Well, I Do Declare
The Intellectual Simplicity of the Definitive Statement
You’re a racist.
There, now that’s done and everything you every say or do can be dismissed out of hand as being related to your racism.
It’s so simple, making a declarative statement. It allows one to proudly shut oneself away from anything that may challenge one’s pre-conceived notions, or current mindset, or socio-political opinions.
That is why making such broad statements – even and especially when they are wrong - is so alluring – it makes one’s life so much easier when you don’t have to think…about anything…ever.
There are other examples, obviously, some of which are actually appropriate depending on their context. Telling someone “they don’t understand” because they do not have the exact same “lived experience” is absurd – save for sociopaths, humans do possess the skill of empathy and the fact that you don’t happen to be a trans Hispanic handicapped homeless person does not mean you cannot understand the challenges(?) that may entail.
Telling me, for example, I don’t understand and to just “follow the science” is wrong – I know that following the science is the same as following a car that you yourself are driving – it’s impossible and I would try to explain that to you. Now, telling me I don’t understand how to change a spark plug is absolutely correct and any attempt to explain how to me would be met with the same glazed-over look of bewilderment your dog gets when you ask them to do algebra.
Phobe is an extremely handy suffix to use when you want to make sure your mind is kept closed and calm. Transphobe, homophobe, xenophobe, fatphobe, etc. are all widely used words to clamp shut any further discussion because if you are a phobe you are by definition mentally unwell (suffering from a phobia) and, again, anything you say or do is based on your condition and utterly appropriately ignorable.
Interestingly, there are words and phrases that have been declared recently to absolutely not be at all definitive. Woman, for example, does not mean what it has for eons – in fact, it is very hard to pin down what it means, it seems: https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/what-is-a-woman-review-matt-walsh/ .
Resident, citizen, voter, American, criminal, and student also now mean something other than they once did, changed specifically to make their use as definitives or in declarative statements more difficult in order to ease the political moment. The idea of free speech has also been purposefully muddied – what has always meant to be freedom to speak to share your thoughts has, in many circles, morphed into freedom from speech that may make you feel sad. (see here:
This idea of freedom from speech is at the core of the political use of the declarative statement – it specifically sets up a personal “safe space,” away from anything that may force a person to think. It is especially – and terrifyingly – prevalent on campuses, the places where people are supposed to go to learn how to think.
Being able to make false declarative statements without being immediately challenged is an incredibly handy way to live one’s life. Going back to dogs, it’s akin to having life on a leash – one simple tug changes its direction, with no effort, no thought, no consideration, no understanding of history, no allowance for nuance, no empathy, no education, no tolerance of differences, and, at its essence, no need for any life of the mind at all.
The false declarative statement is simply the language of bigotry, in all its nasty stupidity.
Except now it’s cool to be a bigot and the lynching takes place on-line.