So I'm out riding my bicycle this afternoon, as I do. Riding up Jones Trail in St Joseph's Hill OSP, a trail I've ridden many times before. For those unfamiliar, it's a fairly average fire road style trail, plenty wide enough for people to pass without conflict, and as such it's open to both bikes and hikes.
Anyway, I'm on my way up and the trail isn't too busy. I pass some folks going up and coming down, and as is common courtesy I always announce myself before coming up to pass someone from behind.
Then I come up behind a womyn walking hyr dog. Stop me if you think you know where this is going.
What follows is, as best as I can reproduce it, a word-for-word recounting of what transpired.
Me: Heads up.
I pass her.
Her: Oh, of course I have to get out of your way, you're a white male.
Me: Yup, that's how it works. Have a nice hike.
Her: Must be nice having all that white male privilege.
Me: Yeah, it's great, I love it!
Her: One of these days it'll be women and minorities who have that privilege.
Me: That'll be a great day, I'm looking forward to it.
Now I'm sure you're thinking that this is one of those cases where I thought of a wittier comeback long after the moment has passed, and in fact it is. I thought of two wittier comebacks, in fact, and I figured I'd poll the wisdom of the internet to vote on which one would have been better:
- How dare you assume my gender, you TERF. You're committing a hate crime!
- You know maybe people would like you better if you smiled more.
Of course, acknowledging that my chance of actually using that improved witticism has already, sadly, passed.
Anyway, I suppose I'm just left with a tiny seed of confusion: who was this person? Was she genuinely just a terminally online social justice warrior who thought she could make the world a better place by being as rude as possible to everyone she meets? Or was she some kind of MAGA agent provocateur, trying to poison the well of liberal fraternity and DEI?
Well, whoever she was, she was very rude indeed.
1 comment:
So you met a Karen... which is just a GenZ way to say a bitch.
We don't have to start watching Fox News and wearing MAGA hats.
We just need to recognize that even if we stand perfectly still in our position on the political spectrum, we appear to move toward the sane center because both ends of the spectrum speed away from us to uncharted regions of lunacy.
Flush with the tranquility born of that realization, calmly and without malice, we pray to sweet baby Jesus that Karen gets AIDS and Cancer... preferably at the same time.
Ramen
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