Is it rude to rescind an invitation? Perhaps. It is, generally, regrettable. However, I do not find rudeness to Elizabeth Moon in this small way more offensive than the general attitude she has toward Muslim-Americans (and Muslims and immigrants in general).
Maybe it is rude, but you shouldn't care. But being rude is sometimes the best way to respond to bigotry. It's that or hit someone upside the head, and rudeness is by far preferable to assault.
I think that the best way for a community to handle people who have transgressed acceptable boundaries is to shun them. Yes, people have a right to be bigoted, and they shouldn't be thrown in prison for it. But you don't have to let them play with the rest of us. It's absolutely okay to say "sure you can think those things, and you can say them, too... OVER THERE."
Ack, i must have eaten the rest of the post while being all crazy and hectic at work this morning.
I'm not sure that I like the idea of "dangerous" since it's such a loaded word. I definitely like the concept, but there's just something about the idea of being threatening that makes me feel uncomfortable.
there's just something about the idea of being threatening that makes me feel uncomfortable.
It's the discomfort of it that made me choose that word very deliberately. The number of people claiming they can't put their names on their words in this because they feel threatened is ridiculous. Threatened because someone may not like them on the internet versus threatened because America is, as a culture, Islamophobic and angry at immigrants - well, those are two very different fears. And if people are afraid that speaking up in support of hating people feel UNCOMFORTABLE as a result, I am pretty much okay with that.
I'm fine with uncomfortable. In some ways, I'm seeing so much threatening going on from the reactionary fools that I'm even comfortable with the idea of dangerous, and that makes me uncomfortable with myself.
I'm super-hyper-sensitive right now, considering that I work in politics, and I work mostly for the side I don't agree with and I'm bathed and inundated with a rehetoric of fear and hate all day long.
This October has been pretty sucky and I'm really getting tired of people who can't have a civil and grown-up conversation with out resorting to scary words and images to instill fear.
I was considering it and then I saw that karnythia posted to the comm as I was posting this here and I didn't want to step on her post. But then some other people posted anyway - so I might put it up there tomorrow. I don't want to distract from the ongoing conversations.
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Thanks for bringing the common sense as usual.
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Maybe it is rude, but you shouldn't care. But being rude is sometimes the best way to respond to bigotry. It's that or hit someone upside the head, and rudeness is by far preferable to assault.
I think that the best way for a community to handle people who have transgressed acceptable boundaries is to shun them. Yes, people have a right to be bigoted, and they shouldn't be thrown in prison for it. But you don't have to let them play with the rest of us. It's absolutely okay to say "sure you can think those things, and you can say them, too... OVER THERE."
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I'm not sure that I like the idea of "dangerous" since it's such a loaded word. I definitely like the concept, but there's just something about the idea of being threatening that makes me feel uncomfortable.
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It's the discomfort of it that made me choose that word very deliberately. The number of people claiming they can't put their names on their words in this because they feel threatened is ridiculous. Threatened because someone may not like them on the internet versus threatened because America is, as a culture, Islamophobic and angry at immigrants - well, those are two very different fears. And if people are afraid that speaking up in support of hating people feel UNCOMFORTABLE as a result, I am pretty much okay with that.
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I'm super-hyper-sensitive right now, considering that I work in politics, and I work mostly for the side I don't agree with and I'm bathed and inundated with a rehetoric of fear and hate all day long.
This October has been pretty sucky and I'm really getting tired of people who can't have a civil and grown-up conversation with out resorting to scary words and images to instill fear.
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I sorta want to see this posted on the wiscon LJ comm, but I know that keeping tabs on the thread there could be a headache...
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