originally published on Medium.com
Words From The Bus
You want to know how angry I was about Trump’s “locker room talk?” Fucking zilch. I’m stoked. Before the #TrumpTapes, no person out there with any shred of awareness would make the assumption that “Trump would never talk like that.” Yes, I’m saying this to imply anyone who didn’t think Trump was a raging misogynist already would have to have no shred of awareness. Luckily, no other time has he spoken effectively crystallized his heinousness like that.
People who rose up through the ranks of the the GOP are aware you can’t talk like that in the public sphere. Hell, Donald Trump knows you can’t talk like that in the public sphere — that’s why he had to do it in the back of a bus like the raging misogynist he is. Both Trump and every other Republican out there know to obfuscate. Like it or not, this country won’t attack “soft misogyny.” To be clear, I do not like it and that’s why I’m elated the recording came out.
That’s right; for all my irritation at the feigning of “oh my god! He’s actually a MISOGYNIST!? FUCK HIM!” I’m actually happy the sentiment is out there. Because they weren’t acting angry over all of his “soft” misogyny.
Neoliberalism and Misogyny
Normally, misogyny is misogyny — except in neoliberal capitalism. In this system, society operates on a ridiculous metaphor-as-a-system called The Marketplace of Ideas. If you don’t already know, it’s essentially a consensus fallacy on the national level. Before the mainstream “calls out” bad behavior, there has to be consensus it’s bad behavior. “Grab her in the pussy?” Consensus says bad. “Call it out” as if it’s actually some sort of new problem. Yes. Make sure everyone knows about this new thing that has happened which hasn’t been every society’s first problem. Definitely “call it out.”
Since everyone thinks it’s bad, it’s okay to say “it’s bad.” Not everyone hears “soft” misogyny — like “she was bleeding from her eyes and maybe somewhere else” — and goes “oh yeah, that’s a threat to women.” Here’s the biggest problem with the consensus fallacy regarding women’s issues: there’s pretty much the same number of men and women in the world. All misogyny is a threat to women, whether men agree it’s a threat to women or not — and imagine how tough it is for non-binary people, whom both binary men and binary women outnumber together and separately.
See why consensus shouldn’t be what drives progress? Because consensus is always going to be the status quo. The only reason we progress… is progressives. This is why we need more legitimate progressives in the world — from social activists to politicians that don’t accept corporate donations. Where someone (knowingly or not) practicing the ideals that prop up neoliberal capitalism looks for consensus before taking a moral stand, a progressive absolutely would not. Progress doesn’t require permission and we just shouldn’t look at it that way.
So how do we reach consensus? Well, we’re operating on Neoliberal Capitalism — the kind where Free Market ideology of currency and investment dictates action in both economic and social spaces. So if everything operates everything as a market, from the economy to social interactions and issues, we’re meant to seek profit. When someone “calls out” Trump for “grab her in the pussy,” they’re given attention by others who already know that everyone knows, it’s bad. That attention functions as “social capital.” If we weren’t framing everything in a manner that encourages a monetary mode of operation, we would call it “trust.” And “trust” doesn’t encourage profit seeking. “Capital” does.
And that’s how an idea’s validity is “established” — it’s “bought” with “social capital.”
Donald Trump is not a neoliberal. He may not even know what Neoliberalism is. He knows the weaknesses of neoliberal capitalism, though, and his exploitation of them is why we have been made to deal with him.
Tired of BS
When faced with Donald Trump’s “words from the bus,” a large number of people have said “like you didn’t know already” or simply “pshhhhhh.” That’s the inner progressive trying to break out.
On level one: I am happy people are finally just outright calling Trump a misogynist and a fascist, because he is both.
On level two: I am more happy at the number of people who are pushing back on the idea THIS is the straw that broke the camel’s back. This shows people are tired of the bullshit way the media has handled things.
It also shows internal struggle people are having with neoliberal capitalism. It’s not feeling real anymore and folks want to shed it. This is why we need to talk about our system and the capitalization of our social logic. When we frame social interactions with language of monetary transactions (“social capital,” for instance), then we seek to profit, gamify, and depersonalize.
I’m just annoyed Trump had to say something we’ve “reached consensus” about to be shunned as the hard misogynist he is. Pshhhh.
- Watch Peter Coffin in his latest: “Very Important Documentaries: Facebook MLM Pyramid Schemes”