“I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.”

-- Christopher Hitchens

There are problems with calling for massive change in society is when it only conveniences a few and forces others to change their entire perception on life. The LGBT movement along with the added letters, have fought since Stonewall to be equal to the rest of society. I’ve supported this movement mostly; in cases such as marriage equality, the ability to work without being fired for your sexual orientation, and other ways. But when someone starts to speak of cisgender privilege and other catchphrases, it makes me wonder if this is the way our nation is going forward.

I don’t care what you do in your personal life. I really don’t. As long as you aren’t hurting anyone or understand the consequences of your actions, I’ll leave you the hell alone. But this talk of cisgender privilege makes me roll my eyes as much as when I hear white women complain about the patriarchy and how disadvantaged they are.

Our society is biased towards straight people and white people because the majority of people are white and straight. It’s a simple fact; if you think societies in Africa and Asia or other minority-majority nations care about white privilege, I invite you to go to Japan, South Korea, and other places. Sure there is the history of imperialism, but this isn’t the time nor the place.

But to complain about cisgendered privilege while being white seems to whitesplain. It also seems to me that those who complain about these problems are usually white. What can you tell me about oppression, when you aren’t a minority? You weren’t oppressed for your skin color and nobody up until now gave a damn about your gender identity.

So who is doing the oppression? It seems that we have an oppression olympics where we measure how oppressed we are. As a brown male, I’m oppressed by the white supremacist system we have, but I’m also uplifted by the patriarchy. A white woman is oppressed by the patriarchy, but uplifted by white supremacy. Or at least I’m told. I will not deny that white people do have an advantage, especially in our criminal justice system, but I’m not one to complain about the patriarchy nor about white supremacy. But then again, I’m just a straight brown male, so what can I say about inequality?

Which brings me to my second point. We often speak of tolerance, but there is a difference between tolerance and changing our entire society for a certain demographic of people. Some people may express dismay at the wall they’ve run in advancing their agenda but there is a line crossed when tolerance becomes intolerance. This call for changing the way people address each other is strangely limiting. There’s a difference between tolerating people and changing our entire society for them.

There’s a line in a YouTube video when the man (does he identify as a man?) says,”I beg your forgiveness, oh great number one, I’m not sexist. I’m not sexist.” He continues to murmer this for ten seconds. It’s also funny because he’s in the exact same position as I am; he’s a brown male. It’s hyperbole of course, but when we look at things happening across the United States, it soon may not be.

You look at the University of New Hampshire and how they create a bias free guideline, where words like mother and father are deemed problematic. And how students who disagree with it do not agree are afraid to speak up. This is just one example in a sea of stupidity that is surrounding our future.

People should be free to live their lives however they see fit, whether it’s changing their sex from male to female, loving another person of the same sex, or deciding to be genderqueer. (Except other-kin.Words cannot express my apathy for them.)

But to change society to fit a few is the very definition of stupidity, intolerance, and close mindedness.