Canada

depends on what you're trying to address and where. i feel a large disconnect in experience is to blame for how it usually goes. have you ever seen a "conversation" about men's rights?

i'll first state that i consider myself fully and wholly "on the left." also that this is in the context of responding to the statement of "I feel like gender studies in particular doesn’t get much trouble from the left."

i could make a similar and probably much more aggressively fueled argument about the actions of the "right." as far as "creating trouble" goes.

i will also state that the larger dialogue around the issue is a shitshow that allows no nuance. why i made my earlier comment.

i will state that i don't align when "on the left" is supposed to mean "100% A-OK with inflammatory bigoted speech when it's directed at the 'bad ones' because it's only bad when they do it."

i have enough anecdotal experiences that would encourage me to emphasize this being an actual issue, even if you think it isn't. i know it affected me, and i'm sure many others have been affected in similar ways. given the diversity of people, some would react more aggressively experiencing the things that i have, and then being insulted, shut down, and insinuated as evil regardless of my actual actions or thoughts.

i think situations like op's article are brought on by that kind of experience, mixed with toxic media making up additional reasons to be angry or hate x/y group. assuming that even 10% of any populace has some dummies or assholes in it, we can expect some of them to find each-other and take it to another level of reactive hate and violence, which is where i assume people like op's example come from. these things are not helped when the topic can't even be approached without intensely aggressive feedback.

not everyone responds in violence. in my old province there was a guy who tried having a shelter for men in need. there were no others in the country at the time for men, despite the hundreds for women. he killed himself after years of public harassment and abuse, and feeling completely hopeless in just trying to help others in need. i myself have been sent graphic images about male mutilation purely for taking an egalitarian neutral stance when it comes to generally helping people, male specific problems included. doesn't matter how nuanced my opinions were.

if you never saw how toxic tumblr became before it died off, you are lucky not to see the worst of it. the bad actors on the left can definitely make themselves known. some just become terrible people. i've had a manager out of nowhere tell me she wouldn't have hired me if she was there from the start because she doesn't hire boys. i've had a coworker tell me about their plans to falsely accuse someone they knew of rape because she didn't like him.

terrible people are everywhere on every side. if you are convinced your side has no bad actors, no bigotry or evil, you are deluding yourself. again, i consider myself far left on the political spectrum, and i'm hated by both sides because i don't outright dismiss anything that isn't 100% alongside the popular narrative, even if the popular narrative directly denies my existence and experiences.

so i'm left quite hopeless and despondent.

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