Intersectionality and the Snowflake
Intersectionality is a difficult subject, as it's definition is mutable, and changes with the expression of culture within a society. It is functionally opening multiple dimensions in the study of human interrelation and how it is affected by race, gender, class, level of income, level of education, and a variety of other factors. During the early Petroleum Era, the area of civil rights was dominated by two major groups who were victims of social oppression and discrimination, people of black African ancestry and women. Both groups were denied basic rights enjoyed by the majority power holders, and they fought for those same rights and recognitions. By the end of the 20th century, these groups were largely successful and legally won their battles but still fought against social inertia that discriminated against them.
The early 21st century saw the civil rights movement meet intersectionality and move from a single unified force into a badly splintered one. Rather than banding together under common banners, those seeking social justice balkanized along dozens of lines, undermining their cause as a whole, and turning themselves into extremists and fringe figures.
The term snowflake emerged as a perjorative for the intersectional social justice warrior, as they were seen as being both delicate and incredibly vulnerable, and fighting to the pointlessly unique. Attempts to create maps of social injustice created intersections, hence, intersectionality, and from these intersections branches broke away creating large fractal patterns, which as more data was compiled, increasingly resembled actual ice crystals and snowflakes.
The Social Engineers of the Petroleum Era saw intersectionality as an important and powerful tool to be used. In the past, when the populace united, they proved the undoing of established government and economic powers. Thus, those in power had to at least act like they were working towards the interests of the common people. With intersectionality, the engineers were able to take the canaille (derogatory: the common people, the masses) and with a few strokes turn almost everyone into a victim of some level of social injustice, and lever it against another arbitrary faction, creating social friction and hostility. Thus divided, the populace of the Petroleum Era raged against each other over perceived slights and engineered discrimination, never coming together to put their leaders to the question of why things were the way they were. The Resource Wars and the moebian waste of the era, the rapid degradation of the environment, were of secondary concern compared to the social outrage that exploded across the world. It wasn't the environment, it wasn't the economy, it wasn't health and medical advances, it was the non-recognition of each group by the others. Unemployment was reaching record heights, wars and terror attacks were commonplace, fuel and medicine were in scarce supply, and the air and water were polluted, but the great injustice was the fact that the people of America didn't recognize the innate dignity and social rights of self identified trans-specied polygendered polysexuals.
The three dimension map of the Intersectional snowflake has a disturbing level of symmetry to the Laniakea local supercluster. The Laniakea supercluster contains over 100,000 galaxies, is 520 million light years wide, and contains the Milky Way, the Great Attractor in the Virgo cluster, and 3 other previously recognized superclusters. Scientists and philosophers find this equally fascinating and terrifying.
In anthropological terms, protoculture is the exchange of behaviors between generations of primates, and is marked by its simplistic nature. In the Cosmic Era, new layers are added to demonstrate the advancement of culture with the development of technology, laying out tiers above protoculture. Phyloculture and Eoculture represent the advent of linguistics and the ability to make and control fire, Euculture represents the shift from primitive hunter gatherer society towards a sedentary agricultural society. The working of metals over stone and wood marks the end of the protoculture
Mesoculture is the middle period where writing, lawmaking, mathematics, deliberate agriculture, and the other foundations of society are laid out. There are many different salient points within mesoculture, but the most important, those remembered by non-anthropologists are the workings of different materials like bronze, and iron, and the advent of technologies such as simple machines, and the first stirrings of medical understanding. The creation of complex machines marks the end of mesoculture.
Isoculture is the period of sentience where complex machines and ideas spread out, and things that are radically different are snuffed out. During the isoculture period, the more successful tribes within the culture will dominate the weaker tribes and establish themselves as the dominant faction. There are debates as to what ends the isoculture period, the advent of space flight, atomic manipulation, or computers and computer networks. The general consensus is that the point falls somewhere between those three bits of technology.
Genoculture is the Cosmic Era, where vast amounts of information can be passed genetically, or through computer interfaces with the brain. The proposed end of the genoculture era is either the recognized end of the parent species, or extra-solar travel.
