Had a cool moment online just now.
There was this one guy posting on a forum, on a troll-free area, and he was saying some stuff about not believing in gay marriage, and a lot of the usual things.
Instead of absolutely flipping my shit and posting the stuff people usually do on Tumblr, you know, like scream-posting about how bigoted he was or seething about how uneducated he was, I saw that he was actually willing to listen. I explained how his views remove rights from people, fundamental rights that he gets to use whenever and however he wants. Banning a group from those rights when they’ve done nothing but go against a guy in the Bible who wrote ill against a lot of things we already take for granted today anyway is, in fact, detrimental to society.
I explained things to him. Because when ignorant people are the way they are because it’s all they’ve known, they could be willing to change.
Before Obama came out in support of gay marriage or queer rights, he was still willing to hear arguments for them. People didn’t need to scream as loud as possible in defiant tones at him.
Which really gets to what irks me about Tumblr-style feminism. Instead of educating, people put up barriers and walls. More often than not - and no, I haven’t seen every feminist blog - but more often than not when people claim to be feminists on Tumblr, they’re being defiantly ‘different’ about rights and sexuality, and about how the world should progress. They put up boundaries, making it seem as though every last person is separated into two groups.
- Gloriously educated world saviors
- Hopelessly ignorant evil-doers
Approaching anything ever like that is unhealthy. I’ve met a lot of people who legitimately believe that people who promote gay rights are the worst people, not because of their views but because they come off as assholes. You can’t educate people, or promote education by starting off every statement with an insult. Do I believe being a bigot is excusable? Never. Would I start a conversation off with, “Holy shit you bigoted shitlord how dare you even have an opinion!”? Never, especially if they’re the type who would be open to an education.
I don’t care how strong your opinions are.
If you’re going to promote your cause, don’t do it by screaming first, and questioning why no one pays attention to you later. It causes people to think your message is hollow and worthless, and puts up unnecessary boundaries between yourself and others.
Yours,
A dude who was bullied a lot in life.
Edit: I wanted to mention that telling someone to go educate themselves is a huge logical fallacy. Especially if you already have their attention.
