“Acknowledge your privilege” is another way to say “I hate you”

Hatred is a funny thing. So is envy. Many people who call themselves activists (especially “radical” activists) are filled to the choking point with both of those emotions. They hate you because you are different from them. Either in what you believe or in what you are. They need no other reason.

• They hate you because you are white
• They hate you because you are middle class or “rich”
• They hate you because you have an education
• They hate you because you are skinny and / or pretty
• They hate you because you are heterosexual
• They hate you because you have a job

Insidiously they won’t simply come out and say they hate you because of what you are. They are trying to pretend that they don’t have such prejudices. In fact the whole silly facade of their imaginary movement depends on their belief that they are better than you are – that they are more enlightened, smarter, sensitive or “progressive”. To admit that they are essentially racist, classist, gender hating extremists filled with envy and externalized self hatred would crimp their dialogue ya’ know?

Besides… they don’t want to just hate you – they want you to hate yourself. They want you to beg them for forgiveness for the sin of who you are.

Their weapon is the gross misuse of a simple concept… “privilege”. In their hands it is the universal excuse for why they hate you. Let’s say a bunch of “feminists” all get together and start hating on some attractive white girl. They won’t just come out and say that this is just the same stupid envy that has plagued that same pretty girl her whole life… they will say that they don’t care about her looks and what they hate is her “privilege”. They will tell her that she is inferior, hurtful and a bad person because she is not ugly. They will attempt to force hr to beg their forgiveness for never having had “the ugly experience”. They will tell her that  If she tries to befriend them they will attack her for supposedly using her “privilege” to demean them. if she ignores them they will do the same. Any activism she may engage in will be dismissed because “it’s easy for her, she’s pretty!”.

Bullshit. They just hate her because she is pretty and they are not. They hate her because their envy eats them alive. They hate her and they will try everything in their power to break her self esteem all the while telling her she should be thanking them for “helping” her.

Here is the secret. People like that can only hurt you if you grant them the moral authority to do so. Once you decide that their supposed victimhood grants them some sort of superior perspective, authority or wisdom then to any extent you are not a victim you will be granting them superiority over you.

Don’t do it.