I don't think anybody is arguing that sexism doesn't permeate every facet of society, especially not the women in this thread. But the only thing "everything is connected" and "we can't solve X until we solve Y" holism ever succeeds at is fostering inaction. In this sense, the comparisons to other kinds of whataboutism, and how they do nothing but derail and distract from the conversation, are entirely apt.
That's a fair point that I'll counter with the following one:
To fix the internet misogynistic culture you have to do (at least) two of the following:
1/ Establish new laws that are more strict and make sure that the perpetrators are being hold accountable. Laws that would regulate the Internet better, and make sexist behaviors, harassment, doxxing and stalking punishable by law.
To which I counter: Justice is biased against women already, laws are biased in favor of men already, women as a whole already have troubles making their voices heard. We already have troubles having any kind of justice against rapists, abusers and sexual predators (Like it took 90 fucking women to have Weinstein finally fucking imprisoned, let that sink in for a minute or two). The justice system is biased against us, the police is biased against us, the whole of society is biased against us, and we already struggle to make existing laws being applied, and to have offline offenders being prosecuted. So I'm not gonna be very hopeful about these laws being made in the first place in a profession that is overwhelmingly male, and then I'm not gonna be very hopeful about these laws being then applied, and to see perpetrators being prosecuted, when offline rapists and stalkers barely have a slap on their wrists, when domestic abusers can kill their wives and be mostly legally unbothered of the consequences of their acts.
I'm not saying those laws shouldn't be created though, they absolutely should. I'm just saying it's delusional to believe it will solve crap, because it sure hasn't solved much for offline violence against women. In my country, one woman dies almost every single day at the hand of her partner/husband. And our government is just doing jack shit about it.
2/ Have major tech companies and industries related to the Internet finally protect women by ramping up moderation, making places like Twitter and Facebook more serious about flagging and punishing sexist rhetoric, behaviors and violence.
To which I counter: Most of those companies, and the tech industry as a whole is a hugeass bro mono-culture that is led by men, with men, for men, and in which women have very little say nor power. Which is a direct cause of misogyny in the real world, a direct consequence of actual misogyny for the past centuries. You won't get to make those tech companies suddenly evolve and do the right thing, if you have no women be allowed positions of power in those, be allowed a voice, be heard and trusted. Or even to have the opportunity to be hired in the first place, which we aren't most of the time because it would disrupt the companies' historical culture of being sexist pigs in a locker room. The tech industry being in the state that it is right now, is a direct consequence of boys club behavior at its finest.
I wished those tech companies would take the appropriate steps to act on a very much needed moderation, but in order for that to happen, we first need to push for women to be hired in tech companies, and then promoted in them (which is difficult when men are almost always promoted over them).
The steps that are needed to fix the internet at large, stems from real world actions, and real world actions are tied to real world misogyny. This is what I mean when I say the both are deeply intertwined, and that it's not gonna achieve much to fight internet misogyny without fighting real world misogyny. The take-away is to fight for BOTH, which I do, and I don't see how me saying what I'm saying is an incitement in any way shape or form for inaction. If anything, it's a desperate rallying cry for more action to be done on all accounts, because we need it twice as much.
