Yes!! The Ultimate Cafe to send Facebook into a spiral!!!
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@Rembrandt said in Yes!! The Ultimate Cafe to send Facebook into a spiral!!!:
@Kirwan I'm gunning for the bingo
- mansplaining
- white splainning
- white privilege
- hate speaker
- Nazi
Bonus points if I get a 'racist, sexist, anti-gay' chant going at me.
Don't forget the patriarchy.
You're a farking masochist mate.
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So guess where I spent my evening!?
Despite what their bathroom decor would indicate if I was to sum up the whole night it would actually be 'a little bit of hope'.
TL;DR
There was a lot of very disturbing attitudes, but I managed to say my piece and I actually think I got through to a few peopleI had a goal of at least trying to challenge the prevailing extremist feminist outlook and maybe just maybe being able to have at least a couple of people to at least try and see another opinion. I believe under that craziness most of these ladies are decent people just trying to make sense in the world, whilst being sold a harmful yet incredibly seductive victim narrative.
There was most certainly some incredibly stupid 'look at me, I'm a victim' shit which made me lose hope in the fairer gender..however when it came to discussions, after some initial hesitancy in giving me a chance to talk I really felt I was able to get my point across on many aspects. It probably helped that I had backup from my feminist friend who had invited me and who also happened to be the only black woman there. The women on our table had clearly never really been challenged in their beliefs, and really struggled to articulate what they meant by 'gender equality' or what a 'good feminist' is. My friend was very quick to point out her own imperfections as a women everytime they went down the 'these are all the bad things men have done' route. There were actually some very going points made and by presenting an alternative opinion that was well articulated I ended up getting some unexpected support and even better clarification on my own arguments.
After the table discussions we had a chance to present our views on different topics to the room as a whole. My friend went up and did a good talk on the important of treating each other as individuals and the importance of allowing discourse. Encouraged by how well that went down, I braved the room and spoke about how from my point of view the feminist movement has become extremist, how with any discussions I am pre-judged now as a white privileged nazi in order to silence my opinion and its that extemist element that needs to be addressed before feminism can be regarded again as a movement for good. This got a couple eye-rolls but for the most part a lot of nodding and a really good response.
I could have said a lot more of course but a) I was nervous as all hell and b) I was very conscious about not going too far and undoing all of the good work made. On the table I was able to bring up details of the recent Australian studies that showed hiring bias was now in favour of women, the equivalency between Antifa and actual nazis and even a positive response to the idea that the movie 'The Red Pill' is actually worth watching and in no way deserving of a ban much less death threats.(again backed up by my friend).
The cafe owner herself was too busy doing the food for the evening to participate, which was both disappointing due to the lack of potential fireworks but good in that it allowed for decent discussion
All in all it was a good experience, I am however under no illusion that this was mostly due to my friend who was able to support my arguments leaving the expected take down of 'you're just a privileged white man' completely irrelevant. Whether I'll be invited to another one remains to be seen.
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@Rembrandt You are a brave, brave man. In wartime you would be the bloke that gets the posthumous Victoria Cross. Possibly with a lot of your dead comrades around you.
However, hat off dear boy. Hat off.
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@Rembrandt the bigger question is whether you paid the 18% surcharge for having a dick.