BADLUCK'S PROFILE

author=Ankylo
I'm genuinely curious, what is the "alt-left" and what do they want?

So, no matter where you fall politically, you have to admit that some people really are crazy SJWs. I consider myself a social-justice minded person firmly on the left, I think Trump is somehow even worse than I was imagining, I'm a third-wave feminist, I think Obama was one of the best presidents the US has ever seen... but there's totally an "alt-left" SJW faction out there.

These are the people that make it very difficult, even impossible, to have an honest conversation about the links between Islam and terrorism without being branded a bigot. About the links between race and crime without being branded a racist. The differences between men and women without being branded a sexist.

Now, I think the worst you can say about the "alt-left" is generally better than the best you can say about the alt-right. Sorry, but I'll take "ALL COPS ARE RACIST" over "GET THE JEWS OUT OF AMERICA" any day of the week.

But racist cops aren't the only reason more black people are incarcerated (I think it's obviously socio-economic conditions that exist from slavery/Jim Crow/institutionalized racism/prison industrial complex/etc, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything intrinsic to race). Even if you removed all traces of racism right this second, this problem would still persist, and the oppressors (let's say people in positions of power, which are mostly white people) can only do so much. Black people (not necessarily as a group; I don't know exactly what I mean by 'black people' in this context) would have to contribute to this process as well. Do you see how much I have to hedge against racism in talking about this?

But even acknowledging that what I've said is true gets you branded a racist by the "alt left".

It's a tricky situation because there really are a fuck ton of people that use "reasonable arguments" like what I've said above to smuggle in actual racism, and I think the "alt left" is generally coming from a good place in being sensitive to that. I'd rather people be too sensitive to racism than not sensitive enough. But it's still true that trying to have any honest conversation about this will get you labelled a bigot by a way-too-large group of people.

There is a faction of the "alt left" that would love to see people fined or imprisoned for saying "nigger."

Now, I think the right greatly exaggerates this. They're overreacting terribly. Most of the left is pretty reasonable. But these people do exist. They exist on a spectrum from the very far left (armed militias giving out vigilante justice for saying "cunt"?) to people that might just unfairly think you're a bigot and make a snide remark on twitter. There are people with very toxic and/or misinformed ideas about social justice on both the left and the right.

From where I'm standing, I'll take an SJW over a Nazi without a second thought. But the SJW problem is definitely a problem.

Being part of a movement doesn't help anybody think clearly. And again, I say this as someone that considers himself a feminist and absolutely a proponent of social justice. I consider myself an ally in the struggle of women, an ally of the struggle of LBGTQ people. But there are those that take it too far, and they do present an actual problem to the task of creating a viable global civilization.

I suspect merely ignoring them isn't the best way to deal with this.

lol, WIP, you're the first person I thought of when I wrote that.

Yep! And that's flattering! I didn't know (or don't remember) that it was your favorite.

Considering how much love I poured into R3P and how little attention it got back in the day, I was always very despondent about it. It's always cool to be reminded that some people did actually care about it; particularly people that have had success in the industry themselves!

Hmm, yeah. I'd like to avoid that just because I'm impatient and unnecessary teleporting irks me, but hopefully when we make the new tileset, we can figure something out.

Hmm. Well, that tileset is going to be replaced anyway. What do you see as wrong about the height, though?