Some people don’t like* the birthday gift the Government of India gave me. Yeah, that’s a lot of links in one sentence; do you think they’ll call it ‘terrorist activity’?
When Shivam called my post “mob justice”, I didn’t like it. And then Anantha used that same label at PutVote.com, I began to get defensive. I didn’t know why, though, so I decided to check.
While I can’t find a definition of mob justice online, Wikipedia redirects me to the entry on Ochlocracy, calling it a pejorative term for majoritarianism. Aha! No wonder. I don’t like people using pejoratives on me! Now, neither Shivam’s post nor Anantha’s entry on PutVote give me the slightest clue as to whether they mean to use the term pejoratively (In fact, I was inclined to think not; egotistical me!)
What does all that have to do with this pathetic bunch of losers, you ask? Well, just that it is people like those who make me defensive of my feminism to the extent where I see pejoration everywhere! They are obviously extremist idiocy-fundamentalists (an analogy to religious fundamentalists, only with idiocy as their religion instead) who deserve to be ignored. Or laughed at. Not to have their website popularised by me.
To get back to the point, isn’t it the same thing that makes all feminists (self-confessed and otherwise) defensive? Having butchfeminazibitchdykemanhaterterrorist thrown at you at the slightest hint of not being a doormat, of wanting a voice, of wanting rights – all that makes you want to puke, of course, but first hold up a shield against the sheer vindictive hatred of it all. Defend. Defensive.
And it is that realisation which then makes you decide that you actually need to counter-attack. Call them a few names too. Shout and scream and do stuff till you feel better.
And then you stop and wonder whether this all that has made you the subject of pejoration. Sigh.
At the end of it all, you’ve learnt how to turn everything that happens in the world into something that is about you. Public? Private? The political is personal, isn’t it?
*Telegraph article link from BikerBaby.
Jus’ so you know, these links don’t work:
Some people
the birthday gift
PutVote.com
this pathetic bunch of losers
I am sorry if I sounded offensive. It wasn’t me but someone else (can’t name) who called it thus, and so I wrote, ‘Mob justice… but it works’. A lot of what happens in the blogosphere is mob justice anyway.
Thanks, Observer; fixed it!
Thank you, Shivam; as I said, I didn’t think it was pejorative when I read it. Then I wondered. It was never offensive.
Aargh.
When you begin to think more people are getting smarter you realize it’s just a lot of fools who’re getting literate.
Aargh, aargh.
Also, story. Stop by?