Decadence, Degeneracy, and Deviance

Also defiance. We cannot forget defiance. (Part 1 of 2).

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Decadent degenerates

Natalie Wynn is a left-wing trans woman (now former) YouTube celebrity who lives in Baltimore. She has a masters degree in philosophy and has used her vast philosophical knowledge to explore important social and political issues on her channel called ContraPoints.

In her YouTube bio Wynn describes herself as an “ex-philosopher”, perhaps because she does not presently work in academia, but this certainly does not mean she isn’t putting her education to good use. In a very unique style combining new-age gothic and Victorian chic, Wynn’s videos alternate between a fashion show, awkward comedy, and insightful socialist commentary. Her highly informative videos feature many costume changes, complex socio-political analysis, and — my personal favourite — the subversive, sarcastic employment of philosophical theories.

In 2017, Wynn posted a YouTube video called Degeneracy, a term she says fascists and social conservatives use as “a catch-all to refer to queers, non-whites, communists, people with disabilities — basically anyone who gets killed when the fascists win”. She explains the word “degenerate” comes from the Latin prefix de which means “away from”, and the Latin word genus which means “race” or “kind”. So, to be degenerate is to no longer be of your race or kind.

Because homophobia is less socially acceptable in contemporary society, social conservatives will now say they “have no problem with individual homosexuals, but only with the gay agenda”. This attitude is akin to the “don’t say gay” rhetoric, which asks anyone whose sexuality falls outside the very limited confines of cis-gendered heterosexuality (cis-het) to keep their gender and sexual expressions private — essentially, to hide who they are when outside of the bedroom, so as to make the bigots more comfortable.

We wouldn’t want the homophobes and transphobes to feel uncomfy.