The Political Nagging Of “Check Yo Privilege”

I was recently scrolling down my Facebook feed when I saw this gem of a “motivational” and “inspirational” style poster of political correctness. I initially shook my head and continued scrolling down my feed. But something triggered a rant in my head and I couldn’t let it go.

When I ignore something because “it’s not a problem to me personally” it’s not because I was raised with privilege. On the contrary, I was raised to mind my own business in regards to problems that didn’t affect me personally.

As a child I was constantly reprimanded for butting into other people’s business. I was constantly told “adults are talking” or “go to your room” when serious issues were being discussed. I was taught not to interject my opinion into conversations that were none of my business.

This is how the world used to work until my generation of special snowflakes came along and we became a child-centered culture. Past generations of children would get into trouble by their parents for ease dropping, back talking, or tattling on others. But we’ve culturally turned our backs on the virtues of “minding your own business” and “holding your tongue”.

The Decade Of Awareness Campaigns

Growing up in the 90’s I was constantly bombarded with “awareness” campaigns. From Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” to “The More You Know” commercials. I was aware “this is your brain on drugs…” cue to actress frying an egg in a pan and then smashing up her kitchen with the same pan after saying “… and this is what drugs does to your family”.

After school programs always had the moral lessons of drugs or gun violence. There was always a scene of the targeted friend of the group with the “I’m unsure” facial expression as the bad kids peer pressured them into doing the bad thing feature in the episode.

MTV was also full blown “awareness” in their music videos often depicted as “art”. We got to see TLC warn against unsafe sex and AIDS/HIV in their “Waterfalls” video and pin condoms onto their clothes as a statement. In Pearl Jam’s video “Jeremy” highlighted teenage bullying, gun violence, and suicide. Some would conclude from my sample selection that living in the 1990’s was a bummer with an over abundance of moral lessons.

I always thought those awareness campaigns were annoying and talked down to my age group’s intelligence. Especially when I was forced to attend school assemblies for the D.A.R.E program or sexual abstinence classes.

Every year in elementary school and middle school I had to attend the D.A.R.E program and learn about the evils of drugs as we sang the D.A.R.E song. Thankfully, I only had to attend one sexual abstinence lecture while in high school. I guess they determined past freshman year all teenagers were having sex and it would be more productive to just send them to the clinic for birth control pills and free condoms.

“D, I won’t do drugs. 

 A, I won’t have an attitude. 

 R, I will respect myself. 

 E, I will educate me.”

When Political Awareness Campaigns Turned Into Political Nagging

Awareness campaigns only work when carefully considering the audience. It’s easy to teach children about why drugs are harmful before the prefrontal cortex of the brain disconnects during puberty. It’s easy to teach young women to get yearly pap smears and breast cancer screenings. It’s easy to teach young men not to bully their classmates or join gangs.

The problem arises when awareness campaigns turn into nagging campaigns aimed at grown adults. Those doing the nagging come across as children throwing tantrums while living in adult bodies.

When grown adults nag other grown adults there’s typically two reactions.

1.) The naggee gets defiant, stubborn, and ignores the nagger.

2.) The naggee complies to the controlling tactics of the nagger to shut them up.

Personally, I don’t take kindly to another adult nagging me as if I am a child. I become defiant, stubborn, and make fun of them on the internet.

In recent years we’ve seen the rise of the “Social Justice Warrior” movement of college age kids with no direction in life. It’s easy to preach how you think the world should work when you have no idea how it really works.

The rise of “Check Your Privilege” is the signal of the awareness era heaving it’s last breath. The most notable “privilege” group is straight white males. The assumption is white men don’t have to worry about racists, sexists, or homophobes,

One would have to wonder why suddenly straight white men need to be “re-educated” not to hate minorities, women, or the LGBT community. When the truth is those topics aren’t age appropriate for children to learn through awareness campaigns and adults can’t be bother with being nagged by college age “activists” while they avoid the job market by working on their post-graduate thesis.

It’s Not “Privilege”, It’s Called “Freedom”

I can’t tolerate the misinformation of the “privilege” naysayers. When you change the word “privilege” to “freedom” it drastically changed the argument.

As a woman I have the freedom of working a job without my boss slapping me on the ass and saying, “Great job, sweet cheeks” because it’s not the 1960’s Mad Man Era.

White men have the freedom of not being racially profiled by police because they don’t have the same skin color of the majority of prison population.

Straight people have the freedom of not being hyperaware of their sexuality and not liking Barbara Streisand.

When anybody wants you to “check your privilege” what they’re really saying is “life isn’t fair and I want you to have less freedom to make things fair for me”. This is what children say while throwing a tantrum. They complain about fairness when their sibling accidentally gets an extra cherry on their sundae.

What body you’re born into is luck of the draw. What country you’re born into is luck of the draw. Which parents you have is luck of the draw. But only children complain about fairness. Grown adults strive to overcome their less than privilege upbringings to become successful. Only an idiot would think taking away another person’s freedoms will give them a better life.