Exoculture is the proposed next level, where humanity expands beyond the solar system and begins colonizing other planets around other stars, creating entire new hierarchies of worlds and nations.
Despite the large body of study, the majority of people lump everything under the label of protoculture, with the point of demarcation being the end of the Petroleum Era, and everything after, proper culture. The irony of this is that despite the fairly well understood and laid out manner of human behavior, and how things like technology, economics, and intersectionality come into play, the denizens of the Cosmic Era continue to do many of the same things their ancestors did. The behaviors are deeply ingrained on a genetic level. Human racism is tied to reproductive patterns, the ideal reproductive partner is similar (same ethnic grouping) but not too similar (familial relation) It was postulated that in genetic terms, the ideal reproductive partner was a cousin. Similar, but not as incestuous as an immediate family member. The rest of said human behaviors are in large part based out of survival instincts and patterns tens of thousands of years old. Same is favored over different, the known over the unknown, and those with more will instinctively shun those with less, those with less will covet those with more, and despite being developed and intelligent, the most powerful driving forces are feeding, procreation, and expressions of violence, ala the Three Fs: food, fucking, and fighting.
Intersectionality smashes into the basic direction of human nature, and throws it back in it's collective face. In previous cultural eras, intersectionality and the social contrarians who espouse it, were generally marginalized, enslaved, subjugated with force, or simply killed. By the point of Isoculture, society has mellowed and the survival and fight instincts are muted as the threat of daily death is almost eradicated. The average denizen of an isoculture society is unlikely to die from accident, injury, disease, war, or predation. These things still occur, but they are at the fringes of said culture. Only the most serious accident or disease is fatal, and soldiers do the fighting and dying.
Masculine and Anti-Masculine
The masculine values are pursuit of achievement and status, emotional composure, self reliance, and strength. Associated with these values are also avoidance of feminine values, aggression, non-intimate sexuality, and homophobia. The excess demonstration of masculine values is machismo. In the earlier levels of culture, the full suite is present, as many of these masculine behaviors are tied to successful reproduction. The aggressive violent male who doesn't enter a familial bond with a female and impregnates multiple females has a greater chance of passing on his genes. Likewise, the homosexual male is very unlikely to pass on his genes. In the earlier cultures, mortality was much higher, so there were certain things sacrificed to ensure the forward movement of society and the species.
The advent of the isoculture made many of the negative masculine attributes obsolete, and many of them were diminished. Those who still clung to them were considered anachronisms, and were labels as the problem with society. The Intersectionalist movement worked to eliminate the negative masculine values while promoting feminine values, moving towards an androgynous ideal. At least, at it's inception. Eventually, the movement began supporting anti-masculine ideals and pushing them forward, making ALL masculine values socially unacceptable.
The Post-Intersectional man is expected to be socially inclusive, deferring to women, social opinion, and his socio-economic superiors. He should strive to divest himself of aggressive actions, to rely on others and allow others to rely on him, not as a freestanding individual, but as a part of a social collective. The post-intersectional man should be attractive in a non-masculine manner, such as affecting the trappings of perceived masculinity, but none of the actual abilities, such as wearing facial hair and the clothing associated with a lumberjack, but having no brawny muscles, no experience with potential weapons, or the destruction of the environment. The post-intersectional man accepts all variations of race, gender, and sexual expression, and accepts if his life partner chooses another post intersectional man, or a artificial insemination clinic for the father of her child.
Feminine and Anti-Feminine
The feminine values are receptivity, nurturing, seeking security, and beauty. Associated with these are the general avoidance of masculine values, sexual objectification, reproductive accomplishment, and religious adherence. The excess demonstration of feminine values is promiscuity. In earlier cultural levels, the feminine values are the bonds that hold society together, while the masculine values propel it forward. In the intersectional era, feminine values are attacked for being the cause of social injustice against women, along with demonstrated masculine values. This places the intersectional woman in a place where she will be socially attacked regardless of what she does. Should she display traditional values, she is attacked by the progressive intersectionalist for being a victim of the patriarchy, and if she embraces the intersectionalist, she is attacked by those of conservative and traditional views.
