If there's one skill I've learned- and as a straight, cis, monogamous white guy on the internet, believe me when I tell you it doesn't come naturally- it's when to shut up and to listen. Especially when I'm about to say:
"I don't see how that's (transphobic/racist/homophobic/anti-sex-worker/whatevs)."
And sometimes I want to say it, because I genuinely don't see it. I mean, of course I don't see it! It's designed so I don't see it. It's like that horror movie trope, where the hideous alien hellbeast has some sort of pheromone control that means people see it as a perfectly lovely person, and they interpret its gurgles as meaningful conversation.
"Where's that TPS report, Jackson?" shouts the boss.
GURHURGERKLEGURG, replies the hellbeast.
"Well, I suppose that's fair," concedes the boss. "but I still need it by the end of the day!"
When we watch the movie, we feel sorry for these chumps, for the poor bastards who keep defending Jackson from Marketing even though Jackson's a hellbeast. They just don't see it! Damn, we go. They're just another tool of the gurgling hellbeast. They're probably going to sacrifice themselves to the hellbeast at the beginning of the third act, and they won't even realise they're doing it, because the gurgling hellbeast got to them.
At some point, Tracy from PR is going to try and rise up against the hellbeast, and she's going to go to Human Resources and tell everyone, and they'll be like, "Jackson, a gurgling hellbeast? I just don't see it." and Tracy will point out the weird electronic interference and the slime everywhere and the half-a-corpse on Jackson's desk and everyone will laugh her off, because they really don't see it.
Near the end of the film, when Tracy has to gun everyone from Human Resources down, you won't feel sorry for them at all.
If you're a member of every majority going, you've got to realise- sometimes, what seems like a perfectly reasonable, even a perfectly progressive article or film or comment, is in fact a gurgling hellbeast. And as a hella privileged person, you are really susceptible to the pheromones it throws off to make you think it's not. So sometimes you'll read something that seems completely reasonable, and then an incredibly insulted party goes "that was messed up, why did they insult me so?" in whatever way they see fit, and then you can feel the sentence rising up in the back of your mind:
"I don't see how that's (classist/super-racist/biphobic/heteronormative/whatevs)."
It's a trick! It's a hellbeast ruse. Don't fall for it.
And here's why: in the film, if one of the guys in Human Resources took Tracy half-seriously, and asked her to show him all her evidence, you'd go "hang on. Hang on, he's a spy! He's a hellbeast spy, Tracy, run!" You'd assume he's just going to cover up the evidence and push her down a lift shaft as soon as she's finished laying out her proof.
If white dudes on the internet say "hey, how is this (whatevs)" then it comes across as super defensive of the article, and that's going to get you an argument, not an education. Just keep your mouth shut for an hour, and read the responses of the insulted parties. That'll clue you in, I guarantee it, and you can avoid that entire mess of looking like you're defending the piece by just staying quiet.
When you do keep your mouth shut and you read why something is problematic, then next time it comes up you're better equipped to spot it yourself. You may still sometimes see Jackson from Marketing as a decent dude, but at least you'll know to double-check for a slime trail.
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