It's not limited to LJ either (if only it was in only one place!), I've seen the edges of some pretty nasty stuff on Twitter too in the last year.
It's not new either of course, as the First Judean People's Front would be quick to tell you.
Larry Niven said "There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it." I think that needs updating to change 'fool' to 'arsehole'. Or 'asshole' should you prefer your native.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about it too, though those aren't really related to the privilege status of the posters compared to the commenters. Plenty of serial privilege-checkers are white, middle-class, straight, cis, able-bodied, educated, and so on, and plenty of those they check are black, poor, queer, trans, handicapped, and so on. Ultimately, I don't think it's a bad idea to go "hey, maybe you should consider your viewpoint," but an sf-drama style shriekfest every time someone strays from the ever more complicated path of the righteous doesn't help either. Yes, yes, tone argument blah blah blah, but ultimately? If you want to communicate, you need to say something in a way you're going to be heard. This makes me suspect that the goal in aggressive privilege-checking isn't communication.
yeah, I agree with you on this. Particularly with the "tone argument blah blah blah" because, seriously? I realize that it's not the job of person X to educate person Y at any random moment but if you are attempting to have an actual discussion, a conversation, a dialogue then, yeah, a shriekfest is counter productive.
To clarify, I don't think using a tone argument over expressions of anger is ever appropriate, but at the same time, if you're going to open a conversation about something, lobbing angry-bombs isn't going to do what you want. Meh.
I've noticed that the people who are the loudest and nastiest about using privilege-checking as a form of public display tend to be people who have those exact privileges. Whether they do it because of misplaced white-knighting, overzealous attempts to earn "ally cookies," attempting to compensate for or hide feelings of guilt, or just taking up the latest, loudest form of trolling is impossible to say. On the other hand, I have seen actual marginalized people occasionally saying "I'm too angry/tired to deal with this particular annoying thing, why don't some of you with privileges go say something instead."
Some of which doing what? The privileged doing the checking? Some of them are asked to do it, sometimes, as I've seen. Most of the time, they're doing it on their own recognizance.
I have much more sympathy for privileged-checking (see what I did there?) when they're new converts, because then they're usually a combination of awkwardly overenthusiastic and uninformed about the history of what they're wading into. If one looks at it from a more optimistic perspective, it's great that there's so many new people getting interested and educated about social justice, and hopefully as they continue to learn they'll figure out more useful ways of interacting with people they disagree with and also some context about the issues they're trying to argue about. Less optimistically, I frequently wonder how many of these seeming "newbies" are veterans who've never learned moderation, or just trolls who've learned a new, more internet-socially acceptable way of mocking and insulting other people.
or just trolls who've learned a new, more internet-socially acceptable way of mocking and insulting other people
I think this happens quite a bit more often than many people recognize or would even like to admit. Pretending be the aggrieved party or speaking for the aggrieved party is a COMMON "real life" bullying tactic and when you get on the internet where people don't have to look someone in the eye as they do it, well...I think it just becomes more and more magnified.
I think you have a good point, too, about some of them being recent converts with the usual overezealousness of the newbie.
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It's not limited to LJ either (if only it was in only one place!), I've seen the edges of some pretty nasty stuff on Twitter too in the last year.
It's not new either of course, as the First Judean People's Front would be quick to tell you.
Larry Niven said "There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it." I think that needs updating to change 'fool' to 'arsehole'. Or 'asshole' should you prefer your native.
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/runs away
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I have much more sympathy for privileged-checking (see what I did there?) when they're new converts, because then they're usually a combination of awkwardly overenthusiastic and uninformed about the history of what they're wading into. If one looks at it from a more optimistic perspective, it's great that there's so many new people getting interested and educated about social justice, and hopefully as they continue to learn they'll figure out more useful ways of interacting with people they disagree with and also some context about the issues they're trying to argue about. Less optimistically, I frequently wonder how many of these seeming "newbies" are veterans who've never learned moderation, or just trolls who've learned a new, more internet-socially acceptable way of mocking and insulting other people.
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I think this happens quite a bit more often than many people recognize or would even like to admit. Pretending be the aggrieved party or speaking for the aggrieved party is a COMMON "real life" bullying tactic and when you get on the internet where people don't have to look someone in the eye as they do it, well...I think it just becomes more and more magnified.
I think you have a good point, too, about some of them being recent converts with the usual overezealousness of the newbie.
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