The Bric-a-Brac

July 1, 2024

The Weekly Bric-a-Brac is a round up of short hits for paid subscribers, taken from the cutting room floor of my brain. I’ll give a generous preview in hopes you’ll want to support Disaffected with a paid subscription!

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Standing

The concept of having "standing" is in the air lately. We've seen discussion of how courts will refuse to hear a case because, in their view, the plaintiffs don't have "standing" to sue.

This means the court has decided the plaintiffs are not affected by the issue in controversy, or not affected in the right way. The court is essentially saying, "You were not harmed by this, so even if it's illegal, you're not the right person to bring this case."

Sometime courts are right, and sometimes they're wrong. That's not the point.

We use a "standing" argument at the social level, too. You see it often on social media. Most of us have seen a response like this one, below. It doesn't matter what it's in response to; that could be grape jelly or what Saturn is made of.

This is the social media use of "standing." But no one has to "prove standing" to another before being allowed to be interested in, or comment upon, an issue. There is no social or moral requirement to be directly affected by an issue in order to opine about it.

For example, I will never be directly affected by abortion, but I am still allowed to comment on it. Women will never be affected directly by penile circumcision, but they are still allowed to comment on it.

"Why are you so interested in this; how does it hurt you," is an illegitimate "standing" argument. Reject it.

Do not answer the question. Do not accept the premise that you are obligated to prove standing with your interlocutor. You are not.

Awakening takes time

What's going on for some people on the left who are in shock.

They're in the very beginning stages of negotiating with themselves. Right now, they're not quite ready to accept that they could have seen the insanity all along. That's too much to expect in the beginning.

We're going to see many say things like, "I can't believe what we just learned." It will frustrate, because you know that it's been obvious all along. I understand this.

People go through this in the beginning when they're starting on the road to realizing that they have been lying to themselves, and by extension, to others, for years. I went through it when I had to face my mother's psychiatric derangement and life-long abuse of her family.

In the beginning, you can't see the full truth all at once. But it comes over time.

Speech at Tilbury Bodega

My lovin' homies,

Some of y'all been saying I shouldn't mix-n-mingle with y'all widout my piece but I was like, these people is my home crew and I ain't tryna mistrust my own, you know?