Ari Zizzo

Something can be *bad* without anyone being *at fault* for it. I was once stabbed by a person experiencing psychosis who tried to murder me. That was bad! It wasn’t “ok”. But he was also not at fault; his disability did render him *morally* non-culpable. Everyone hates this. Everyone wants either the bad thing to be ok, or they want the actor behind it to be morally accountable and therefore fit to be somehow punished for the bad thing they did. But sometimes people do bad things and it really isn’t their fault. Maybe that’s a guy shouting the n-word due to his Tourette’s, or maybe it’s someone with psychosis trying to murder me with a kitchen knife because they think I’m giving them cancer and I’ve left them “alone in the womb of time” (a quote from Othello, interestingly. I guess he was implying I am Iago, but kind of baller to quote Shakespeare at someone even in the middle of a psychotic episode while you’re waving a knife at them). The thing itself can still be bad, and it can still be distressing for the people experiencing it on the other end. Getting stabbed was not fun! I had PTSD for six months after. I was at the time, and remain today, uninterested in ever seeing that guy again, even though I don’t blame him for what he did. Similarly, if someone shouts the n-word at a Black person, that person will still feel pain and distress. It’s still *bad*, descriptively, in the sense of “it’s bad when people are harmed.” It would be reasonable for the person so slurred to be angry, and to be unenthusiastic about being around the guy who slurred them, even if he’s not *morally culpable*. No one likes the tension this creates. The conflict between different values. Everyone hates a tradeoff, a lose-lose situation. Everyone wants to believe there’s a perfect solution that makes the tension go away. But it doesn’t. Bad things happen, and sometimes punishing the people who did them is just another bad thing laid on top of the first. I tried to get the DA to divert the guy who stabbed me into psychiatric treatment, rather than jail. I worked with his public defender. I asked to bring in a local restorative justice legal group (the DA refused). Punishing him with prison was just another sin—a worse one than him stabbing me, because the state *was* morally culpable, in a way my attacker was not. Sometimes bad things just happen. If it’s a tsunami, or an earthquake, we understand it. Most of us can accept there isn’t someone *to blame*—though not everyone. Some of us will still look for human agency to blame even for a natural disaster, “homos bringing gods wrath down on America” was a refrain you used to hear more often from evangelical preachers after hurricanes, for example. But when a bad thing happens in an unavoidable, blameless way with a person involved in bringing it about, our lizard brains are very very reluctant to let go of blame. We’re wired for it. It’s important for survival to err on the side of seeing agency behind the workings of the world. And certainly where other humans are involved. And yet, sometimes, it’s wrong.

You can resolve an unfair inequity 2 ways: help the worse-off group, or harm the better-off group. The Fairness value is satisfied either way This was a huge general problem in Woke 1, and a reason why we must abandon “privilege” as a framework, instead focusing on “harm” “Privilege” as a framework has TONS of flaws, but one of them is that it implicitly and unavoidably frames inequities as problems of better-off groups having something unearned, unfair, and unjust—privilege. Even if the “privilege” in question is something like “grace and empathy for their disability,” which is actually a good and necessary thing everyone should get, or if the “privilege” is “being served and protected by police, instead of occupied and assaulted.” Again, that’s just a good and correct state of affairs all should enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with it; the only problem is its *absence* among the oppressed and marginalized. The problem is not that some people get what they need, but that other people are *harmed*. But “privilege” as an analytic lens *unavoidably* suggests a resolution to the problem—removing the privilege! This is really unhelpful when the privilege in question is *something good that all people deserve*. It absolutely fosters zero-sum, race-to-the-bottom thinking. It implicitly endorses the ways in which the marginalized are harmed! It validates the harm, by narratively framing the *absence* of that harm as an unearned reward for belonging to an oppressor class! Privilege, in other words, necessarily implies that *what harms the marginalized is the correct and fair state of existence for all people.* Privilege *valorizes* racism, ableism, misogyny, and so on. It does so by locating the moral problem—the violation of the fairness principle—in *the absence of these kinds of harm* enjoyed by “privileged” counterparts. Privilege is a fucking psyop to make everyone worse off, to neuter and splinter liberatory coalitions. Privilege unavoidably implies that “when black people suffer, that’s good—we just need to make other people suffer equally.” Any “justice” framework that logically validates existing racist harm is totally unacceptable. And this is only ONE of the many analytic and practical problems with privilege. It is one of the most toxic, anti-liberatory, anti-solidarity theories ever devised. It should be seen as revolting and anathema on the left.

haven’t seen her on my tl yet so happy international women’s day

@lilsover @caramelcolored Bruh literally insane how willingly ignorant people stay these day. He COULD NOT “CONTROL HIS TONGUE”. THAT IS LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT. IT IS HIS DISABILITY. HE DIDN’T “SAY”, HE TICKED. HOW HARD IS THAT TO GET THROUGH YOUR HEAD ?! Omfg. The selective outrage is fucking wild.

@caramelcolored i actually have the video you’re referring to, i’m still shocked and disgusted. it’s more so how he said it with little to no hesitation

TikTok is SO much worse than Twitter. Holy fucking shit. These people are being OPENLY ableist as FUCK without any empathy.! And no these videos are not asking for him to apologize (which he did) They are saying that John Davidson should cut his tongue out.

art of the deal

Happy Trans day of visibility to my trans brothers and sisters. Whilst today is a special day for us, every day is a chance to make your mark on this earth. Be who you are out loud. There is so much strength and power in being trans. Today I am so grateful to be a transman.

6 months sober, played such a great show last night.

4.5 months sober btw <3

I literally haven't been on here since Elon changed twitter to X (hi everyone lol)

NEW SINGLE IS OUT!!!!!! I’m so beyond excited STREAM DAT SHIIIIT ❤ ❤ ❤ !!!! fanlink.to/idcifyoueverge…

100 DAYS SOBER <3

YOOO!! Pre-save my new single "Get Better" on Spotify: DROPS FEBRUARY 3RD!!! distrokid.com/hyperfollow/ar…

HAPPY OCTOBER BITCHES!!!!👻🎃

I took a picture of a kid's chest x-ray to show the family (he had pneumonia). I showed the kid and he gasped. Then in an awestruck voice he said, "I have a skeleton."

It’s ironic to me that sometimes we drink to escape from ourselves, when in reality being drunk just brings you closer to your pain

I like dates. I like quality time. I like reassurance. I like details. I like reciprocated energy.

gm

@bmurrrph Not a cancer in sight thank Jesus

Not a libra in sight.

is that a kirbussy?