The #AltWoke Manifesto

[East Coast Hustle]

I had this horrible facebook thread a few weeks ago

the topic was "Should transwomen be allowed to compete in women's MMA?"

-A transwoman was making the case that Yes, Trans women are real women and it's transphobic to say otherwise.
-Another guy chimed in to point out that HRT doesn't represent a total physical transformation, there are still things like bone structure...

and I think there are some things worth discussing there, but the discussion rapidly deteriorated into camp politics and name calling. It was like neither side really had the tools to change anybody's mind.


I couldn't help but feel like this exact thing is playing out a thousand times a day. And the organic tumblr-fed "It's not my job to educate you" meme has really hurt us. I'm not saying the left is responsible for the alt-right, not at all. But the way these discussions play out definitely feeds it.


I want to be clear that I'm not signing up as champion of this #altwoke thing, I'm still chewing on it.

But let's look at how points actually get scored in the year of our lady discord 2017.

Why did Milo's book get pulled? Was it because people beat him in a theater of ideas? Was it because crowds stopped showing up for him? Was it because intersectional politics actually beats regressive shitlord politics? Not in the slightest. We just smeared him.

And it worked.

Should we feel bad about that?

My initial hot take is that while this can certainly be a useful tactic, it's probably not an ideal long-term strategy.

[East Coast Hustle]

And as usual, Cain beat me to the punch and was far more eloquent about it.