Are microaggressions actually a thing?

On KingBradly's thread about that Iranian doctor who called for gay people to be killed, I was accused by an SJW who was passing through (and notably did not bother to actually get involved in the substantive discussion, simply commented to make accusations) of being "homophobic".

This is ludicrous because I'm gay myself. This SJW claimed that I and others were engaging in "microaggressions" by using the word "homosexual" when referring to Islamic discrimination and violence against the LGBT. The SJW claimed that criticism of Islam is something right-wing conservatives do, and right-wing conservatives are homophobic, ergo criticising Islam in this case was homophobic and that was underlined by the "microaggressions" of using the word "homosexual".

Impeccable logic, as you can see When I pointed out I'm gay and that we might use the word "homosexual" simply in the manner of adopting a more rhetorical and formalistic style of argumentation, he claimed I must in fact be a self-loathing homosexual. He was also oblivious to the idea that a lot of the anti-Islam critique is of an atheist not conservative nature. I also pointed out that while conservatives might not agree with me about, say, gay marriage, they also didn't want to kill me and generally don't seek to outlaw homosexual conduct (and also that we broadly on the same page in terms of parliamentary democracy, the rule of law etc). So in the scheme of things, they do have my back compared to Islamist extremists who want to have me killed.

I thought I'd raise the question of whether "microaggressions" are actually a thing as I saw them mentioned on another thread. To me it seems like a way to label behaviour that isn't actually bigoted or aggressive as being bigoted aggressive, so you just can't win no matter what you do.

What do you think?

I hate that term; people use it to sound smart. People are now inoculated against it as valid as the use of the word is, but it's been overused by pseudo-intellectuals.

Microaggression however is another way of saying passive aggressive which is "a thing." I don't know about the context of your OP or if the word was properly used (it can be improperly used like any type of word; doesn't make the words useless).

If the NUS has ever 'campaigned' about it, it's likely to not actually exist and is just in their closed-bubble world

So no, it's not a thing

I hate that term; people use it to sound smart. People are now inoculated against it as valid as the use of the word is, but it's been overused by pseudo-intellectuals.

Microaggression however is another way of saying passive aggressive which is "a thing." I don't know about the context of your OP or if the word was properly used (it can be improperly used like any type of word; doesn't make the words useless).

I hate that term; people use it to sound smart. People are now inoculated against it as valid as the use of the word is, but it's been overused by pseudo-intellectuals.

I agree. In the SJW world there's almost this parrallel universe of pompous, pseudo-intellectual terms like microaggressions, intersectionality, privilege that take on a meaning that they don't have in the real world. They have this battery of terms and whatever situation or individual they don't like, they push it into this SJW conceptual framework and then crank it out covered in all these pretentious terms that makes them feel as if they have a really profound grasp of reality when in fact it's an entirely synthetic and constructed way of looking at things.



But the fact that some social justice academic makes up the term and gives it a definition doesn't mean it's actually a thing in the real world. They presumably wouldn't say that microaggression is solely a form of passive aggression, but instead it's part of a systemic structure of prejudice and oppression that is designed to keep the minority individual down (just like they say racism isn't actually having racist views, but it is a structural disadvantage thus allowing them to assert that minorities cannot ever be considered racist)

This I agree with.

Posted from TSR Mobile

It's not the same as passive aggressive, as that is intentional, where a micro-aggressions are things we do without meaning to be offensive (but supposedly are) due to the fact we're indoctrinated by our racist homophobic misogynist colonialist culture. Or some kind of bollox like that.

I've never heard this or that this is the purpose of using the word "microaggression." It's kind of a code word for saying, "they passive aggressively did or said something racist."

It's an umbrella term for those indirect offenses, implicit racism.
If you go up to someone and spit in their eye and say "**** off back to Africa, China, Palestine, etc." that's explicit racism.
If you walk in a train car, head to a seat and then see a person of color of Muslim sitting there, and then quickly change your mind and don't sit next to them on the train and go on about your day, they will say that's microaggression.

I suppose I was just basing it on my experience of SJWs that they always make individual actions into something systemic. Nothing ever occurs in a vacuum, it's always part of some greater system of oppression for them.



The problem with this is that (at least for me) you end up getting confused about what the non-racist thing to do. Like if I see two empty seats on the train, one next to a black person and one next to a white person, I'll often sit next to the black person so they don't feel like they are being excluded because of their race.

But in trying to be nicer to them than I would a white person, am I then being racist? Then I get confused and it's like "does he know that she knows that he knows that she knows" kind of situation, if you know what I mean.

People who moan about this sort of rubbish have clearly never read even half decent literature, have no understanding of the natural world, and have an entirely invented concept of how the world works

Are you then being racist to...?

This thread contravenes the safe space policy. You've been no platformed.