Something I should say more often

[OngBonga]

It's the sub-text to that point that black people should be grateful that we ended slavery that I find jarring.

Who's "we"? Our Great-Grandfathers? This language is also quite jarring, as though I bear responsibility in any way. I didn't keep slaves, and I didn't help to end slavery. I was born into a world where it no longer existed, at least not on a state level. For that I'm grateful, and I'm white. I'd be even more grateful if I were black. It's not that I'm grateful that bad people stopped being bad, but I recognise the world is a much better place than it was for my Grandfather.

Although I'm beginning to doubt that last sentence.

Even if things are bad now, they used to be worse, so quit your moaning, is a pretty lame stance to take imo.

That's not quite what I'm saying. The "quit your moaning" is an exaggeration. I have clearly stated I'm in favour of protest, and police brutality against black people is a fine cause. But don't kid yourself into thinking black people suffer from the same problems their ancestors did. 100 years ago we'd have seen a massacre by now.

Yes, the world can still be a much better place, and we should strive to make that the case. But progress takes time, and we are making progress, or at least we were.

I don't think it's a massive problem, it's more of a silly distraction from things that are actually important. It's no skin off my nose if the salad emoji has an egg in it or not, or if someone prefers to be addressed as 's/he' or 'it' or 'King Tut' or whatever they want.

I don't think anyone actually cares about an egg emoji, but trans rights are shitting all over women's rights. When trans people are allowed to compete as women in sport, that's the end of women's sport as we know it. Girls will no longer grow up with ambitions to be successful at school, because they will be outcompeted at professional level by boys who turned into girls. All to protect the feelings of a man who wants to be a woman.

It's a massive problem because the loud minority force change in policy by hounding people like JK Rowling for not pandering to their deluded demands.

[Poopadoop]

Who's "we"? Our Great-Grandfathers? This language is also quite jarring, as though I bear responsibility in any way. I didn't keep slaves, and I didn't help to end slavery. I was born into a world where it no longer existed, at least not on a state level. For that I'm grateful, and I'm white. I'd be even more grateful if I were black. It's not that I'm grateful that bad people stopped being bad, but I recognise the world is a much better place than it was for my Grandfather.

It's the word "grateful" that is misplaced here. Ending abuse is not an act of magnamity, it's fixing a wrong. There's nothing for them or me or you or we to be grateful for. Saying something isn't as bad as it used to be is downplaying the fact that it's bad now.

Should I be grateful the US Cavalry stopped raiding Native American camps, killing women and children, sometime in the late 1800s? Who should I thank for that? Does that mean it's ok the US gov't is still trampling on Native American rights by putting the Dakota pipeline through their sovereign land against their wishes? "Well at least they didn't go in and kill women and children? Oh, thanks a lot."