On depression, privilege, and online activism
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On depression, privilege, and online activism
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#2I think a big part of the problem is that when people are angry, they resort to shame as a tool of retaliation. Instead of saying "Dude, what you said was uncool." they say "Dude, you are a piece of shit."
I think Brene Brown explains very well the importance of guilt vs shame and I'd like to see greater awareness of this distinction in conversations about "isms":
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#3I think a big part of the problem is that when people are angry, they resort to shame as a tool of retaliation. Instead of saying "Dude, what you said was uncool." they say "Dude, you are a piece of shit." I think Brene Brown explains very well the importance of guilt vs shame and I'd like to see greater awareness of this distinction in conversations about "isms": http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_sha…
But in resorting to shame as a tool of retaliation, they become the problem that they are angry about.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#4At least I've mostly stopped using Twitter.
This is absolutely a good idea. As a gung-ho advocate for Twitter for several years, the service has become a cesspit of mud slinging, public shaming, and rapidly bringing together people for crusades rather than somewhere opinions can be discussed sensibly and processed over time (140 characters + real time == ripe for gut reactions and basal instincts, unlike blogging or video).
A 'lite' alternative I've adopted in the past week is to only read and post but to totally ignore the "Notifications" tab (so you see no @replies). That way you get the best bits but without exposure to most of the toxicity.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#5At least I've mostly stopped using Twitter. This is absolutely a good idea. As a gung-ho advocate for Twitter for several years, the service has become a cesspit of mud slinging, public shaming, and rapidly bringing together people for crusades rather than somewhere opinions can be discussed sensibly and processed over time (140 characters + real time == ripe for gut reactions and basal instincts, unlike blogging or…
Twitter can be great, but you have to be careful how you use it. I severely limit who I follow (I have friends who I don't follow because their Twitter habits just don't match what I want to see in my feed) and I'm not afraid to block anyone who gets abusive.
However, it is an inherently tough environment. If you were deliberately designing a service to be as anti-intellectual as possible, you'd be hard pressed to do better than Twitter's extreme length limit, realtime operation, and obscured context. You can work around it but it's still there.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#6extremists on my side of an argument make me far more unhappy than extremists on the opposing side.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#7It's a lesson that doesn't seem to get learned, even after decades of research saying that people start internalizing negative stereotypes, 'reasons' they have been abused, and statements indicating low expectations of them. When people hear 'math is hard', many people don't even try to learn it. When people who consider themselves part of 'group X' hear 'group X is bad at whatever', they don't do 'whatever'. And when 'group Y' hears that they won't amount to anything, many just give up trying. It's destructive, it's horrible, and it is real.
There are a few important things to realize here. Some of those who say these horrible things often don't understand the topics very deeply. As a former, and still peripheral member of various social justice 'communities' (and I quote that because the 'communal' part is often centered around unfocused anger), I see and have seen so many people come to discussions with only talking-point-level understanding who run with it (or are simply running on 'cached thoughts', rather than situational ones.) The other thing, which the author likely knows well, is that in the Oppression Olympics, the author is in the biggest loser group, so is going to be cared about the least. Despite endless blog posts and pleas to end the OO, internecine attacks, ally-bashing, purity tests, knee-jerk responses, and all the other wonders of the SJW world, it goes on. I don't blame the author for exiting. It's part of what made me sideline myself, and many other former dedicated members of these communities.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#8extremists on my side of an argument make me far more unhappy than extremists on the opposing side.
I'll go a step further. Extremism on my side of an argument is more likely to damage me (albeit unintentionally) than extremism on the opposing side.
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#9At least I've mostly stopped using Twitter. This is absolutely a good idea. As a gung-ho advocate for Twitter for several years, the service has become a cesspit of mud slinging, public shaming, and rapidly bringing together people for crusades rather than somewhere opinions can be discussed sensibly and processed over time (140 characters + real time == ripe for gut reactions and basal instincts, unlike blogging or…
The company you keep...
I follow mostly academics, researchers, and people who tend to ascribe to the "talk is cheap, show me the code" mentality. My Twitter experience is very positive (and when someone gets a little too happy with inflammatory tweets, the "mute"/"unfollow"/"disable retweets" buttons are very easy to find).
Re: On depression, privilege, and online activism
#10This guy is completely innocent and has done no wrong, yet he feels so guilty and tip-toes around everything, just because he has white skin and a penis. That's can only be the result of a movement that is sexist and racist. That's the issue people have.
But I hear you. "He's privileged!" The thing is, he has no control over the privilege that others give him. And no one should feel guilty for something they do not ask for, do not do themselves, and do not have any control over.
The fault with privilege is in the people who give it to others. The only way to fix such a thing is for all of society to stop giving favors to people based on their gender, race and sexuality. What a fucking shame it is that these SJWs are doing exactly the opposite of that.
This is how the status quo of "social justice" has transformed:
Past: "No one should receive positive or negative treatment based on superficial factors, we are all of equal worth"
Present: "White men are all better off, therefore let's treat them like shit and do lots of favours for everyone else to even it out"
If that sounds like a positive transformation, and not a regression, then I am quite concerned. One seems to be an enlightened response, the other seems to be at the level of a teenage middle child.