It has asll become far too intense!
A few days ago, a blogger I follow raised another incident of dress codes being used to bully and belittle schoolgirls. Commenting, I made the point that here in the UK, these incidents almost never arise because of the near-universality of school uniform and, inter alia, pointed out some of the practical benefits of school uniform as well as saying that these rules normally only apply to pre-16 students.
A third party then stepped in and told me that I was a horrible person for not wanting parents to allow children to express their identities through their clothing. I replied pointing out that expressing individuality is all very well, but that allowing kids to wear whatever they want for school would leave them unprepared for the world of work with its' corporate dress codes and demand for conformity. I added that people on the whole function on habit rather than thought, and find change upsetting (regrettable but true). I also asked them to go and re-read what I had written, since their response savoured more than a little of duckspeaking.
Their response was more duckspeaking about sexist dress codes and not treating children like soldiers.
My response was, and I quote: "quack, quack".
They then roundly called me a horrible, evil person and a fascist and told me they didn't like people like me. They also accused me of laughing at them for telling me their truth.
Now, I'm no nice guy, I'll put my hand up to being a nasty specimen who will play hardball if that's the game, so I didn't deny that. But I'm a Socialist, not a fascist, and said so. I pointed out that a belief in disicpline, especially self-discipline, and consideration for others' beliefs and preferences was not fascism. I said that they hadn't told me their truth at all, just parroted stock arguments at me without even bothering with context. I noted that their intolerance of my viewpoint and insistence that theirs was the 'right' one made them more likely to be the fascist than me.
They blocked me. Oh dear what a pity how sad never mind.
But it was clear to me that their responses had come straight from the Woke playbook to the keyboard without detouring through their brain. That kind of thing annoys me no end, and that makes me....forthright?....in my own responses. But this plague of duckspeaking scares me. It's more fascist than anything the right-wingers have come up with.
