A Boring Dystopia

I can’t blame Nietzsche for what the Nazis did with his philosophical writings any more than I can blame Dworkin for TERFs. All I can ask of a philosopher is solid reasoning about interesting concepts. I won’t concede that the Nazis had solid reasoning though, their ideology was all over the place, self-contradictory, and self-serving.

Dworkin took a set of observations to their natural reasonable conclusions. I think her biggest philosophical “crime” is not recognizing that her conclusions don’t feel true for most women. For example: Yes, the way women are raised in our society makes consent a complicated topic. Yes, generally, sex without consent is rape. But the conclusion that sex in our society is rape doesn’t feel true. For me, that indicates something is missing. She’s got a problem caused by the language and our definitions of consent or of rape (maybe baggage about rape having an intent, a perpetrator and victim). I don’t think that makes her a hater of men, a bad actor, a bad philosopher, or someone not worth reading. There is a kernel of truth there worth examining even if the language makes the discussion more difficult than it needs to be. Forcing people to engage with her ideas because the conclusions are so shocking is a strength in my opinion. Just like Nietzsche saying “god is dead” got everyone freaking out in the 1800s.