Rex Kerr
1 min readOct 10, 2022

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In addition to flat-out cancel culture, you can observe the following instances.

You'll find on Medium phrases like "he's just another white male X" (equity-motivated) to dismiss someone without considering their argument and/or expertise. (Or white. Or male. Or cis. Some mainstream stereotype--the idea being that because some people have been excluded (true) people who haven't have nothing of value to say or contribute (false).) Relatedly, the trend to charge "white mediocrity" regardless of details.

Respect is easily flipped: a charge of "dog-whistling" or being "racist" or "transphobe" or whatever, in response to mild or innocuous comments, is used to justify a hateful attitude towards the supposed dogwhistling racist transphobe. (This isn't to say that racism, transphobia, and dog-whistles don't exist; they all do. But it's very popular to drop a charge of some disrespectful or hateful behavior, which then means that when you're arguing for respect you get to be super-extra-disrespectful to whomever you've charged, because they're now an enemy of respect.)

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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