These are things that will, at the bare minimum, have me quoting Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”: I would prefer not to.
The harder I am pushed, the more explicit I will make my displeasure.
- tolerate authoritarianism
- remain silent as injustice happens in front of me
- censor myself in a space I own or control
- consent to being policed
- turn off my ad blocker
- follow you on social media
- “do the research” because you made a claim without providing evidence
- voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement beyond the bare minimum
- refrain from asserting or exercising my rights
- perform heterosexuality or masculinity for your sake
- label my sexuality for people who aren’t having sex with me
- be less than I am because you dare not be everything you are
- pretend that the very existence of billionaires is not a sign of market failure
- let your so-called facts take precedence over my feelings
- submit to exploitation at work
- accept a notion of freedom of religion that excludes or denies freedom from religion
- accept that any of my fellow Americans are “less than” because of their race, sex, religion, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, or legal status
- knowingly work on technology that can be used by capital or the state to oppress others
- discuss my personal relationship with Jesus — or with any god — with you
- serve a cause I have not claimed as my own
- allow others to choose my enemies for me
- let people who can barely captain their own souls aspire to admiralty over mine
This is not an exhaustive list, and is subject to change.
If any of the above offends you, dial my complaint line at 1-800-B-DAMNED. I don’t answer to you, and if we’re not friends then your feelings mean no more to me than mine do to you.