UnCracked Monday: Spirit Animal Spirit Animal Spirit Animal

So Wil Wheaton got called out by a pseudo-activist for using the term "spirit animal".  And because he's Wil Wheaton and his whole online identity and paycheck depend upon projecting the image of being the really nice-guy nerd, he sent an utterly nice, apologetic response where he acknowledged his "white privilege", expressed how awful it was that his ancestors "murdered untold numbers of Native Americans", and how much he hates that America is built on native blood, bemoaned the poverty of native americans on tribal lands today, condemned the apathy of (presumably white) Americans who "don't know or care" today, and how "uncool" it was of him to use the term "spirit animal" in his blogging.

 

He was, I suppose, trying to follow his own "Wheaton's Law" of "don't be a dick", and bully for him; but he didn't keep in mind the Pundit's Law: "Never, ever, try to be reasonable with Pseudo-activists".  It won't matter, no apology will ever be enough, it will just be seen as an admission of guilt for the collective crimes of everyone they despise, and as a carte blanche for them to now go out for blood.

And indeed, that's exactly what happened to Wil Wheaton, as he got this response from a failed-author Pseudoactivist, where basically he's told that anything short of him falling on his sword and never writing anything again for fear of offending anyone ever by mere virtue of his race meaning that anything he ever writes could be "whitesplaining", so he should just be silenced (no doubt leaving room for other less talented people like herself to finally get the attention she so desperately craves).

After that, at least, little Wesley Crusher's testicles apparently descended at least a little bit, and he fought back with this admittedly well-written response though he still has to keep being far too Wheatony about it.  But the point stands: "you’ve shown us all a spectacular way to alienate a potential ally with your self-righteous anger and indignation."

The thing is, and what Wheaton and other conciliatory-nerds don't understand is that THESE PEOPLE DO NOT WANT ALLIES.  They want blood. They have no interest in bringing you over to their side; their whole point is to be able to feel better about themselves and imagine they're making a difference in life by expressing their College-trained condemnation of selected individuals (often celebrities, but not necessarily), expressing how Evil they are being and thus highlighting the pseudo-activists' own righteousness in comparison.

Now, my own perspective in all this:

What the fuck? 

"Spirit animal" is not a term that Native Americans can even rightly claim sole possession of.  Almost EVERY SINGLE TRIBAL culture has had some kind of concept of this, all over the world, not just in the Americas.  Its part of the universal shaman thing.  It means that somewhere far enough back (and often not that far back) every single person alive today (including people without the tiniest drop of Native American blood) had ancestors who believed in something that looks like "spirit animals".    If he'd used some specific term of some specific tribe, that would at least have been some kind of basis for any "protest" to have a point.  As it is, this is beyond absurd.

 

Never mind, of course, the absurdity of a group of middle-class college educated nerds who mostly don't have to worry about starving to death and have been ridiculously mollycoddled by their society for the entire span of their lives getting to condemn ANYONE else for "privilege".  Never mind the fact that the very idea that we need the White Man's College-Feminist's Burden,  to protect the poor helpless savage from the evils of men like Wil Wheaton outrageously daring to think that something from Native culture is cool, is in itself one of the most ridiculously racist things I've seen.  And indeed, not just me; this actual real Native American Woman agrees.  But hey, what does she know? She probably never even took a woman's studies class! How can she have any kind of valid opinion about her own culture or understand the "complexities" of the issues that the pseudo-activists are fighting about for her sake, the poor ignorant savage? Clearly she's just confused because she lacks the right political education and needs smarter, less-native people than her to explain to her why native people should be outraged about Wil Wheaton.

RPGPundit

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