I'm really just waiting till the point where the entire thing is banned. We're now pretty much down to the original costumes like witches and ghosts. Witch costume? Culturally appropriating Pagan culture. Ghost costume? Deathist and offensive to those who have lost loved ones.
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"Deathist." Hilarious.
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But, you would agree, some costumes even if worn in "good fun" can be offensive. Probably best to retire some of them. Would you, for example, go out in public in blackface?
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Yes: Intention matters, and sometimes ignorance is no defense. Blackface isn't cultural appropriation, it's phenotypic mimicry, sometimes even phenotypic mockery. That's *actually* racist, unlike much of what is being accused of being racist today.
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OK. I think that is fair. What about the Indian Headdress? This is quite common, a clear example of cultural appropriation and considered similarly racist by many indigenous people, arguing it is a reflection of old "Cowboys and Indians" stereotypes.
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This warrants more than twitter allows, but Halloween is America's Carnaval (which is deeper, richer, older than Mardi Gras). Carnaval is about reversing power relations, exploring the liminal, trying on other identities. Borrowing, in this context, is often celebratory.
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I get that. Again, call it "good fun" or celebratory. Nonetheless, when such appropriation occurs and it is considered racist by the objectified group, it seems to me that a change in costume is warranted. Traditions change as a community changes. That is a good thing.
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Traditions do change, yes--culture evolves, in part through borrowing. But trying to change culture with authoritarian tactics, even when those tactics are used by historically oppressed groups, rarely works. Rather, force sends behavior underground, where it grows, unseen.
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But here we are talking about Halloween costumes not some underground cult. I think you are missing the most basic point: some of these costumes are genuinely offensive. There are far better arguments against political correctness. I find this one superficial.
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I'm in the middle of watching the Joe Rogan podcast with you and Bret talking a lot about sex. Never thought I'd find sex so interesting for a completely different reason than I usually am. Question: is it an insult for me to call my wife hot as opposed to beautiful?
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At considerable risk of wading into treacherous waters…No, because between you and your wife, sex is part of your relationship (I hope and assume), and hotness is inherently about sex. Although I hope she’s both--that is, that you find her both hot and beautiful.
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Indeed I do. Thank you.
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I, for one, will dress as a geisha...but don't worry, it's not cultural appropriation because as a trans-racial person I identify as a 32 year old Japanese woman
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Part of the considerable power of postmodernism is its ability to make shit up out of whole cloth, and then hold itself to no standards whatsoever. "You be you," and all that. Anyone going as an attack helicopter who doesn't identify as same? Problematic.
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Attack helicopter..too aggressive for me. Now, a postmodernist Toyota Prius...that's a sweet costume. The problem of postmodernism was identified by Wittgenstein in his critique of the private language argument: there is no standard when what seems to be the case is "the case" .
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Just go as the woke army!
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Oh. Speaking of cultural appropriation- I stumbled upon this beaut a few weeks ago. Not even eyebrows are immune from the ire of the perpetually aggrieved. So pathetic.pic.twitter.com/qwKSEBv2Is
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