Meet the black boss, same as the white boss

[pataphor]

There's this pragmatic saying, "the enemy of your enemy is your
friend", the validity of which is often questioned.

However, I learned of the curious fate of E. Wilson in the most biased
fashion possible, not by the people dissing him in the first place, but
by the people dissing the people that dissed Wilson,

After reading diatribe after diatribe about how wrongly Wilson was
characterized by someone trying to promote feminist and race sensitive
viewpoints, instead of sticking to "science", I finally had a quick look
at the original article.

It was extremely weird, to say the least.

The article wasn't wrong itself, in that it rightly (in my
opinion) criticized certain scientific practices that originate from a
tradition that, firstly, only takes certain aspects of reality into
account, with little regard for context, but also uses a system to
assign merit that is essentially "winner takes all", in a kind of
"great man" theorizing, that, to complicate matters even more, Wilson
himself was greatly against.

Yet he was an exponent of that tradition, only rising to fame because
of it, which rightly should cause many currently settled, some even
tenured, stakeholders some scratching behind their ears, at least.

But now to the point of this post, the people attacking this tradition
are themselves unaware how "American" their perception themselves are.

Instead of attacking the system where attributions of achievement are
concentrated on single persons, instead of to "ecosystems" of thought,
where many people contribute to the results, they are only interested
in getting their own group to the front.

It's not so surprising that this works in the united states itself,
because there is an established black versus white discussion going on
there, which has existed like forever, so anyone engaging with anything
power related has to deal with it, and wisely keeps their mouth shut
about the very things that would have a chance to actually change the
situation, because as soon as anyone tries that, attacks from both
sides of the issues become unbearable.

And, in hindsight, it is also explainable how I myself was attacked
from many angles in the most bigoted way imaginable, sexism, racism,
perversion, you name it, just because I was using language that seemed
to correspond to that of the "enemy", but was actually just the result
of not having sufficient deference to the established trenches around
these issues such as exist in a far away country I have never been to
but had to learn the language of in order to be able to communicate on
a global platform at all.

Which would possibly give perceptive people a clue of where I am going
with this post, and not so perceptive people a reason to raise "flags
not hackles".

The American system doesn't have much regard for second place, and
certainly not much room for men who aren't that much interested in the
usual career trajectories. In other countries these things play a role
too, but outcomes are much more shielded because of a somewhat
functional social security system, and healthcare that is more
decoupled from employment.

Education is less dependent on money, even though, in the end, for many
it turns out to be impossible to reach the higher echelons, exactly for
those people who value truth, because, in crude terms, either you play
ball, like agreeing to do the research that other people dictate and
ultimately take the credit for, or you won't get hired for a scientific
position at a university and will never acquire the credentials to be
heard and have a voice inside the academic circuit.

It's no wonder then that I seek refuge far away from there in some
distant, forgotten, newsgroup.

But still, in Europe at least, because of the more relaxed atmosphere
around this, though in the end, not much less cruel in the outcomes, it
is possible to hang around in academic circles for a very long time,
before it becomes clear that one is actually "friend zoned".

Now the way that such persons ("me") are received by "American, black
feminist" (the quotes here signify that these are very local
provincial forms of these concepts) is comparable to someone who has
served in a roman galley for several decades, like social security
makes it very hard to find a job, even if it forces one to apply for
one incessantly, especially for jobs that don't fit, discourages one to
travel, because it is only allowed after getting approval 1 month in
advance, it exacts heavy financial deductions for people living together
and draconian punishments for people skirting the rules, and also takes
away any money you earn until you are completely self supporting so
they can't take any more, which is then accused of being a roman
imperialist just because they had to speak that language to even
survive.

It's is no surprise then that such people are uniquely placed to not
only vividly recognize the American "meh" that results when so called
feminists learn of male issues, like women may suffer as much as men
after breakups, but talk to them a year later, most of them have
forgotten, because, you know, their endorphins are more directly
connected to reproduction, or whatever, while men probably aren't
engineered for change in relationships so fundamentally, but also
recognize very acutely the aura of absolute ethnocentrism surrounding
American black rights activists, like they don't even realize they're
inside a powerful imperialist system itself, only fighting the part
that keeps them from taking over that system, instead of taking down
that system itself, for which they might receive some international
support from the victims is causes elsewhere, instead of this
unbearable selfish obsession with their rights under the hegemony.