The feminine values are elevated during the isoculture, as security and health are much easier to secure, and many of the dangerous masculine values are being tempered. Feminine values are placed in the intersectionalist blender, and torn apart, and thrown where they may fall, leaving the post-isocultural feminine in disarray.
The post-intersectional woman is expected to be outgoing and socially aggressive, unless countered by other post-intersectional women, and then, the most important matter becomes social consensus. She is to take risks, embrace her sexuality, but reject being objectified, unless objectification is acceptable for being socially and economically successful. The post-intersectional woman embraces sex, but rejects procreation, seeks the exotic and embraces the unfamiliar, and rejects the similar. The ideal post-intersectional woman has a mate who is specifically not her ethnicity, and may or may not have children with him, and also has either a career or a strong social occupation such as being an activist, blogger, or similar interests.
Society suffers under post-intersectionalism. While things like racism and sexism are bad, the ultimate goal of the Intersectional Movement is the destruction of all such constructs, both the bad and the good. The post-intersectional culture despite being 'liberated' from archaic urges and prejudices remains petty, driven by sexual desires, and rather than eliminating hatred, change what the receptacle of social hatred should be. This undermines and weakens the culture, and the culture loses both cohesion, and faith in itself, and it's original values. The post-intersectional culture has drastically reduced rates of procreation, and must allow influxes of immigrants to sustain itself. The culture is inclusive and welcomes the immigrants, and doesn't barbarically force them to adopt their culture and values. The post-intersectional culture begins to balkanize around immigrant cultures. The pre-intersectional man would have fought the invaders, protected his wives and daughters, but the post intersectional man is marginalized, he is same, were exotic is preferred. The post-intersectional woman prefers the immigrant, as paradoxically, the immigrant hasn't adopted the values of intersectionality. This doesn't help the post-intersectional man because he himself rejects the immigrant woman, because she doesn't share his values, and he doesn't share hers.
The post-intersectional man is unlikely to pass on his genes, nor is he likely to pass on his culture.
The post-intersectional woman has a chance of passing on her genes, but ultimately, will be subsumed by whatever ethnicity she has bred herself to. Her culture is also not going to be passed to her children.
The scenario is commonly known as the Wolves at the Door. The post-intersectional society is unable to culturally defend itself, and in the case of having lost it's internal faith, might be a position where it is deliberately working towards a cultural self destruction. The immigrant, the barbarian, still embracing their masculine and feminine values, with their own culture move in and eventually remove the post-instersectional culture.
This has happened countless times to varying degree across history. The epicureans and egalitarians are met and then toppled by the barbarians. The Goths and Vandals sacked the Roman Empire, the Hyskos and Hittites toppled the Egyptians, and in the current day, the Western culture is being inundated and besieged by migrants from the Middle East and Central and South America. While the former examples won physical wars over their androgynized foes, the latter are waging a migratory and colonial war against their increasingly androgynized western foes.
Sexual and Sexial Relations
As cultural and gender values shift, sexual values also shift accordingly. The most common sexual issue through cultural history is homosexuality, which has regularly been demonized, and it's practitioners shunned, ostracized, abused, and murdered. In a cultural context, the homosexual consumes cultural resources, but doesn't contribute to the next generation in general terms of producing children. The genetics and culture imperative doesn't take into account adoption of unwanted children, because after the inception of labor intensive agriculture through the advent of the technological age, there are few unwanted children. (But there were orphanages, and Oliver Twist, counterpoint - families were massive, 10+ siblings for labor on the farm, plus to offset child mortality)
After homosexuality is socially tolerated, or normalized, other forms of non-standard sexual behavior manifest. These have already generally been present, but have been suppressed, as deviance is considered deviance in the early and mid cultural levels. The bisexual comes along after the homosexual, which is generally going to be socially accepted among females before males. A female with homosexual or bisexual tendencies can still be impregnated and perform the expected social roles given to her gender, whereas the alternative sexuality male is given harsher treatment.
