Middle Rages: The Social Justice Wars Come To Medieval Studies

Wow...this is a pretty impressive piece of journalism. If Milo really wrote this, then he's got to go up in my estimation. And I already have a pretty high opinion of the guy.*
   It's long...too long for me on a morning when I'm supposed to be working. I ended up just skimming most of it. But it's a familiar story; after awhile, you've seen so many versions of the same details that you don't really need to see another batch.
   In short: actual scholar is doing actual work in actual scholarly field. Social justice banshees shriek their boilerplate shrieks about the field. Actual scholar responds. Banshees accuse actual scholar of the Boilerplate Litany Of Sins. Progressive social media hoard dogpiles actual scholar. Response by scholar brings repeated accusations of The Boilerplate Litany, including accusations of "rhetorical violence" (because nothing says "white supremacy" like saying that you're not a white supremacist). And, as is so often the case: social justice banshees turn out to be charlatans, hucksters, and other various kinds of fakes.
   The basic template here has to be aggressively opposed: politicize something non-political, and then accuse anyone who argues against you of being a violent bigot. It's a generic kind of pseudo-moral self-sealer. It's absolutely crucial to understand and be able to articulate the general nature of this sophistry. (Which I don't think I've adequately done here. It requires some thought.)




*Yes, he's a "provocateur." Some people need provoking. Furthermore, the left pretends that they get to do whatever they want, up to and including actual violence, whereas everybody on the side of reason has to act perfectly at every turn. Which is impossible anyway, since the PC left doesn't recognize constraint by the facts; they're always going to misrepresent you even if you're wearing the kiddest of gloves.
No, he's not a pedo. That incident shows how powerful the lefty smear machine is. What he said, speaking of himself, was that having sex with an older partner at the age of 13 was good for him. This is exactly the same sentiment I've heard repeated by almost every guy I know (though in hypothetical form): that they'd have given their right--or at least left--arm to have sex with a 20-something hottie when they were 13. I certainly would have. It's basically all I thought about, in fact. So did you, and you know it.