By Staff Writer James Mellen III.

As the internet has dragged people down through the mud for being problematic, many people (especially those who are a fan of the people who have gotten dragged through the mud) have come out against “callout culture”.

So what is callout culture and why do people do it?

Whether it’s “Callout culture,” “PC culture,” or “identity politics” they all mean the same thing; intersectionality. Which can be defined (via Google) as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”

If you’re a keen observer, you might be wondering how a culture that revolves around people calling other people out on Twitter over being problematic is the same thing as the interconnectedness of different modes of oppression.

I can almost hear someone responding by saying “can’t I be for intersectionality and against ruining someone’s career because of something they said online?”

Well here’s the thing, if you are for say universal healthcare, but think that people shouldn’t do political canvassing or organizing for universal healthcare, are you really for universal healthcare?

If you’re only for change in this abstract world where nobody forces change to happen, then it seems like you don’t want change.

Callout culture is intersectionality in practice, you can even go as far as to say that it is a method of intersectional organizing.

If you’re familiar with traditional political organizing then you’re probably familiar with traditional tactics, like canvassing or phone banking or organizing a protest. Callout culture isn’t all that different from these things, it is a tactic used to accomplish intersectional social justice.

By creating a “callout culture” those who partake in the calling out have created a culture where being racist online can do serious damage to your reputation or even your career. If you’re against oppression isn’t that that you want?

Do you want to live in a world where people can just be openly bigoted without any consequences?

Do you want people who are on the receiving end of bigotry to feel uncomfortable in the online spaces?

If you answer no then you might want to start calling people out when they don’t act right online.

“It’s just a joke man, I don’t get why you snowflakes can’t take a little irony.”

So here’s the thing about “it’s just a joke”, how is anyone supposed to be able to tell what is and isn’t a joke anymore? Murders are putting Qanon symbols on their hands and mass shooters are flashing 4chan hand symbols.

There are real dangerous people online who want you to think “it’s just a joke”. That’s why the most dangerous members of the alt-right hang out in the same corners of the internet as people who are so depressed that the only thing that makes them laugh is posting some idiotic “ironic” hurtful meme.

When the far right does something like co-opt Pepe the Frog to mean racism, they do it on purpose.

They do it so when people say something like “hey it’s kind of weird how all these Nazis are wearing Pepe pins”. They can respond with “Are you afraid of cartoons? That’s ridiculous, it’s just a meme bro”. It’s all calculated.

But still, there has to be a better way to promote social justice, can’t you just educate people on why they need to be less problematic?

Yeah, well, all those educational resources exist. All you have to do is Google “intersectionality”.

Past that, miseducation isn’t the problem, the problem is that there are people who feel like they are better than other people based on their race/sex/gender.

That type of superiority complex isn’t based off of some educated position, wisely crafted after years of research.

It’s just a feeling some entitled moron has because he isn’t self-aware enough to admit to himself that he isn’t better than other people for no good reason.

Bigotry isn’t an idea, it’s a feeling.

It’s not easy to combat a feeling with an idea, it is, however, much easier to combat a feeling with another feeling. In this case those who practice callout culture are fighting the feeling of entitlement with the feeling of fear to express that entitlement.

It’s called God’s work.

So the next time you see the “mob” come at someone on Twitter think to yourself, “What matters more to me, this person’s reputation for a week, or building a better, more tolerant world?”