I’ve been a feminist for decades. Before reddit, before tumblr, before Facebook, before the internet was in widespread use even. I have always held the view that all people, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation should be treated equally and with respect. Now though, I am completely disgusted with and ashamed of feminism and the modern social justice movement as a whole.

What used to be an extreme section of the equal rights movements that nobody took seriously, now proclaimed themselves the leaders and claim to speak for me and my supposed victimhood that I didn’t know existed until these feminists rammed it down my throat. There is no room left for discussion. Either you’re with them in the belief that every minority is a victim of widespread oppression or you’re against them. If we disagree it’s only because we don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand how we’re being oppressed.

We used to fight against labels. Our labels were unimportant because we were all human. Now social justice types ravenously search for labels. If they don’t have any, they create them. It seems every day there are a dozen new genders created so that these people who obviously haven’t had to struggle a day in their lives can feel special. They seem to forget that gender isn’t something you can change at a whim.

With rare exceptions, you’re born either male or female. Transgenders used to want to be recognized as their preferred gender, male or female (and many still do), now we have genderqueer, flapjackgender, astrogender, and so on. If you point out how ridiculous they’re being and frankly how offensive they’re being to transgenders, you’re oppressing them.

People proclaim themselves cats, unicorns, remote controls (admittedly this seems to be a small group so far). You can’t point out that they are in fact human or you’re an oppressor. “Who are you to tell me what I am?!” I’m someone with a brain.

Then there’s mental illness. People are self diagnosing themselves with everything from ADD and OCD to schizophrenia and PTSD. Anything to show the world how “special” they are and how they’ve been victimized. If you point out they’re wrong, you’re oppressing them and victimizing those with mental illnesses. They don’t realize themselves how offensive they’re being to people with real mental illnesses.

They are spending their whole lives being offended and feeling victimized. There’s no discussion. Either agree that anyone who isn’t a white cis male is a lifelong victim, or get out.

You have websites like buzzfeed and gawker that post articles encouraging this victim mentality. Women are victims of an oppressive society. LGBT people are victims, racial minorities are victims. It doesn’t matter whether we see ourselves as victims or not, that’s what we are and we better like it otherwise we’re oppressors ourselves.

Anyone who states a opinion, no matter how respectfully, that goes against social justice is subject to widespread witch hunts. Say someone is against feminism. There’s very few who ask “why do you feel that way,” there’s no discussion, no attempt to change their mind. It’s screaming matches and vilification. How is this helping any cause?

There’s no room left for humor. Someone like Joan Rivers, who made off color jokes for a living and who herself advanced feminist causes way more than anyone sitting behind a computer screen monitoring people’s speech, was harshly vilified for the JOKES that she makes.

You have campaigns like yesallwomen which used a mass murder where more men were killed than women to turn it into a feminist issue. If you disagree or point out how horribly offensive it is to the victims and their families, you’re an oppressor.

When we run out of things to be offended by, we create terms like “microaggressions” to widen the scope. God forbid we should make it through a day without finding some way to be victimized.

Things like “trigger warnings” give the impression that it’s the worlds responsibility to never upset you. Personal responsibility for your own feelings and how you handle them is unimportant. It’s somehow healthier to think that the entire population will use their psychic abilities to know what “triggers” you, and monitor its speech just so you won’t get upset.

It used to only be little pockets of social justice movements who held these views and they still like to convince us it’s only still a handful but it’s not, it’s spreading like wildfire. These “real feminists” have become the handful while the rest have overtaken.

We used to fight for equal rights for all, now we fight for special rights for some. We used to find our own strength and refuse to see ourselves as victims, now we encourage weakness and victim mentality. We used to fight labels, now we glorify them. We used to encourage personal responsibility, now we expect the world to change itself for every individual.

I can’t help but think we’re encouraging an entire generation to be completely helpless and shun any form of critical thinking in favor of allowing our lives and thought process to be ruled by irrational emotions.