Why Are You So Angry?

One of the most effective rhetorical devices used against women, gays and other minorities to undermine their arguments and invalidate their passion is the cool, calm question: “Why are you so angry?”  Proof that it is effective is the fact that nearly invariably the speaker disowns his anger and says it is really not anger, it is really something else.  Further proof that the device works is the fact that it is still being used; if it stopped being effective, it would stop being used.

But let me not waste your time.  The one and only proper response to the rhetorical “Why are you so angry?” is: “What!  Are you fucking nuts?  If you heard what I said and it doesn’t make you angry, you’d have to be an emotional cripple, you’d have to be someone who was never taught the difference between right and wrong, whose parents never taught him fair play.  If you are not angry at what I have just described, YOU are the problem; it is because of people like you who are NOT enraged by injustice that the injustice exists in the first place.”

That’s it.