Things you didn't choose to have
I promised you controversy in my first post so i need to apologise for stalling. It's probably because it played out while I was gone so there is no more urgency for me to add to the discussion. On the other hand there were some things there I really wanted to write my thoughts about so here it goes.
John Scalzi writes a posts about social issues sometimes setting internet on flame (wars). Two weeks ago he wrote Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. A post explaining SWM privilege without using the world (as it usually causes people to discuss the word instead of the problem). Instead he used a game metaphor (it has it faults but it's a clever way of framing the problem). It caused many obvious responses (good and bad) so he had a really good post responding to the standard criticism. It is in a way a better post then the first one.
First one is something people have been saying for a long time in may different ways. The whole post was just written to say it in one more way hoping that maybe one more person gets it. The responses were predictable - from people agreeing to does foaming at the moth at the very thought that their life may suck less then someone else's. I certainly don't have much too add, especially after the post and discussion were picked by Kotaku and spread through the internets.
The comment on comments was were it got really interesting for me as Scalzi decided to discuss the most prevalent problem of all the internet discussion - derailment. The points between 3 and 7 could be easily part of almost every discussion on any social issue. There are always people who miss the point or feel personally offended/attacked by it. It's also nicely spelled out in Sheila Addison's post and I think like there should be a general disclaimer before every such discussion so we don't have to go through this again every single time. Whether it's this post and WSM defending their right to be unsatisfied with their life or Rebecca Watson earlier this year with men explaining why they are not rapist, it always ends with people proving why there is no problem with society by explaining why they are good people. So here it goes.
It's not about YOU. No one is calling you racist/sexist/evil (you might be but even so it's still not about you personally). You don't need to prove you are a good person. You don't need to prove your life sucks. It's a general observation in how society works. It tries to point out the things you may have not noticed because you never have to deal with them but it's not an assault. You don't need to defend yourself. You are not at fault for being privileged. You didn't have a choice to be born into it (just as others are not at fault for not having it). It's not even a call for you to fix it (if you can do something, and small things count too, then great but if not noone is going to stone you). It takes more then one person to change society. It's just something for you to think about. To look around and realise that things you take for granted might be something others have to work really hard for. To maybe just have a little more empathy and see how things can look from other people perspective. Sometimes even that can make a whole lot of difference.
John Scalzi writes a posts about social issues sometimes setting internet on flame (wars). Two weeks ago he wrote Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. A post explaining SWM privilege without using the world (as it usually causes people to discuss the word instead of the problem). Instead he used a game metaphor (it has it faults but it's a clever way of framing the problem). It caused many obvious responses (good and bad) so he had a really good post responding to the standard criticism. It is in a way a better post then the first one.
First one is something people have been saying for a long time in may different ways. The whole post was just written to say it in one more way hoping that maybe one more person gets it. The responses were predictable - from people agreeing to does foaming at the moth at the very thought that their life may suck less then someone else's. I certainly don't have much too add, especially after the post and discussion were picked by Kotaku and spread through the internets.
The comment on comments was were it got really interesting for me as Scalzi decided to discuss the most prevalent problem of all the internet discussion - derailment. The points between 3 and 7 could be easily part of almost every discussion on any social issue. There are always people who miss the point or feel personally offended/attacked by it. It's also nicely spelled out in Sheila Addison's post and I think like there should be a general disclaimer before every such discussion so we don't have to go through this again every single time. Whether it's this post and WSM defending their right to be unsatisfied with their life or Rebecca Watson earlier this year with men explaining why they are not rapist, it always ends with people proving why there is no problem with society by explaining why they are good people. So here it goes.
It's not about YOU. No one is calling you racist/sexist/evil (you might be but even so it's still not about you personally). You don't need to prove you are a good person. You don't need to prove your life sucks. It's a general observation in how society works. It tries to point out the things you may have not noticed because you never have to deal with them but it's not an assault. You don't need to defend yourself. You are not at fault for being privileged. You didn't have a choice to be born into it (just as others are not at fault for not having it). It's not even a call for you to fix it (if you can do something, and small things count too, then great but if not noone is going to stone you). It takes more then one person to change society. It's just something for you to think about. To look around and realise that things you take for granted might be something others have to work really hard for. To maybe just have a little more empathy and see how things can look from other people perspective. Sometimes even that can make a whole lot of difference.