Arguing for a Better World

 I'm writing this from my computer. I had to take some extra time to get my thoughts in order. Circling back to my main goal, a soft rule I had for myself was that I wasn't going to start another audiobook without thoroughly explaining to the best of my ability, what I personally took from the book. That's why I'm not here to argue things, or get anybody to lean to one side, these are my ramblings. Unfortunately sometimes, that rule isn't always followed. I started a new book before I fed this book - my apologies.

I didn't quite know what my expectations were when I picked this book. This book showed up in my fyp. I suppose it's just as the title says. But I didn't know how insanely rooted most of our problems are. Her arguments touched on major themes, which are usually what's always talked about, and more or less what you'd expect: Racism, Sexism, Masculinity- but she added some refreshing ones such as: Cancel Culture, The slogans we use today, Gender Inequality, as so called "Woke-ism."

Her arguments were mainly about details on how we live in an oppressive system that doesn't really benefit anybody. The toxic Masculinity for instance, ties into Gender Inequality and not just for the women. The whole idea that men shouldn't be in touch with their feelings, shouldn't cry in public, how they're taught at an early age their emotions don't matter, etc is a form of gender inequality. It's a domino effect because it's a main reason why men lash out, why we have so many domestic violence cases, because they never learned how to process their emotions. Society puts a lot of pressure on these men and reminds them what masculinity is and isn't. It happens all the time. During this argument, she used the slogan, "Men are Trash," and had to break it down by saying of course it doesn't mean all men. "But are you also speaking out against what other men do? Are you raising these kinds of issues in your own circle or are you deflecting?" I think people take these kinds of slogans at surface level and either not noticing the context, or completely ignoring the context. 

Tying that into the slogans we use today, "Black Lives Matter," and then people lashing out with "All lives matter", those people purposely ignore issues black people face in daily interaction. But the author takes it further and points out "Do you think all lives matter? Do immigrant lives matter? Do people in the LGBTQ also matter" She goes into detail with this argument. She also points out there's a lot of racism in the movies and media we all consume. How sometimes, it seems the media only portrays black men as violent, or black women uneducated. Thus, feeding into the harmful stereotype that men, especially black men are violent. It's these kinds of things the author speaks on, things feeding into these issues, we didn't even know were food. She takes these things into account when going into gender inequality. We all know what women face in today's world: Not being taken seriously for medical problems, sexual violence in the work place, being called liars etc - but it's especially worse for non white women. 

This system is designed so everyone takes a blow. The women lash out at other women who are not like them, from the hating she gets from her husband. I will say however, it felt like the author was giving men an excuse not to control their own behavior. It just sounded like excuses and making it seem men couldn't learn from it until the last few sentences of the chapter when she says the opposite of how they CAN change, and we as a society can change by teaching our boys better. When mothers tell their sons certain things are only for girls, like painted nails or Barbies, they feed into this harmful stereotype, and therefore, helping the system oppress everyone. Including those in the LGBTQ community. 

These are just summeries of the chapters pertaining to some of the issues in book, and are by far not showing everything in this book. She adds a lot of other examples.

I loved how she explained "Woke-ism". it's just issues which were already there, being flooded into the light so now everyone can take into account how fucked up the problems actually are. She goes into the known celebrities who were "Canceled," due to people being woke. But also points out people can change. By giving a good apology, and actually meaning it, it's not a crime to not forgive these people. It's when the apology isn't real, or only trying to save their own skin. 

She also explained how being Woke can only go so far before being impossible to work with - and not by the examples you'd think. She goes into detail using a story by how a doctor is saving lives by medicine, But the tools he uses to save peoples' lives are made in sweatshops. She chains this argument with big cooperations and how basically they do the same thing. Technology being made by people who get paid very little across the world, in some unknown area. Does this mean we should stop using our phones?

How everything we do might not be enough without these cooperations help. It makes it feel like a very hopeless world, how despite our great efforts, the real responsibility falls to them. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do our part, but maybe just focus on the things we can actually control.

I know this episode wasn't very long compared to my other ones. But I hope these contents can give an idea on how amazing this book is. I do want a physical copy. I think I got my thoughts out coherently enough for me to remember this book. There's definitely a theme about how context matters and everybody just ignoring it. I do remember she talks on about how and why we use the term "Karen" to refer to a white privileged woman, and how and why we use "Boomer". You'd think it'd be obvious but she puts it in a way that's not so obvious and gives a new way of shining more light on the matter.

I'm happy I didn't forget this blog. I fed it and gave it some love and care.

Like almost everybody is, here's not just hoping for a better world, but also making it happen.

09/27/2026 1803