These sexual preferences are fine, and boil down to opposite sex, same sex, or either sex. Intersectionality intervenes and starts creating the Alphabet Soup of the Sexual Axis, aka Sexial Orientations. In the LGBTTQQIAAP expression of the sexial axis, homosexuals are splint into homosexual women and then homosexual men, and down the list for Bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, and pansexual. The intersectionalist expression splits and splits and splits until each microscopic group stands defiant, and demands equal space and footing compared to not just their fellows in the LGBTTQQIAAP, but as equals to the heteronormative bulk of human culture. This expression of sexial diversity itself is a product of the largess of the advanced culture, as people are no longer social and culturally dominated to form reproductive family units, just as they have been emancipated from the tedium of farm labor to produce food for themselves.
Unsurprisingly, race, plays a large factor in all cultures, as it is the most common denominator in separating the familiar from the unknown. As early and middle cultures tend to not be highly mobile, phenotypes develop easily, and a person demonstrating a different phenotype is an outsider, and those who share the same, are not. This ties back to the genetic reproductive imperative to breed with the familiar, but not too familiar. The racial identity is typically coupled with a cultural identity, but inside the intersectional nation, the majority racial identity is to be undermined.
Prior to the appearance of intersectionality, the dominant race of a region, it's dominant culture, is going to be dominant because it has successfully exploited it's masculine values, it has been aggressive, it has procreated, and it has pursued a course of achievement and status. It has done this at the expense of other cultural systems that were for a large variety of reasons, not able to succeed. At the point of intersectionality, the success of the core culture, and it's racial identity becomes a point of condemnation. The pre-intersectional culture did not respect and honor the race, culture, belief system, and so forth of the other cultures it suppressed, oppressed, or destroyed. The penalty for this is the undermining of the majority race/culture.
The intersectional racial identity is the theatre of the minorities, where other cultures are held up as being morally, spiritually, ecologically, or otherwise superior to the majority culture, which at the same time is dismantled. The mythos, legends, and religion of the majority is to be drawn and quartered, as it's dominance has come at the expense of others. This creates the Cultural Suicide Pact, as the majority race accepts the post-intersectional decree. Their culture and mythology are forfeit, creating a vacuum inside the culture, a weakness from what was once their source of strength. The intersectionalist cheers as the defeat of the isoculture represents the victory of intersectionality and social activism.
Inclusivity and Achievement
One of the cornerstones of intersectionality, paradoxically, is inclusion. Under the ideal of intersectionality is the elimination of discrimination and prejudice across the entirety of civilization. Traditional inclusion is a typically a good and decent thing, because it eliminates unjust discrimination and prejudice against minorities and other fringe groups of society. Intersectional inclusion is a toxic intrusion as it erodes only certain exclusive groups. The dismantling of Whites Only laws and establishments was a major victory in the Civil Rights movement, while the new inclusivity is to create Safe Spaces for minorities where a different group of people are refused access, the majority population.
Tuning the Fiddle
As masculine and feminine values (equally important, but for different reasons and to different ends) have been undermined, the procreative family has been undermined, and the isoculture has been neutered, the intersectionist has sown the seeds of their own destruction. The intersectional culture is unable to defend itself, and will fall. Strong intersectional cultures collapse from within while weak intersectional cultures are overrun and subsumed by the next expanding culture.
America was never great is the catchphrase of the Intersectionalist. Racist, Sexist, and Bigot are the tools of the Intersectionalist. They are not used against the actual perpetrators of these actions, but rather they are levied against the populace, the cow them, to undermine them. In the modern context, this appears in articles such as 10 Ways You Didn't Know You Were Racist. Another sign of the intersectionalist is that any correction is given with a discriminatory card. Infomercials demonstrate people with a laughable inability to do the most basic things, it is funny to watch a grown man or woman struggle with the most ordinary tasks. The rationalist or realist could point out that these are stand in actors for people with physical disabilities, and who do struggle with such things, but no one is going to watch a commercial for a tomato slicer watching an arthritic 90 year old person struggle to handle a knife with their shaking hands. The intersectionalist will add that by not knowing this factoid, you were a discriminatory ableist bigot.
