Carte blanche to Stéphane Dompierre | “We can no longer say anything”, improved version

With their unique pen and their own sensitivity, artists present to us their vision of the world around us. This week, we give carte blanche to author and publisher Stéphane Dompierre.

I’m an editor, so I have a natural tendency to like precision; the less vague the words, the clearer the message. So far, nothing unusual. But sometimes I read or hear a sentence that bothers me and develop a real obsession with it. I even go so far as to invent a conversation with the person who said or wrote it, to better understand its meaning.

My phrase of the moment: We can’t say anything more.

“We can’t say anything anymore! Grrr! (said my imaginary interlocutor, visibly irritated).

– Ah good ? However, it seems to me that everyone gives their opinion all the time, everywhere. With the advent of social networks, there have never been so many people expressing themselves in the public space in the history of humanity. (I’m not a historian, here, but I’m no more stupid than anyone else: I too can disguise my opinion as information.) I think you should better identify this “we” in “we can’t anymore say nothing”, because it seems rather imprecise to me and, for the moment, I cannot understand who you are talking about.

— There are a lot of columnists who say that.

– Ah OK ! Are you talking about columnists… white men, especially?

– Yes.

— More precisely white men who have columns in newspapers, on the radio, who have thousands of subscribers on their social network pages and who use this visibility to say that they can no longer say anything?

– Exact.

— It’s paradoxical, a little bit, isn’t it? There are many people who have complaints to make, but who have no visibility because white men take up all the space.

— There are a few women, too.

– Yes of course ! Patriarchy doesn’t only take its toll on white men, unfortunately. But let’s say that here, we’re going to go with an old archaic formula: “The masculine wins.”

— It’s not just them, there. There are also comedians.

— White too?

– Yes N.

— Let’s go into detail. Let’s say, for the sake of the exercise, that the “we” in your sentence are comedians. Let’s try to identify more precisely what happens next: what can they no longer say?

— Their jokes.

— All their jokes?

— Well, the nasty jokes there.

—Are you talking about mean jokes about their demographic, white men, or jokes that target women, minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and even specific individuals?

– What is the difference ?

— Well, when a white comedian talks about his community, it rarely angers people. So it’s when he talks about other groups that it could offend?

– That could be.

— So, if your comedian says things that offend people, it’s because he still has the right to say them.

– Oh.

— Do you see where I’m going with this?

– I think so.

— To summarize, to the case: before, certain comedians and certain columnists could say what they wanted against whomever they wanted, and these groups that they targeted, we did not hear their opinions. They were invisible, so we naively thought everything was fine.

– Maybe yes…

— And now that each individual can easily give their reaction in the public space, on their social networks, in comments in the media, when people are offended, they respond. Because they finally have a voice. Is that what you mean?

— That must be it, yes…

– Good ! It was quite simple! The problem is solved, the sentence is now clear! From now on, rather than saying “We can’t say anything anymore”, you can say “I sometimes say things that offend people, and these people have every right to respond”. Hop! You can say or write stupid things all day long, but the thing is that the people it concerns also have their say. If I offended you, I imagine you would like to retaliate, right?

— Of course I would.

— Thanks for helping prove my point.

— It was pretty easy, I’m a fragment of your imagination.

— Yes, but you’re still a white man. Even imaginary, sometimes it’s a little hard to understand.

— I admit.

— Come on: let’s shake hands, try to say less stupid things in the future and help humanity live in harmony while waiting for us to die, drowned under melting ice or burned in a fire. forest ?

– All right ! »

(The two shake hands. Suddenly peace comes to the world, everyone understands each other, accepts each other, it feels like the pictures on the brochures of Jehovah’s Witnesses. And then suddenly, I wake up. This n It was just a dream.)