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• Wednesday, April 16, 2008 04:37 PM

  @AKA Smith

  AKA Smith: "I know damed well that your libertarian-leaning "feminism" is not my sort of feminism, Hutman. To me, those feminists are anti-feminists."

  Huh? First of all, we're talking about Obama, not me. I did mention libertarianism the other day. Not sure what your problem was with my statement though. Perhaps you could elucidate... What makes a feminist an anti-feminist, in your view? Please, do explain. I'd love to know how my support for laws against hostile work environments makes me an anti-feminist, or how my contributions to Planned Parenthood and women's shelters, or my time spent canvassing neighborhoods and marching on behalf of women's causes, or sponsorship of feminist art and theater projects, among many other examples, make me an anti-feminist. Please, I'm just dying to know. I think you just can't handle somebody disagreeing with you, and so you have to look for a reason to smear them, and painting them as a sexist is your favorite unconscious tactic. You called me sexist for my quip about Michelle Obama. You called me sexist for some other innocuous things I've said. Your psychology is very obvious, and frankly, I think you're rather wack.

  AKA Smith: "Also, if Obama is a feminist, why did he make those sexist comments about "claws" and Clinton getting "down?" Not just many of Obama's supporters, but Obama himself, are suspect as sexists."

  Oh, jeez. Somebody said "claws!" Sexist alert! Sexist alert! Somebody said "down"! Misogyny alert! Misogyny alert!

  I think you must read the news with a magnifying glass, scanning intently waiting for anything you can interpret in the most negative way possible to suit your agenda. You reason backwards, and it goes like this:

  AKA Smith:

  (1) "That person does not agree with me."

  (2) "Therefore, I don't like that person."

  (3) "But I need a more defensible rationale for disliking them."

  (4) "If they could be reduced to a negative categorization, that would give me a rationale."

  (5) "I know a thing or two about sexism. I'm good at finding examples of it, even vague, misinterpretation-based or worst-case-assumption-of-motive-based ones."

  (6) "Therefore, I will call that person a sexist. I will point to self-serving examples of sexism, and ignore all counterexamples. And that way, I avoid all responsibility of taking that person seriously, or acknowledging that the people who disagree with me might have valid points, and actually be reasonable people who aren't filled with hate and evil."

  That about sums it up.

  And oh yeah, OBAMA IS STILL A FEMINIST. Look at his political record and statements, for chrissakes. Look at Michelle Obama! Go watch the online Colbert Report from last night and check out her interview!

  —Xrandadu Hutman Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters
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