The French philosopher Emile Durkheim, considered the father of modern sociology, presented two radical notions. The first was that religion and morality can all be explained as expressions of social interaction, and that criminality was a vital part of a healthy society. One of the questions Durkheim asked in pre-WWI France was if it was possible for a society to maintain it's integrity and coherence when things like shared religion or ethnic background could no longer be assumed. The intersectionalist movement is the pursuit of that answer, to form a society that is not based on shared belief systems.
It becomes a very Alice in Wonderland sort of affair, where individualism and the importance of individuality is taken to the extreme. Each person becomes to themselves, unique, and any attempt to group people together becomes an act of oppression. Each Intersectionalist expresses a unique gender, a unique perspective, a unique lifestyle, and becomes largely, and willingly oblivious to the social collective consciousness. We shall build a house, they would say, but the house will not be made from block or stud, as these are artificial constructs, and the house will not discriminate between inside and outside.
Durkheim's Deconstruction shows that society as we know it, like morality and religion, are built from the same shared value systems. Without these value systems, there is neither culture, nor is there a civilization. The Intersectionalist idea cannot occur in scarcity level economies, as forced participation in the economic systems for basic survival curtails the free time and cultural suicidal impetus. Once post-scarcity is obtained, and the day to day activities of a culture are not geared towards daily survival and ensuring the next generation, everything begins to fall apart.
As demonstrated in the Universe 26 experiment, when a social group is moved to post-scarcity, the social dynamic begins to break down. Familial units break down because there is not a social impetus for the continuation of the species, and thus the maternal/paternal instincts become at odds with degenerating society. The Great Filter in the Fermi paradox could be the transition of a cohesive society from a scarcity to a post-scarcity world, and surviving intersectionality.
The Imbrians technically did not survive intersectionality, despite being a post-scarcity multi-world spanning society. Their culture was badly fragmented, with the most prominent gap between the dynasts and the rest of Imbria. The immortal leaders each had grown into their own faction, while each world presented its own set of intersections and problems, all of which came to a head when the often oppressed and strapped Imbrians came into conflict with their almost godlike dynastic leaders. There was not a single concerted effort between the mass of the Imbrians against the Dynasts. Instead, each world that rebelled was as much torn in civil conflict with itself, and often war with the other colonies. Mercury and Venus fought frequently, rather than working together against their common enemy.
The oldthink is fraught with mistakes and misconceived notions, blind to it's own bigotry, it's innate Indicium. Indicium is a latin term, that literally means discrimination. When redefined as a substance, indicium, can be treated like what it is, an impurity or a poison. They Oldthink sees Intersectionality as a foe, as an enemy, and it should. At the end of the day, the Oldthink, and those who cleave to it, who cleave to their indicium laced cultures, are going to be swept away. The atomic philosopher Planck once said that the new ideas aren't adopted because they are better, they are adopted because those who hold them perish.
The Instrumentality Project isn't a grandiose plan being played out by a behind the scenes power players or secret societies pulling the puppet strings of nations and peoples. It is the documentation of the transition of intersectional and post-intersectional culture. The innate problem with Instrumentality is that it must either fail in spectacular fashion, or it must transcend humanity.
The Instrumentality Theory holds that like the pursuit of the ancient philosophers stone, humanity must find a way to transmute it's base indicium into elegantium, the defined substance of elegance, fineness, and refinement. Thus, humanity is cleansed of it's dross, and elevates itself into the next level of sentience. The Elegantia Hume, no longer human, has transcended the structures and forms of indicium, and is reforged into an exquisite shape.
Gender, race, language, class, and income all perish in the flames of change. The new hume is without gender, encompassing all and excluding none. Likewise, the hume is without race, ethnicity, or creed, as all are made from the same perfect essence. The old falls away, casting forth it's best parts, and the rest burning as chaff in a crucible. With the melding of minds and spirits, there is no need for spoken word, when thoughts can touch through the powers of machines and telepathic parapsychic abilities. The new Hume race will do away with the old Homo Sapiens, just as Sapiens disposed of Neaderthal. In time, the Hume will identify their own indicium, and will make the next step, and transcend again, and Hume will pass away to make room for the next iteration of this expression of self that we mistakenly assume we are the pinnacle of.