Feel free to move this into the War Room if this is too politically charged to one side or the other, but I'm trying to be equal-opportunity in my venting here:
What is it with people over the past 5-10 years or so starting to deflect criticisms of their character as criticisms of a label?
It seems more popular for people on the left to be called out for doing it, but let's be honest here, it happens on both sides of the political spectrum, and it's annoying as shit when either side does it, because it deflects from real issues.
"You hate me because I'm transgender!" No, I dislike you because you're annoying as shit and claim that you don't need a diagnosis of gender dysphoric disorder to call yourself trans.
"You hate me because I'm Christian!" No, I dislike you because you can't seem to shut the fuck up about how gays are going to hell, your Facebook wall is filled with that shit.
"You hate me because I'm black!" No, I dislike you because you chained yourself to barrels of concrete and blocked freeway traffic for hours.
"You hate me because I'm conservative!" No, I dislike you because you were just telling me about how people should "just pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when you've never experienced a day of hardship in your life.
"You hate me because I'm gay!" No, I dislike you because literally half the conversations we have, you find a way to make it about how you're gay, and that's really annoying.
It seems to me that this sort of dishonest style of argumentation has only come up with the rise of the Internet, as it used to be that anyone getting in a political argument would be arguing with someone that they know personally, who is a member of their community. So, it follows that back then, people couldn't resort to the "you just hate me because I'm [label]" style of argument, as it's an argument that presumes the other person knows nothing about you other than that label. It's a facile argument that immediately falls apart when exposed to any sort of scrutiny.
On the flip side, it's a very powerful argument to make, because countering it is a lose-lose position for the accused. You wind up with one of two options, which is to either explain why you don't hate people with that label - with the admittedly flimsy "I have a bunch of friends who are [label]" - or you then have to explain exactly why it is that you dislike the person, thus making you look like an asshole anyway.
It's the Internet generation's race card, and it's the worst kind of dishonest argumentative bullshit.
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