There’s a post I’ve seen going round a lot lately that goes along the lines of, “The oppressed are told not to fight fire with fire, but I never hear the oppressors being told not to start the fire.” First off, I totally agree with the message of this. Fighting back is important, defending yourself is important, and sticking up for your rights is important. If we hadn’t done that in the past, the world would be a lot more unfair than it is (and it’s still pretty damn unfair). But there is a difference between fighting fire with fire and fighting hate with hate. Standing up for yourself does not equal verbally abusing and attacking people who are trying to support you for the sole reason that they don’t fit into your minority.
Just because someone is white, straight, cis, or all three, doesn’t mean they automatically hate you and your community. If someone’s a douche to you, it’s fine to be a douche back. There is nothing wrong with disliking individuals. There is nothing wrong with disliking people on the basis of their beliefs (I’m looking at you, Men’s Rights Activists). What’s NOT fine is despising an entire group of people on the basis of something they can’t control, such as race or sexuality. It’s obviously not possible for a minority to oppress a majority (anyone who thinks that is either deluded or doesn’t understand the definition of “oppress”). However, it is possible for a minority to be prejudiced against a majority, and prejudice – no matter whom it’s directed at – is never okay. I’ve seen posts like the above get hundreds or even thousands of notes, and I know I don’t have a right to complain because trans people go through much worse on a daily basis, but that still doesn’t make it all right. Hate is hate, no matter who it’s coming from.
(I know this is /definitely/ an unpopular opinion, and I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for it, but I’m staying off anon because it’s what I honestly believe. I hate the fact that this site, which started off as a safe haven for me, has become a place where I’m scared to voice my own opinions for fear of being told to delete my blog and kill myself.)