[Question] Does sexism exist widely today in the West?

Free Speech: I don't agree with the concept of free speech, but I do support the concept of freedom of opinion. Simply put "Kill the Jews!" is speech, but not an opinion, but expressing concern about whether a country can integrate refugees is an opinion and speech. Anti-fascism can historically-caused (thanks Lenin!) sometimes go into an equally oppressive direction as fascism itself, this is something that all socialists have to keep in mind.

Feminism: For the longest time I called myself a feminist, but I've stopped doing that. I "was" a feminist because I'm an egalitarian. I've realized there's no difference between wanting women to be equal and wanting the genders to be equal. But there's a real difference whether or not you base the name of the thing you're calling it on one side or a neutral side. I could just as well call myself an andrist and it would deliver the message just as well.

There are still serious problems. Women are still inherently more judged for being sexually active than men (although that's a lot better in my country than in the US), it is absolutely not clear whether the wage gap (as capitalist a topic as it is) is caused by women being wired differently or them being taught to think differently.

One of my main criticisms especially of liberal feminism is that it isn't feminist at all, but actually it is ultra-misogynist. By agreeing with the other side that female attributes are indeed not valueable and advocating for women to essentially become men in everything but biology (the "lean in"-crowd), women and men who do indeed identify with more of the behaviour that is considered "female" are devalued - consequentially the "male" beahviour is seen as superior and the real value of "male" is the (supposed) ideal capitalist. If feminism is build on egalitarianism and individualism, then the behaviour of that person should matter only to the extent that it directly affects the behaviour and productivity of others.

New Atheism: This is a complex SOB. I'm staunchly opposed to the idea that all cultures are equally valid, because it violates my understanding of socialism. To me socialism isn't just an mode of production or an economic system but a fundamental change in human culture whereby humanity takes control of it's own path. It isn't that Western Culture is inherently superior, it's that I want to see certain parts which came from that Culture to become fundamental buildingblocks of that new culture.

Large parts of New Atheism are simply disgusting, filled with vile chauvinism, racism, islamophobia, misogyny and imperialist thinking. New Atheism does it's best work when defending the scientific method against fundamentalists, but when it comes to criticising religions outside of their own cultural upbringing, they fall into a pattern of forgetting about the pretext of relgious criticism and are pulled into the mass media racism of their day.

/r/socialism Thread