Taking the Blue PIll

This is a follow up to my previous post about John Scalzi and his assertions of the advantages that straight white males have.  I'm a fan of his Science Fiction work and have been paying attention to what he has said about personal history.  It has led me to think about the bad guy in the first Matrix movie who wanted nothing but to have the reality of the world he was living in wiped away and to go live a wonderful fantasy.  That was his agreement with the machines.  I really get that.  Mr. Scalzi managed to get his in the mating game a couple of decades ago and hasn't really been paying attention to the realities of gender relations since then.  Lucky guy.  In addition, he's become a big name in the Science Fiction communities (and he deserves it), so has spent a lot of time with people who are a long way from average.  With the reinforcement from so many adoring fans, it's tough to get objectivity.  Not to mention he is a writer, so to be successful he really need to have a very strong belief in himself and his abilities.  So, I can really understand his viewpoint, I just think he's a deluded fool, who seems to have a bit of the "don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up" attitude, which I have run into quite a bit with liberals.

Watching the aftermath has been interesting.  He certainly seemed to enjoy ridiculing those whose disagreed with him but lacked anything close to his skills with words.  As another author I know once said "never get into a war of words with a highly trained professional".  He also has been getting lots of support from other folks, but I have learned to pay attention to not only what is said, but to the silences.  One of the folks who remained quiet is a Mormon (or LDS Church, if that's a more comfortable term).  I'm of the opinion that the Mormons have a much better understanding of human nature, particularly gender relations, than almost any of the liberals I have met, so if he was to speak up it could have a negative impact on is career and income.  I applaud his wisdom in staying out of the discussion.

There's a lot more I would like to say, but I would run the risk of sounding mean and narrow-minded, so I'm going to stop with this.  Even with people I loathe, I never want to descend to trying to dehumanise them.