I’ve taken some heat around here lately for my stance against the otherizeing influences of a specific array of modern ideological schemas.

Various ‘high minded’ folks have either attacked me personally, or warned me, that I’m treading on ground they hold to be hallowed.

Much of this ground is ideological. And I’ve spent my life watching otherizing ideologies compete like viruses undergoing gain-of-function research within the common people, the polis, and the academics… the intelligencia— to produce ever-more effective, contagious, and virulent varieties.

Those that reproduce effectively… win.

And produce new mutations… which win.

This is the opposite of wisdom.

And of activism.

It’s the opposite of human relational integrity.

And guess what?

That’s one of its »favorite costumes!

. . .

I was raised by a feminist mother in the 1970’s and for many years of my childhood attended the meetings of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

I come from this background. Was raised in it.

Those were the first truly intelligent human beings I ever met in person.

In my mind, they were like angels. Or gods.

They showed me »what was wrong about how the world tormented, dismissed, abused… and violated women.

And I understood.

Their vision of »injustice…

became my own.

. . .

The were my teachers.

I was their disciple.

. . .

And then, when I began to show signs of adolescence, I was no longer welcome.

There was some discussion, to be fair.

Some objected.

But the majority were hardliners.

They prevailed.

I had ‘become the enemy’ due to »my gender.

You see, before I was an adolescent, they could pretend that my gender was indeterminate. And thus evade the structure of their biases.

For a time.

The people who taught me what sexism »was…

were fundamentally, and irrevocably…

sexist.

. . .

I abhor ideologies of otherization.

I will not submit to them.

They are the opposite of excellence in relation, pretending, according to how they »structure and deploy biases in human social behavior and cognition, to be »heroic. To be ‘redemptive’.

I will never be an ideologist.

I am a relationist. I value actual relationships, not ideas.

So if you see me pouring vitriol on your pet ideology, you will know what I’m up to.

Dead structure in ceremonially preserved bias or grudge… is the opposite of relational integrity.

No matter what kind of heroic garb it attempts to parade around in.

If someone comes to me and produces that as their first (or an early) move in any conversation or thread… they will not enjoy my response.

I will converse, but I will not comply.

Ever.