worse and you ancestors were #######s so deal with it".