Oh I see, it’s our fault is it
It turns out it was our fault that Mermaids posted all those private emails online. We turn the milk sour when we feel like it, too.
Mermaids UK stated it had notified the Information Commissioner’s Office, the data protection watchdog, and contacted those affected.
The Charity Commission had also been notified, it said, and an independent investigation into the breach would be launched.
“We’re going to be employing a third party to oversee processes and advise on how we can improve internal practice,” the spokesperson told the BBC.
“I think it’s important to note that this dates back some two years when Mermaids was a smaller charity dealing with the first aggressive onslaught from those who are opposed to giving vulnerable transgender children and young people the safe spaces they need.”
There you go – they were dealing with an aggressive onslaught, so obviously they couldn’t help posting all those private emails online. Mind you, I don’t think we’re opposed to giving vulnerable transgender children and young people the safe spaces they need. I’m certainly not. I’m not opposed to giving any people the safe spaces they need – why would I? What kind of monster opposes giving people what they need? No, the issue isn’t giving people safe spaces, it’s cutting their breasts or penises off. Different thing.
I think that the “aggressive onslaught” is being used as an excuse for the content of the communications that were leaked …Alongside the client emails were hundreds of often revealing internal ones showing trustees’ concerns about Green’s leadership, accusations from parents that Mermaids felt like a “cult” and alcohol problems at residential weekends putting children “at risk”….), rather than the leak itself.
Those old e-mails? pay them no never-mind. Just pretend you didn’y see them. At all. We were in EMERGENCY mode from the onslaught thingy at the time, and we were still new at this, and of course things from that time are going to be strangely disorganized and YES OF COURSE I’M RIGHT-DON”T EVEN QUESTION MY WAY OF DOING THINGS!!! NOT A CULT WE”RE COMPLETELY SCIENCE-FUL AND EVERYTHING.
Oh, sorry. Aggressive Onslaught Pressure speaking there.
Back then.
Waaaaay in the past.
Not now.
Still not a cult.
Yes, yes, of course things are much better now that we’re fashionable with friends in high places.
The answer is “Transition.”
What was the question?
Lovely use of Cleese there Ophelia. The more I look into Mermaids, the more worried I become about the level of cult thinking we, on the left, are having to endure. I remember being an undergraduate at Warwick University in the nineties and the mantra then was, very much, ‘don’t judge’. In fact, the only people we held in contempt were those who were, in our perception, overly judgemental in their too easy assessment of other people’s life choices.
That, of course, is a problem in itself but I wonder how we got from that position: ‘do not judge’, to ‘prove your wokiness constantly by judging everyone, with the constant assumption of bad faith, to everyone, incessantly on social media.
BTW My apologies for shit use of punctuation in that last post. Two glasses of wine. Sigh.
Jo Fawker @ 2, I think the way we got from ‘do not judge’ to ‘prove your wokiness constantly by judging everyone, with the constant assumption of bad faith, to everyone, incessantly on social media’ was by being so open minded (do not judge), that everything fell out of those wide open minds, including the instruction not to judge.
It’s just a muddled up shit show of inconsistent lurching. Scientists, philosphers, academics and even the moderately educated should all be hanging their heads in shame for many reasons.
And as for Mermaids blaming others, well shit. If you are running a group that is perceived to be under attack and you are collecting private and sensitive information, that is even more reason to rigorously protect such information. Mermaids can own their incompetence and lack of care.
It looks to me much more like we’ve come to “don’t judge anything at all, ever, because doing so is morally and ethically bankrupt.” It looks much more to me like, “Don’t judge other people’s behavior because showing doubt or asking them to hold themselves to decent standards is an oppression, and a literal act of violence against their very humanity.
We need a whole, awful lot more judging. And right away.
Hmmn. Yes, I absolutely agree with you, Rob and Josh, and maybe I didn’t express myself very well there. I was not trying to laud ‘not judging’ as a laudable quality in itself, but rather to wonder how we got, so easily, from one position to the other.
I suppose one of my greatest concerns is how we have absolved responsibility from ourselves in terms of how our actions may impact on others in the larger cultural circle. Eg. we may longer criticise those who participate in, or endorse participation in, the sex industry because it has become more important to validate personal choices than interrogate the fact our personal choices may feed into a more difficult cultural environment for many people (ie. women).
Again, my apologies. Reading that back I realise I have omitted some important words, but I’m guessing you can fill those in fairly easily. I have been a long time lurker (sounds sinister doesn’t it) on this site for a long time but it is becoming increasingly clear to me that keeping your head under parapet is less an option now than ever. Humour me, if you can, I’m an introvert generally, but everyone has their limit.
Welcome aboard.
Thanks Ophelia! And can I say how much it means to have people, like you and many others on this blog, who are prepared to stick their head above the parapet in the current climate.
Hi Jo, I think you expressed yourself clearly enough and I think we are probably broadly in agreement. I remember being told in the late 80’s and early 90’s that I was too judgemental. Not about things like consenting sex between adults or even drug use (not that I’m a fan – except single malt), but over issues like whether a person subscribed to Libertarian, religious or ethical precepts that impacted negatively on the poorest and most defenceless in our society. things like whether a ‘belief’ was founded on rational thinking, evidence and facts, or just created out of wishes and wool. I was, and remain, critical of market forces being applied to education and health care. I abhor anti vaccine activists and don’t get me started on people who bag poor and/or coloured people as inherently lazy, criminal and worthless.
I am judgemental, of course I’m judgemental. Everyone with an ounce of ethics, morals, (self) honesty, (self) respect, empathy and a desire to do no harm (and protect oneself and ones friends) must be judgemental to operate in the world. If you don’t exercise judgement you are nought but a passive victim in life. Of course, what people really mean when they tell you to stop being judgemental is ‘don’t judge me and my beliefs and actions because I feel bad/look silly/am not taken seriously when my argument is dismantled.’
Oh, I grok you, jo (welcome!) I internalized this attitude long ago.
It’s something I’m still trying to work out. I think when dealing with people of good faith we have to distinguish between judging ideas and judging people—
–but we also have to be aware that there are people of bad faith in the world, and we should not be hesitant in judging them.
Welcome, Jo. I was a lurker for a long time too, and had experiences at other blogs (Pharyngula and We Hunted the Mammoth particularly) that made me hesitate to delurk. There are no better places than here for becoming part of the commentariat. Ophelia attracts bright, intellectual people who are willing to speak their mind but don’t assume everyone else is going to agree with them, and never threaten other commenters with pointy animals.
Your big sin, Ophelia, is including women in that “giving any people the safe spaces”. Women aren’t supposed to be given safe spaces, because that is literal violence. To allow women to have safe spaces is to invalidate the claims of trans-women to be women, period.
Yeah, I find it ironic when a group shouts about the right to safe spaces even as they are insisting that women need to give up their safe spaces to men identifying as women (or men pretending to identify as women to get access to women’s safe spaces, which is seriously the real problem here).
We won’t judge you ;)
Also me!
I think it’s the not threatening other commenters with pointy animals that really makes us special!