dear certain person who is not reading this

[alexseanchai]

I would like to invite you to reflect on the many and varied ways in which social justice has been advanced by asking nicely and refraining from calling people on their shit.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

time for another forwarding of the link to Letter from the Birmingham Jail, eh?

[alexseanchai]

Ayup.

[kaberett]

I keep wanting to scream WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN RARELY MAKE HISTORY across most of the Internet.

[alexseanchai]

YESSSS

[redsixwing]

Where o where is my Like button.

[lliira]

This is why I left Slacktivist entirely. It is apparently okay to wish someone dead, but not to call the person who says they wish you were dead a raging asshole.

[alexseanchai]

Sigh.

I'm pretty much gone from there too.

[silveradept]

Short reflection: All smoke, no mirror.

[alexseanchai]

That sounds like a Zen koan. I always have trouble with koans.

[silveradept]

"Reflect" = what a mirror does (and what you asked)
"smoke and mirrors" = illusions created through misdirection and visual tricks
"All smoke, no mirrors" = lots of misdirection, but no actual thing to reflect. (Because at no point has along nicely and not calling people on their shit actually advanced the cause of social justice.)

So, short reflection: all smoke, no mirror.

[alexseanchai]

Aha. Yes.

[myaibou]

I've been struggling with this lately. I am VERY defensive, so I've always found it more effective to not get other people defensive. But I've been reading a lot about calling people out and tone policing and the like and am starting to see the value of not being nice.