Interjecting to inform you
Be sure to read this piece by Bruce Everett (author of many guest posts at B&W):
I’ll give you a sample, and you’ll be off like a shot to read the whole thing.
Concept: “You can’t expect people arguing from a position of disadvantage, in a discussion of said disadvantage, to adhere to lists of arbitrarily acceptable decorum, especially not when the list explicitly and prejudicially excludes mention of some of the very concepts they need to express.”
Mutation: “YOU MUST LET PEOPLE FROM A POSITION OF DISADVANTAGE ABUSE AND THREATEN YOU OTHERWISE YOU ARE BEING AN EXCLUSIONARY SHITLORD!!1! DO NOT ERASE THEIR ANGER!”
Concept: “For too long, people in positions of relative power have defined the language of political discussion, such that their biases have become entrenched and covertly assumed in a way that prejudices the interests of various groups of disadvantaged people. These prejudicial assumptions need to be teased out and criticised, and often this will entail deliberately making space for members of disadvantaged groups.”
Mutation: “I identify as more disadvantaged than you, so I am interjecting to inform you that I am now editor of your blog. YOU DON’T GET TO PUBLISH DISAGREEMENT YOU ENTITLED ASSHOLE! HOW DARE YOU!111”
It’s all that good.
Oh, that is a thing of beauty. Thanks for sharing this, Ophelia!
LOL! Yep. :D
Very instructive. It deserves wide readership. Thank you!
Thank you, Bruce.
How do we stop people doing that, though? By recognising it and pointing out that the commenter has mutated the original concept? By deleting comments that do that?
Also, I’d like to add that the spoon theory (http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/), which has been a very useful concept, a way that people with chronic illness can explain our sometimes sudden inability to engage with life, has mutated into an argument-closing tactic used by the able: “I don’t have the spoons for this!” *flouncing*. Not what it was meant for, at all, and now we are right back at square one, looking for a way to explain our lack of energy without using words that have come to mean ‘lazy’ all over again. :(
Good post. Sums up a lot of my discomfort with the way social justice activism is done online.
Good stuff. I’ve thought about why these things happen. No doubt, a certain amount of drama and attention getting is part of it. Still, another part seems to be common when someone is arguing from a position of ignorance. Young people do this (I did it a lot when I was young). Substitute in anger to cover up for the deficiencies in knowledge of the subject area.
Can you give an example of the first concept?