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This weekly thread will focus on the phrase “The Cruelty Is The Point”, which may take some explanation.

Frequently on Lemmy (and elsewhere), I see the phrase in comment threads. In my experience, it has been referencing any policy that is contrary to a Liberal or Leftist belief that the thread discusses. I have found the phrase when discussing trans issues, housing, taxes, healthcare, abortion, and many more.

This does not mean it doesn’t exist elsewhere, it is simply where I see it since I spend much of my social media time on Lemmy. If your experience differs, please let us know!

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • Do you believe this? If so, why?
  • Is it true / false in some or all scenarios?
  • Is it with certain groups or regarding certain things?
  • Do you feel that speech like this is conducive to fixing societal issues?
  • Is what is considered “kind” always the best course of action?
  • @[email protected]English
    2•7 months ago

    I’m not disputing that minorities and women have been the target of discrimination, but the question is whether the phrase “the cruelty is the point” is accurate. There are obviously times when it is, as in some of the cases you’ve described, but most of the time when I see someone saying “the cruelty is the point”, they’re referring to conservative policies on things like immigration or abortion, which have goals aside from cruelty.

    I think that the phrase is often used to demonize conservatives. If the cruelty is the point, then everyone who supports the policy is knowingly cruel and malicious.

    • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦MEnglish
      1•7 months ago

      Again you utterly fail to address the point I’ve repeated at least four times now.

      Please come back when you’re willing to address the elephant in the room I keep pointing to. Until then I’m not going to bother responding because you are not listening.

      I’m so absolutely and thoroughly weary of the detached attitude of those who are in no way meaningfully impacted by the policies in question and who can thus treat it as an intellectual exercise where it’s mere symbol manipulation.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•7 months ago

        Your point, as I understand it, is that lots of policies both past and present are cruel to or unfairly impact women and minorities, and this suggests that the cruelty is the intended outcome, rather than whatever the stated goals were of any individual policy.

        Is that what you’re saying?

        • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦MEnglish
          1•7 months ago

          There’s a key word: invariably. It’s a staggering coincidence that EVERY FUCKING TIME the policies hit visible minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community.

          EVERY FUCKING TIME.

          If I picked up a gun and pretended to fire randomly and happened to hit a bullseye each time you’d likely suspect I’m aiming for the bullseye. Yet for some reason when the bullet hits visible minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community EVERY FUCKING TIME you think it’s firing randomly.

          That’s my point.

          This is not an accident. After literally hundreds of times the bullet hitting the bullseye you still think the aim wasn’t to hit that bullseye. Because you aren’t the target. You can afford to pretend it’s all happenstance and a side effect of some other factor, treating this as a harmless little intellectual exercise. But those of us with that bullseye painted on us? We can’t afford that shit. Because the bullets keep ripping into us left, right, and centre while, mysteriously, the white, middle class left in particular pretends there’s nothing to see here. (And the right just continues being the blind man shooting at the world … and somehow having the bullets repeatedly strike the body politic of visible minorities, women, and the LGBQT+ community.)

          The cruelty is very much the point. The cruelty is how they intend to control those they don’t approve of. You just can’t see it because you’re not the target of it.

          And I’m out of this conversation. I’m oh-so-fucking-weary of talking to the dispassionate observers tut-tutting from the sideline.