Shit Idiot White Cis Straight Men Say #2

Welcome to the second installment of my Shit Idiot White Cis Straight Men Say series. In the first post in this series, my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend insulted her "tiny female brain" and he was rightly torn apart and fed to wolves electronically. In this exciting episode, we shall experience racism and prejudice against Muslims. Fun for all.

But first, a disclaimer. I am white and not Muslim, which means I do not know or understand fully the experiences that Muslims and people of color face. If anything I say in the following comments and/or blog post is overstepping my boundaries and/or misusing privilege, please call me out on it so that I never say anything like it ever again.

Please feel free to say this to me at any time.

With that, let's begin.

 The link is to a Chicks on the Right post about a march to the White House that the American Muslim Political Action Committee plans to have on September 11, 2013 in protest of how their 1st amendment rights have not been upheld and how grossly Muslims have been treated since the events of September 11, 2001. Makes sense, right? Apparently not to this guy and the Chicks on the Right. I responded how I often respond to stupidity on the interwebs: sarcasm.

Really, Mr. White, Cis, and Straight? You need examples of discrimination against Muslims in America? I mean, at least you gave me something incredibly easy to find proof of, but have you really been living in that much of a bubble? It took me literally three seconds of Googling to find this article. I even gave him a quote so he didn't have to hurt himself actually reading the article.

Oh, yay! Another thing that I can find proof of in my sleep. Also, a lovely generalization of the Muslim religion, which he clearly knows nothing about. I gave him another article and quote for him to read (or not).

It's not like the quote I gave him just explained why that might be or anything, but whatever. I can spoon-feed information when necessary.

And there he goes, pulling the "the mainstream media has a liberal bias" card that conservatives are ever so fond of. I'm just going off the few journalism classes I've taken, but I'm pretty sure that most of the mainstream news media (besides FOX News and MSNBC) try pretty hard to be politically unbiased in the stories that they present. Doesn't mean it always works, but they're definitely not blatantly liberal. Even if what he's claiming was true (which it's not), other biases would prevent those stories from being told.

Because his conjecture about Islam not being a peaceful religion is rooted in so much fact. And, you know, at least he got the white part of the media bias right. We can work with that. And manipulate his own misinformation against him later.

Totally, Mr. WCS. Repeating a tired cliche is definitely going to win you this debate. Especially since the only actions you're taking into consideration are the actions of an extremist group that most of the practicers of that religion reject.

Nobody's arguing that one, dude. And I believe this brings our "use of the phrase 'actions speak louder than words'" tally up to four.

It's extra frustrating because he clearly understands, he's just choosing not to accept it.

That is a different thing than the thing you were saying before, sir.

There are two possible explanations for that statement: 1) He's changing his previous statements to fit his present needs even though they don't line up or 2) He's so trapped in his little rural Iowa Christian bubble that he doesn't realize that there are really other religions outside of Christianity that atheism could possibly oppose. I'm going to assume it's a combination of both.

Everybody loves a good cop-out. Apparently that question was too much for him to handle. I'm taking that as a victory on my part.

Seriously, though, I think conceiving of different religions besides Christianity as actual entities deserving recognition is unfortunately very rare for individuals from the Bible Belt of this country. They haven't seen those people in everyday life, so the only knowledge they gather of their existence is from the mainstream media, which doesn't even provide genuine voices for those people. This is a big part of why I feel getting as many different voices in the mainstream as possible is of the utmost importance. Voices of marginalized peoples need to be heard without people having to strain to hear them because, unfortunately, not all that many people are willing to put the effort forward to hear them if they have to try.

In conclusion, I'm going to continue the tradition of putting adorable animals at the end of these. Here you go.