Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - The Progressive Stack Explained
Aired: 2016-03-06
Duration: 01:19


=== Progressive Stack Primer (01:19) ===

[00:00:00]  For anyone who doesn't know what the progressive stack is, it's the order of importance of identities.
[00:00:04]  This is how they figure out who's more oppressed than other people.
[00:00:08]  So the first thing, obviously, is race.
[00:00:10]  Probably because it's the easiest and probably because the sort of people who engage in using the progressive stack are idiots.
[00:00:15]  Number two is heteronormativity, which I'm probably being a little bit fast and loose with, but I'm meaning to basically mean someone who has transitioned or not.
[00:00:23]  Then we have gender, of course, are you male or female?
[00:00:26]  And I do think being trans supersedes whether you're male or female.
[00:00:30]  And then we have sexuality.
[00:00:31]  Apparently, the fact that you're a white male is more important than the fact that you're gay.
[00:00:37]  I find it really ironic then that things like ability and class are relegated to the bottom of the stack, which is odd to me because these are the places where I would look first if looking for privilege.
[00:00:49]  But the fact that say Laurie Penny comes from a wealthy family comes a distance second to the fact that she's a woman.
[00:00:54]  She's being oppressed and now you have to let the little rich girl explain to you how difficult her life has been.
[00:01:00]  And woe betide you if you were a white, cis, male, straight, able-bodied, middle-class person.
[00:01:08]  You are scum.
[00:01:09]  Because you are not only benefiting from these privileges, you're also forcing oppressions on the opposite of these categories.