"Inclusivity" can be understood as making a valuable space or product more attractive & welcoming ("inclusive") to progressives while making it unattractive & hostile ("exclusive") to non-progressives.
It's absolutely not an attempt to improve the universal experience; it's a political weapon.
Thank you for this great article. I have a comment to make regarding the way the word ‘inclusivity’ is also understood and used. Maybe this is what you meant also, in which case my apologies.
Is not ‘inclusivity’ also used to remove from everyday language and practice anything that represents oppressive categories and push to the top so-called victimised categories? As a real example in my workplace: in December we do not use the word Christmas anymore but Festivities because Christmas is not inclusive of those who are of a different religion or tradition. If we say “Merry Christmas”, it is understood that the non Christians will feel excluded from the year end joyful celebrations. However, we just had an invitation to celebrate “the Ramadan and Spring”. I do not know why we should celebrate Spring, therefore I can only assume we’re here talking about the Christian Lent. As you can see, the Christian tradition is removed from the language but the Muslim tradition is pushed to the top. Note that our Muslim colleagues always finish their emails to us Christians or of Christian tradition with a “Happy Christmas”, just like we say to them “Enjoy the Ramadan”, “how was Ramadan”, etc. Noone, on the shop floor, feels oppressed or excluded, on the contrary we share the joyful mood of the other groups.
Similarly, the categories of female and male have been removed from our public announcements. We do not say anymore, to greet our clientele, “Ladies and Gentlemen”, we say “Dear customers”. This is done so we are inclusive of those people who do not feel they are either female or male (even though the ‘non binary’ category of human beings does not exist in our legal system.) In doing so, we remove from everyday language the ‘oppressive’ category of female and male and push to the top the so-called victimised category of “non binary people”.
Finally we also remove, in the name of inclusivity, the word “woman”. It is replaced (for the moment in medical settings and literature) by the infamous “people with vaginas”, “menstruators” or other “ovaries havers”. This is so those women who identify as men or non binary or whatever new category, feel included. I don’t doubt this new way of speaking about women will be gradually extended to everyday language. The oppressive category “woman” will be removed while the so-called victimised category of “enbies” or “transmen” will be pushed to the top. But also, the only ones for whom the word “woman” will be used is this other oppressed category: men who identify as women, ie. the ‘transwomen’.
So, is not inclusivity also a tool to erase from the language social, political, biological categories which are seen as oppressive, and replace them in the language by those which are said to be the victimised ones?
As the Social Justice religion conquers more and more of our society, we're starting to see their Promised Land come into view, this egalitarian utopia where "the norms, ideas, concepts, values, rules, and expectations which govern society (even down to the smallest and most mundane social interaction) teach people how to live, interact, and behave" are denounced and abolished in place of a reign of the most miserable, where "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" and the paramount value of all institutions becomes catering to the emotional needs of whoever can make the loudest and angriest claim to being an oppressed Victim.
Thus far what have they achieved: an icy climate of thought where people fear speaking frankly in front of each other; a deterioration of race relations where all Amerikkkan history is painted as a single hate crime and where black people are told that all whites are bigots to be feared; the introduction of Gender Theory into grade schools, where kids are taught that if puberty is physically uncomfortable they may have been "born in the wrong body" but make sure not to tell their parents; a culture of total politicization where we're supposed to hate our friends and family if they vote the wrong way, and where every aspect of life, every book and TV show, have been transformed into vessels for propaganda; journalists against free speech, colleges that censor speakers, "sensitivity readers" who censor art, biologists who claim there are more than 2 sexes, math teachers who claim math is "racist", and maybe the most depressed and anxious generation of young people in all of recorded history. (I could go on but will stop.)
It is my greatest wish that all the Social Justice zealots could live out their entire lives in this world of their own making, where the Oppression Olympics goes on 365 days a year and the Victim is always right, where culture and education consist of a single constant Maoist struggle session, but unfortunately we're trapped in it with them.
Fantastic piece.
