Author: Promises Stronger Than Darkness coming April 11! Also: All the Birds in the Sky, City in the Middle of the Night, Never Say You Can't Survive. Writing New Mutants: Lethal Legion for Marvel. (First issue: March 8!) Header: Ro Stein/Ted Brandt.
My personal guidelines for dealing with people on social media:
Assume everyone is a friend you haven't yet gotten to know.
Assume everyone is struggling with their mental health
Don't promise any emotional labor you might not be able to provide
If someone seems like a hater, disengage right away
"Today, we find ourselves in a situation in which technology has become conflated with capitalism, which has in turn become conflated with the very notion of progress. If you try to criticize capitalism, you are accused of opposing both technology and progress. But what does progress even mean, if it doesn’t include better lives for people who work?"
Next time I'm speaking at some big event, I'm going to announce that I'ill give away books to anybody who answers trivia questions.
If people agree, these are the trivia questions I will ask:
"Do you think knowing trivia makes us smart?"
"Do you believe there are hierarchies of knowledge, with some information being less important and thus trivial?"
"Who decides what info is 'trivia' and how do we keep cultural biases out of this process?"
I think these are good trivia questions.
Next time I'm speaking at some big event, I'm going to announce that I'ill give away books to anybody who answers trivia questions.
If people agree, these are the trivia questions I will ask:
"Do you think knowing trivia makes us smart?"
"Do you believe there are hierarchies of knowledge, with some information being less important and thus trivial?"
"Who decides what info is 'trivia' and how do we keep cultural biases out of this process?"
@charliejane the amount of pushback to "accepting that I have limits in my expertise and don't actually know everything" here is really annoying, I'm glad that resistance to basic epistemic humility really is not reflected in the circles I hang out in lol
Imagine if there were people who kept saying, "I'm not homophobic, but I think gay men should be kept out of locker rooms so they don't assault straight men. And I also think gays and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to marry because that takes away from from straight marriages. Also I think they're converting the youth. Still, I support gays' right to exist."
And the mainstream press was like, "SEE? They're not homophobic. They even said so." That's where we are now with trans people.
@charliejane This is word-for-word what was commonly said/written about gay men (and to a lesser degree, other non-straight people) when I was growing up.
I think on a daily basis about how many folk who fought against that demonisation in the past are now happy to say exactly the same thing about trans people, and who claim they're saying it for the same bullshit "I'm just protecting the children/vulnerable/victims etc" reason. How can they not see that it's the same bigotry as before?!
And of course fuel is poured onto the fire by bigots who always felt that way about gay men, and are happy they can now freely use the same abuse in public.
@charliejane This is word-for-word what was commonly said/written about gay men (and to a lesser degree, other non-straight people) when I was growing up.
I think on a daily basis about how many folk who fought against that demonisation in the past are now happy to say exactly the same thing about trans people, and who claim they're saying it for the same bullshit "I'm just protecting the children/vulnerable/victims etc" reason. How can they not see that it's the same bigotry as before?!
@charliejane I want to get my gender removed from my birth certificate, go down to North Carolina, and walk around a mall and ask which bathroom I have to use.
I had a chat with someone about gun control and he said “well criminals break the law so why do we need to more laws restricting firearms? After all they won’t be followed”
I then asked him “why have laws restricting bathroom access? After all sexual predators will ignore the law?”
@charliejane good list
@charliejane These are really good, simple rules. We should all keep these in mind. Thanks! 💖
@charliejane Especially that last one is important.
Why would you stick with people who don't appear to be friendly to you? Surely you get enough negativity already?