My Problems with the Tumblr Social Justice Culture

girl-non-grata:

blaitzen:

…In this culture, instead of using the words ‘stupid,’ or ‘asshole,’ or ‘jerk,’ for people that we vehemently disagree with and wish to put down, we use ‘bigot.’ And ‘ableist.’ And ‘privileged.’ They have become slurs. They have lost meaning for now being generalized insults that people use to cut down others. You don’t like a particular internet group? It must be because you see them as mentally ill. Bigot. Ableist. Oppressor. You don’t agree that I, an asexual, suffer the same indignities as queer people do in daily life? You’re trying to silence me. Bigot. Oppressor. You called me stupid? Bigot. Check your privilege.

What I have witnessed is a circle of people that are waiting to feel self-righteous and attack other people, because getting mad feels good. And don’t you dare pretend to me that this isn’t it, because I have participated in it. Getting mad at someone for their bigoted bullshit feels awesome. It feels righteous. You feel like you’re helping your cause for cutting other people down to size on the internet, when in actuality all you’re doing is shouting at someone who is learning nothing. Or, in more common scenarios, already knows. And in your reblogs, your own followers that your target may not necessarily know join the circular beat-down to feel awesome and righteous about themselves. And it goes on. And on. And social justice advocates eat other social justice advocates alive forever, in a sick incestuous circle and it keeps happening. And it accomplishes nothing. You are not actually fighting oppression like this.

We have misappropriated the word oppression. We have misappropriated the word privileged. We have misappropriated the word trigger, which infuriates me so much I can’t even describe. Something that you don’t like looking at is not a trigger. Something that hurts your feelings is not a trigger. It’s a word that has a very specific meaning, and you have demolished it. People no longer understand when I profess to being triggered by rape and non-con. Shaking. Crying. Flashbacks. Involuntary vomiting. I unfollow people when they post about it. It’s not personal. I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. But they will get snitty and passive-aggressive about it because they do not understand what I am trying to communicate with the word trigger. Fucking stop misusing it. Fucking stop.

It’s a vicious and toxic environment and I am tired of participating in it and I’m tired of seeing it on my dash. I am tired of people that need to be victimized and am tired of people who point fingers at everyone as victimizing them. I’m tired of misappropriation of social justice terms.

[Post edited for brevity. Bolded emphasis mine.]

This is exactly why they lost me. These Social Justice Warriors, who are ever on the prowl for any way to feel victimized on behalf of any minority social group, especially ones to which they don’t even belong. Most often being white and middle class, it’s like they’re trying to burn off their own privilege by straight up bullying someone else for theirs.

Language and its use really are significant but intent is just as important as word choice. Too often people are villified and their lives disregarded entirely (like the time I, who have physical and cognitive impairments, was accused of being an ableist who wants to sexually molest mentally handicapped people) because they didn’t follow some strict vocabulary determined by some arbitrary gaggle of disillusioned youth who desperately want to belong to something larger than themselves. Trying to bully people into thinking the way you do is not how you make the world a better place.

The misappropriation of social justice terms is also just out of hand. It demeans the struggles and traumas of real sufferers (like the time I saw someone who is not chronically ill nor a trauma survivor throw a hissy because they didn’t have the “spoons” to be “triggered” by some one disagreeing with them). It’s a bunch of people who took a first semester Sociology 101 class diluting otherwise very valid terms. Someone isn’t an ableist because of the use of one word. You aren’t triggered by something just because it pisses you off. You’re not being anyone’s “advocate” by vicariously playing the victim; you’re self-servedly seeking justification for the indignation you feel at the world for whatever reason. You’re already a special little snowflake so, really, just knock it off.

I just need this on my blog.

Word to all this, especially the bold. This is why I don’t bother with SJ comms on LiveJournal and the like very much anymore. For the most part, I restrict my social justice work to spaces by and for POCs. I want to be able to talk about gender, sexuality, class, dis/ability, and such without the White lens.

(via myprettynaillady-deactivated201)