"Inclusivity" can be understood as making a valuable space or product more attractive & welcoming ("inclusive") to progressives while making it unattractive & hostile ("exclusive") to non-progressives.
It's absolutely not an attempt to improve the universal experience; it's a political weapon.
Thank you for this great article. I have a comment to make regarding the way the word ‘inclusivity’ is also understood and used. Maybe this is what you meant also, in which case my apologies.
Is not ‘inclusivity’ also used to remove from everyday language and practice anything that represents oppressive categories and push to the top so-called victimised categories? As a real example in my workplace: in December we do not use the word Christmas anymore but Festivities because Christmas is not inclusive of those who are of a different religion or tradition. If we say “Merry Christmas”, it is understood that the non Christians will feel excluded from the year end joyful celebrations. However, we just had an invitation to celebrate “the Ramadan and Spring”. I do not know why we should celebrate Spring, therefore I can only assume we’re here talking about the Christian Lent. As you can see, the Christian tradition is removed from the language but the Muslim tradition is pushed to the top. Note that our Muslim colleagues always finish their emails to us Christians or of Christian tradition with a “Happy Christmas”, just like we say to them “Enjoy the Ramadan”, “how was Ramadan”, etc. Noone, on the shop floor, feels oppressed or excluded, on the contrary we share the joyful mood of the other groups.
Similarly, the categories of female and male have been removed from our public announcements. We do not say anymore, to greet our clientele, “Ladies and Gentlemen”, we say “Dear customers”. This is done so we are inclusive of those people who do not feel they are either female or male (even though the ‘non binary’ category of human beings does not exist in our legal system.) In doing so, we remove from everyday language the ‘oppressive’ category of female and male and push to the top the so-called victimised category of “non binary people”.
Finally we also remove, in the name of inclusivity, the word “woman”. It is replaced (for the moment in medical settings and literature) by the infamous “people with vaginas”, “menstruators” or other “ovaries havers”. This is so those women who identify as men or non binary or whatever new category, feel included. I don’t doubt this new way of speaking about women will be gradually extended to everyday language. The oppressive category “woman” will be removed while the so-called victimised category of “enbies” or “transmen” will be pushed to the top. But also, the only ones for whom the word “woman” will be used is this other oppressed category: men who identify as women, ie. the ‘transwomen’.
So, is not inclusivity also a tool to erase from the language social, political, biological categories which are seen as oppressive, and replace them in the language by those which are said to be the victimised ones?
A great series. As has been written, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
As the Social Justice religion conquers more and more of our society, we're starting to see their Promised Land come into view, this egalitarian utopia where "the norms, ideas, concepts, values, rules, and expectations which govern society (even down to the smallest and most mundane social interaction) teach people how to live, interact, and behave" are denounced and abolished in place of a reign of the most miserable, where "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" and the paramount value of all institutions becomes catering to the emotional needs of whoever can make the loudest and angriest claim to being an oppressed Victim.
Thus far what have they achieved: an icy climate of thought where people fear speaking frankly in front of each other; a deterioration of race relations where all Amerikkkan history is painted as a single hate crime and where black people are told that all whites are bigots to be feared; the introduction of Gender Theory into grade schools, where kids are taught that if puberty is physically uncomfortable they may have been "born in the wrong body" but make sure not to tell their parents; a culture of total politicization where we're supposed to hate our friends and family if they vote the wrong way, and where every aspect of life, every book and TV show, have been transformed into vessels for propaganda; journalists against free speech, colleges that censor speakers, "sensitivity readers" who censor art, biologists who claim there are more than 2 sexes, math teachers who claim math is "racist", and maybe the most depressed and anxious generation of young people in all of recorded history. (I could go on but will stop.)
It is my greatest wish that all the Social Justice zealots could live out their entire lives in this world of their own making, where the Oppression Olympics goes on 365 days a year and the Victim is always right, where culture and education consist of a single constant Maoist struggle session, but unfortunately we're trapped in it with them.