It's Time to Get Mansplaining Out of Politics

I was doing an interview with a congressional candidate who mentioned that our government is based on the idea that, “All men are created equal.”The comment itself is common enough in our political landscape, but I knew I had to respond.“That right there is a problem!” I said. “What about women, what about children?"This was a good candidate who, unlike many others, was at least willing to come and talk to me. We’re all vulnerable to falling victim to our cultural deceits, and this candidate was open to listening so I do not consider him to be a mansplainer.We have to treat each other with grace and encourage each other to do better. In contrast, conservatives leverage culture and tradition like a cudgel. If you dare to question them, they attempt to silence you forever.We live in a society that tolerates unqualified people in every significant political position, but that refuses to recognize the inadequacy of the word “men” for describing rights that must be applied to all.It’s basically hardwired into the minds of all Americans to find justifications for the omissions inherent to our founding documents. Even good people fall into this unfortunate consequence of patriotism indoctrination. However, I’m finding that people are becoming increasingly likely to call those shortcomings out.I’m here for that.The problem is that we live in a society where everything gets mansplained into absurdity.Even now, the conservative members of the Supreme Court like to lecture on concepts like “originalism.” The reverence for the founding fathers is conveniently deployed to overlook the fact that these were slave owners who, by definition, did not believe in equal rights.During most of the history of our country, women have been denied the rights afforded to white men. Rich men have always been allowed to exist in a sphere of corruption outside the law.Nevertheless, the second you mention these truths which should be held to be self-evident, an army of entitled men comes trotting out of the woodwork to shush us into silence.“Oh come on now,” they lecture, “don’t impose the mores of our times on the past.”They always say this in particular when it comes to Thomas Jefferson. By any measure, he’s a terrible human being who began to rape Sally Hemings when she was anywhere between 11 and 14 years old. They didn’t keep accurate records of the human beings they enslaved to further attempt to sever their claim to humanity.But “the mores of the times” argument falls flat when you find out that Jefferson began his child raping when he was in France. Slavery was already outlawed in France then. He knew it was wrong.Repugnant men who try to claim “tradition” to justify the appalling act of middle aged men raping children need to be shouted into silence. There are still men who puff themselves up and try to mansplain their justifications of that abuse even now.Even now.We have to stop them.The way mansplaining works is ignorant, entitled dudes try to push through a tidal wave of nonsense. Then they drone on and on and on and never allow you to interject. If you do interject, they get all haughty and insist that you’re being “disrespectful.”“You’re being rude,” is like the motto of the mansplaining universe. “You need to show some respect!”They always find fault with our behavior and demand that we change. They point at us. But if we point back at them, they get all hurt and put upon. When they’re cornered, they threaten to come out swinging. Some of them even start shooting.They’re violent, unhinged, unreasonable, uneducated, and unrepentant.They gain all their power from corrupt traditions and entitlements, and they demand that they never be held accountable for anything.Our entire political system elevates these reckless losers and clowns and it has to stop. Our whole media and culture defers to them. They make all the messes and the rest of us are expected to clean up all their mistakes.I’m done, done, done with them.I’m done with every single damn mansplaining argument.Whenever you bash conservative ideology, the mansplainers are summoned again.“Hey now! Don’t generalize! Conservative ideology is different than MAGA. MAGA aren’t real conservatives.”Quit acting like any time a shitty representative of your shitty belief system does something shitty, you can just say, “Well, that person isn’t really one of us.”Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offHe is one of you. Shitty behavior is literally the only thing conservatives ever contribute. They say they want small government, and then they make the government bigger. They say the government is there to protect us, then they create secret murder squads. They say they want to protect children, then they bomb schools.The shitty behavior is a feature, not an exception.In addition to protecting the sins of white supremacy, they are also fixated on avoiding accountability. Because, of course, they insist we must never point out the flaws in their belief systems. It can’t be the beliefs that are at fault. They always have to deflect to individual bad actors, even as they uphold their ideology as supreme and abuse us again and again.MAGA isn’t an exception, it’s just cruel conservative ideology out in the open. This condemnation applies to all of them.Meanwhile, they instantly pivot and attack progressive ideology as fundamentally flawed. As a consequence, we continue to be stuck with conservatives in every position of power in the country. They ruin whatever they touch. They lie, they grift, they steal, they kill. When they get done, people dust themselves off and say, “Well, if we’d have elected a progressive or a woman or a member of the LGBTQ+ community it would have been worse.”But that’s a lie!It’s the conservatives that are the worst of them all. The lying, mansplaining, incompetents that refuse to allow us to have our say. They’re too busy telling us we’re wrong.“Hey now, not all men.”“Hey now, not all Christians.”“Hey now, not all conservatives.”“You must give credit where credit is due.”Well, how about you model that for me for a change? How about you quit telling me how to behave and behave that way yourself?“I think you’re being rude!”These mansplainers fall into this kind of thinking without even recognizing that’s what they’re doing. They’ve all been groomed, abused, conditioned and indoctrinated to view the authoritarian patriarch as the unquestionable source of truth.That’s why nothing works!We never hold these jerks accountable. The second they get a platform, they promise us that we’ll have time for a response then they drone on and on and on. They gurgle and cough and laugh at us rather than offer any form of academically supported response.When they’re done, they’ve turned the whole room against us before we even have a chance to talk. If we do start making progress, they censor us. They outlaw our thoughts. They burn our books.These are the mansplainers. This is what happens when you appointed unqualified people to important jobs.They sit there and they never bother to even try to answer a question. They’re not interested in finding solutions. They only want to scapegoat and escape blame. These are competitors, not unifiers. They are saboteurs, not builders.Why would the mansplainers ever want to change? They’re quite happy to live in a corrupt society that never holds them to blame.But we’re sick of it!I’m sick of it.It’s getting to the point where I’ve become allergic to their rhetoric. The second they start with their lie or their half lie or their quarter lie I have to speak up.“Damn it, that’s not true!”The phrase “all men are created equal” is the first commandment of mansplaining. It’s b******t. We have to change it to people, and we have to change every institution that’s been corrupted by that original sin of omission.Mansplaining has to end. They try to skate by on a half truth and move on to their next talking point before we have a chance to respond. They build a whole faulty structure based on false assumptions and then insist we’re “rude” if we don’t commit to their proposals without hesitation.The simple fact is that we have a right to ask questions.If we stop allowing them to jam their ideology down our throats, we’ll empower ourselves to implement effective solutions.Aren’t you sick of everything failing all the time? That’s the ultimate result of mansplaining! It’s not an ideology, it’s a con. It’s bravado and bullying and lies.Let’s hit the pause button when we see a mistake and fix it. Let’s not go charging forward on the justification of tradition.Tradition SUCKS!Those are the crimes that got us here.Let’s stop listening to the proud and loud mansplainers and instead start listening to the compassionate and accomplished women.Let’s listen to the group that has fixed the mistakes of weak and incompetent men and allowed for the survival of all humans. When it comes to the mansplainers, it’s either us or them.Stop enabling them. Stop listening to them. Stop pretending that they’ve ever made a contribution.I know you feel that rage when somebody tone polices you to prevent you from having your say. Embrace the rage. Say it anyway. Tell them they’re being rude and that they’ll have a time for a rebuttal when you’re done. But finish. Do it not for your sake but for the sake of everyone.Stop listening to people who put the parking brake on your activism. Stop listening to people who say it can’t be done. Make people give you solutions rather than problems.It’s time for all the mansplainers to go away. They’ve never helped anyone ever. They can’t make their own food. They can’t clean up their messes. They can’t even dress themselves. They make no contributions.Stop acting as if they have a right to offer their opinions. All they do is stop the reasonable, rational, and accomplished people from having a say.It’s time for mansplaining to go away.Burn it, grind it up, scatter it to the winds. Replace all the mansplaining politicians. It’s time to usher in the era of women.Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offI'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe