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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6868550" data-attributes="member: 7006">Do you consider yourself a &quot;white male terrorist&quot;?&nbsp; If the answer is 'Yes', then okay, I can understand getting defensive about her comments.But if you don't consider yourself a &quot;white male terrorist&quot;... then you don't fall into the category of people she was insulting, and thus there should be absolutely no reason to feel defensive.&nbsp;&nbsp; She wasn't talking about you.But if you (the general 'You') DO feel defensive when she calls out &quot;white male terrorists&quot; and have to always go &quot;Hey man, it's not me, I'm not like that!&quot;... I'm willing to bet its because you *do* feel a bit of guilt when she brings stuff like that up.&nbsp;&nbsp; As a result, perhaps you aren't as free from blame in the situation as you might want to believe.&nbsp; You might not actively DO the things that she's defining as white male terrorism... but if you're doing nothing whatsoever to help or fix it, you're passively allowing it to happen.&nbsp; Whether or not (general) you get defensive about that says a whole lot about who you are as a person.Speaking personally... I try to behave as well as I think I can.&nbsp; I also know I don't go nearly that far out of my way to actively help situations when I could.&nbsp; So yeah, the privilege I have as a straight, white, man to basically ignore all of this crap means I am tacitly guilty.&nbsp; So the question comes down to whether or not I feel guilty (or get defensive) when I'm called out on it.&nbsp; And for me... I'm luckily quite capable of not identifying with any group so closely that an insult to the group is an insult to me (again due to my privilege).&nbsp; If someone insults all white people and say we are not doing enough to help racism in this country... I don't take it personally.&nbsp; If someone insults all straight people and say we are not doing enough to help homophobia in this country... I don't take it personally.&nbsp; If someone insults all gamers and say we are not doing enough to help other gamers who are being crapped upon in this country... I don't take it personally.&nbsp; The only time I'd take it personally would be if someone said to me &quot;Hey, Fish... you had a chance to help out here in this situation and you didn't do it.&nbsp; That was a crappy thing.&quot;&nbsp; At which point, yes, THEN I might be within my rights to get defensive... but hopefully at the same time my compassion and empathy would kick in and I'd instead take a good hard look at what I did or didn't do, and whether I needed to apologize and/or learn from the mistake for the future.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6868550, member: 7006"] Do you consider yourself a "white male terrorist"? If the answer is 'Yes', then okay, I can understand getting defensive about her comments. But if you don't consider yourself a "white male terrorist"... then you don't fall into the category of people she was insulting, and thus there should be absolutely no reason to feel defensive. She wasn't talking about you. But if you (the general 'You') DO feel defensive when she calls out "white male terrorists" and have to always go "Hey man, it's not me, I'm not like that!"... I'm willing to bet its because you *do* feel a bit of guilt when she brings stuff like that up. As a result, perhaps you aren't as free from blame in the situation as you might want to believe. You might not actively DO the things that she's defining as white male terrorism... but if you're doing nothing whatsoever to help or fix it, you're passively allowing it to happen. Whether or not (general) you get defensive about that says a whole lot about who you are as a person. Speaking personally... I try to behave as well as I think I can. I also know I don't go nearly that far out of my way to actively [i]help[/i] situations when I could. So yeah, the privilege I have as a straight, white, man to basically ignore all of this crap means I am tacitly guilty. So the question comes down to whether or not I feel guilty (or get defensive) when I'm called out on it. And for me... I'm luckily quite capable of not identifying with any group so closely that an insult to the group is an insult to me (again due to my privilege). If someone insults all white people and say we are not doing enough to help racism in this country... I don't take it personally. If someone insults all straight people and say we are not doing enough to help homophobia in this country... I don't take it personally. If someone insults all gamers and say we are not doing enough to help other gamers who are being crapped upon in this country... I don't take it personally. The only time I'd take it personally would be if someone said [i]to me[/i] "Hey, Fish... you had a chance to help out here in this situation and you didn't do it. That was a crappy thing." At which point, yes, THEN I might be within my rights to get defensive... but hopefully at the same time my compassion and empathy would kick in and I'd instead take a good hard look at what I did or didn't do, and whether I needed to apologize and/or learn from the mistake for the future. [/QUOTE]

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