#and thank you for not committing bi erasure during pride month i rolled my eyes when i opened the ask. was so prepared to delete it

[dismie]

hi here's my smoking hot fresh off the griddle take on calling people pigs discourse because you said you wanted it in your tags 😁😁 eat up while it's hot yummy yummy yummy 😋

so i disagree with calling unsavory people animals/diseases/forces of nature/any other dehumanizing term for much the same reasons as that post you reblogged. fighting fire with fire (or in this case, fascist ideology with fascist ideology) has literally never once worked in the history of politics and i don't get why we expect it to now. (inb4 what about all the oppressed groups who have had to respond to violence with more violence are they WRONG??? no and you know that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about philosophical concepts and ideology okay i just wanted to clear that up.) i think people get so bogged down in like... surface-level specifics of which oppressed group is being harmed by what that sometimes they fail to stop and consider the ideology behind it if you will? he who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster and all that. we should be fighting on the side of oppressed groups because we respect everyone's innate right to freedom and a quality life not because we like fighting so much. obviously it's better for someone with a bloodlust to use it for something good, but also i believe in leftists! i believe we can be more compassionate than the murder party! and we should be striving to achieve that!!

implying that fascists or bigots or cops or whatever are less than human also removes their agency from the situation. animals don't (to our knowledge?) understand morality and harmlessness and ethics and i don't think any of us really blame them. when a hamster eats her excess babies nobody should really blame her, that's just what millions of years of hamster trial-and-error has deduced to be the most effective way to ensure as much of your genes as possible can continue on. if a human parent that wasn't expecting twins decided to mend this problem in a similar way i imagine we would all have qualms with it? fascists *choose* to be violent, they *choose* to be bigoted, acting like it's simply how they are just lets them off the hook. humans are capable of both good and bad and a gazillion shades of gray and we need to be able to accept and understand that so we can make sure we're being good people, not just cover our ears and pretend we're not also capable of intense evil.

also maybe it's the crraaaaazzzyyyy ara (i'm also an ara LOL) in me talking but i think we should respect animals more than that! acting like humans are the pinnacle of creature and to be anything else is bad and wrong just doesn't sit right with me, even though i accept that that probably isn't the conscious intention of people who call others pigs. i dunno. i just think that if we want to stay humble and respectful of other life on earth we shouldn't use them as insults.

bonus: pigs are awesome and don't deserve to be associated with fascists. i'm not even sure which trait of pigs is supposed to make them like fascists? they're not particularly dirty when given enough space to actually get away from their waste. i mean they mudbathe but plenty of people use mud or clay on their skin too. they're quite smart and perceptive and even show empathy towards other pigs and humans in some cases. i don't think they're particularly ugly and while they can be aggressive, pretty much every animal (including non-fascist humans) can and is when they feel threatened.

sorry for rambling it's one in the morning right now so this might not make a lot of sense :D i feel like i should end this ask with an actual question. seeing as it's an ask and all. i came out into the living room because i heard a weird breathing sound and i thought it was my dog but it wasn't. got any theories?

Okay so:

1) I'd like you to know I was terrified when I open my notification bar and the words "Here's my fresh smoking off the griddle take since you..." came up because I recently made a bi erasure post and have already been getting anonymous hate. Thank you for instead being SANE this was a very informative ask and a wonderful surprise :)

2) this was a wonderfully worded explanation and I do agree on your points on morality and ethics and how animals can't understand them; I was mostly wondering because, obviously calling fascists/cops/capitalists pigs is a pretty well ingrained thing in leftist culture! I wanted to know what the updated concensus was and I am absolutely going to refrain from using the term to describe people in the future!

3) To answer your question about the origins of the term "Capitalist Pig", from your local National History Day finalist [my brag for the next year and a half]: the origins of the term actually trace back to the Soviets, who called Americans pigs---as well as political cartoons, as you might expect. Probably due to the "dirtiness" of pigs--and likely as well some fatphobia as well or a way to, like you're saying, dehumanize the enemies; though honestly, pigs are probably cleaner than some people I know...

4) most absolutely i fucking LOVE pigs all my homies LOVE pigs. and another point: petting them is so nice in a sensory way...

5.1) i love how the ask is unrelated your vibes are great

5.2) ghost