Article by Advocate about another aging rock star, in this case Alice Cooper, being an intolerable bigot who lost touch with a world that is progressing beyond his limited imagination
Article by Advocate about another aging rock star, in this case Alice Cooper, being an intolerable bigot who lost touch with a world that is progressing beyond his limited imagination
So basically just regurgitating the same tired, talking points and offering zero thoughts of his own.
I am so confused by the narrative that the risk here is that men might use it as some secret weapon to enter women’s restrooms and inevitably rape people.
It just falls apart at every single line of reasoning. It’s not like there’s a force field keeping men from entering women’s rest rooms at the moment. It’s not like rapes aren’t happening because men keep separated from women’s restrooms. It’s not like women are at a huge risk of being raped if they use a gender mixed restroom. It’s not like you take your pants off in front of people (unless you really want to); there are stalls. It just makes no sense whatsoever.
That said, for a man of the ripe old age of 75, he is recognizing that some people are transgender and seems to think they have the same rights as the rest of us; he’s just puzzled by the sudden increase in the number of trans people, which leads him into some far from ideal talking points. I wouldn’t judge him too hard though. It’s hard to wrap your head around changes in society at that age, and for the standards of a 75 years old white man this is still leaning towards tolerance in my interpretation.
Nah, he doesn’t get a pass. My dad is older than he is, and he’s not a transphobe. It’s not like being trans is so confusing. It can literally be understood within seconds.
I don’t see why you want to go out of your way to give Alice Cooper a pass, either. He’s known for being a conservative Christian, and it’s very likely that being a bigot fits right into his overall system of beliefs vs. just having one bad take. He’s not a good person. He’s a polite person to his fans by all accounts, but he’s not a good person overall.
I think there’s enough enemies of reason out there already that we don’t need to interpret people in bad faith in order to find things to be outraged about. There’s plenty of things to be outraged about even when interpreting people in good faith, and that way we don’t risk wasting our time on misunderstandings and made up conflict lines.
Maybe I’m too naïve.
You’re falling into the trap of people who interpret any criticism as “outrage,” as if those of us who correctly identify harmful bigotry are somehow unhinged and in a constant state of outrage. The use of such terminology (“outrage, virtue signaling, echo chamber” et al) is used to deflect attention from the real issue and make it seem like those of us who are (again, accurately) pointing out that these blatantly bigoted beliefs are inexcusable are the real problem – “both sides bad.” Whether this is intentional on your part or not, I would urge you to do better.
If you really believe what you’re saying, then yes, you are. I think deep down inside you know that Alice Cooper is a raging piece of shit. Like I said, it fits right in with his entire bigoted worldview.
I’m just saying you have more important battles to fight. Go fight them. Don’t waste your time on inconsequential celebrity gossip about old farts who aren’t woke enough.
It’s a fallacy to think that just because I’m wasting time on Lemmy on a Sunday morning that I’m not doing anything meaningful. I literally work for a charitable non-profit that does praxis, and I often meet with local officials to try to make my community a better place.
We are not the people you see in our comments. Personally, I find it cathartic to dunk on bigots, so I will continue to do so, but thanks for the advice?
Of course you are doing more meaningful things when you’re not wasting your time online. I am too.
I just think this “cathartic dunking on bigots” might be somewhat counterproductive. It’s possible for people to be badly informed, ignorant, or just dumb, without being bigots and worthy of being labelled enemies of some cause.
You’re not going to convince anyone by immediately writing off everyone you disagree with even slightly as being ignorant pricks. And that’s of course fine if you’re just here for your bowel movements, but as far as I can see it’s not helping the cause at all.
Of course it stems from ignorance! Most bigotry does. This may seem like an extreme example, but most people who supported Hitler genuinely believed he was doing good.
This does not in any way excuse the behavior. I especially resent the implication that people who are older somehow get a pass for this, since I myself am Gen X and raised in a conservative community. Alice Cooper has access to all the information he needs to overcome his horrid worldview, but he chooses not to. He does not get a pass.
Moreover, it’s not fair to task marginalized groups with somehow convincing our oppressors not to be bigots. I’m not sure why you even think I’m in a position to persuade him to change, but if you want to try, then I fully support you.
Just don’t project this task onto me or anyone else, please and thank you
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It’s a talking point for people who want to go into bathrooms to rape. It’s their fantasy that they are telling on themselves about. It’s pretty much just boomers. Free love didn’t work because it still requires consent, and that frustration has led them to saying that anyone can just take it, because that’s what they want. It’s gross. Most of that generation is gross.
OMG it really is. I grew up in the 80s with boomer parents and all the now infamous boomer humor was everywhere. It was gross and weird and r—y and I hate it. A generation of grabby entitled weirdos.
Yeah, those talking points are just fucking moronic. A guy raping someone in a women’s bathroom isn’t suddenly going to be legal or even protected just because they claim to be a woman, neither would be a trans woman assaulting a cis woman. And there’s also not some magical barrier preventing a rapist to enter women’s bathrooms either. There’s a lot of similarly stupid logic that we could apply to old granpas wearing makeup.
Plus, transphobes want people to use their assigned-at-birth gender’s bathroom, which just means trans men (who actually do look like men) would use womens’ bathrooms, which invalidates their other bathroom related points. Of course, we all know that half of them constantly forget trans men exist and the other half want trans people to straight up not exist anymore.
These points are so incredibly dumb.
What? How? What do you think goes on in the women’s restrooms?
Rapists, well known for how well they abide by laws and social norms, are gonna magically be stopped by a sign that has a little symbol of a woman…
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Time of his life in there?? 🤣🤣 Dude needs to check out a woman’s bathroom just once. Wtf is he imagining?
Don’t you know? There’s an exclusive pizza party in the women’s bathroom on every Friday and Wednesday.
The line is arbitrary and society isn’t going to collapse if we get rid of it. I bet he knows 0 non binary people and it doesn’t affect him in any way.
Well he has been a Republican for decades
Wow. What a dumb shit.
Woaw that had no substance whatsoever.
So if this is all what he said he’s not against trans people. He’s voicing his concerns towards what’s going on. The headline is misleading and comments here are now outraged by taking what he says out of context as well.
But nobody is pretending to be a trans to get into a woman’s bathroom. Also, rape is already illegal. Meaning he’s getting worked up over imaginary ideas of what a repressed minority MIGHT do but haven’t that is already illegal. And even if they DID, in no way shape or form is rape in a public restroom legally defensible because the attacker feels like they should’ve had the same private parts as the victim. It’s all just stupid.
*Several edits and wording adjustments.
That’s what I thought as well.
His comments are literally regurgitated anti-trans talking points. It’s not out of context to call them ignorantly bigoted.