mudballs and the tone argument
All right. I was going to go to sleep, but I'll write this up real quick before I go.
Some people are writing long posts about that poor, injured author of the racefail J2 fic. You know, the one who used the recent suffering and tragedy of the Haitian people with no regard, decency, or respect for them as human beings. Apparently, they take umbrage to the fact that she has many, many people now calling her out for what she has written here, and a lot of them are angry. Some of them have lobbed insults, some of them have cursed at her. Most of them have offered critique and corrected her, but the vast majority are angry, they sound angry, and it bleeds into their writing.
They say: 'Why are they being insulting? Why are the lobbing insults and curse words? That sort of thing doesn't help anyone,' and say that they would refuse to listen if someone started insulting them like that. How dare these people be so rude and aggressive?
Listen up, anyone who's made an ass of themselves in public in any predjudiced way, and had people call you on it. Did they sound angry? If they did, were you confused? Insulted? Upset? Did you gather up your skirts and leave in a huff, telling them to control their tone? Let me explain to you what it is you just did.
You just picked up a ball of squishy, slimy, squelchy mud off the ground and 'accidentally' hauled it at their face. No, not hauled. You picked it up and stuck your mud-caked hand in their face and rubbed that mud right into their skin, into their eyes, into their mouth. And then they slapped you, and you said: "Why did you hit me? Why are you being so rude? Why are you being aggressive when I just made an innocent mistake? Why are you so angry? Please explain your anger to me. I don't have to listen to your reasoning when you're so defensive."
Now, imagine that somehow, that mudball didn't just affect the person in front of you that you inadvertently hit. Imagine that, somehow, that mudball managed to smear dirt on everyone of that person's family, the place they come from, the gender or sexuality they identify as. Imagine that your mudball has dirtied them on a personal level as well as on a widespread, social level. Imagine that these people face mudballs every day to the point where some of them feel like their place has been dirtied by dint of existing.
Does that explain the anger more? Does that help you realize why they are lashing out, in hurt, in fury, in the desire to make you understand where they are coming from and make sure you don't launch any more fucking bombs of filth at them? Theirs was not the first insult thrown.
Some people are writing long posts about that poor, injured author of the racefail J2 fic. You know, the one who used the recent suffering and tragedy of the Haitian people with no regard, decency, or respect for them as human beings. Apparently, they take umbrage to the fact that she has many, many people now calling her out for what she has written here, and a lot of them are angry. Some of them have lobbed insults, some of them have cursed at her. Most of them have offered critique and corrected her, but the vast majority are angry, they sound angry, and it bleeds into their writing.
They say: 'Why are they being insulting? Why are the lobbing insults and curse words? That sort of thing doesn't help anyone,' and say that they would refuse to listen if someone started insulting them like that. How dare these people be so rude and aggressive?
Listen up, anyone who's made an ass of themselves in public in any predjudiced way, and had people call you on it. Did they sound angry? If they did, were you confused? Insulted? Upset? Did you gather up your skirts and leave in a huff, telling them to control their tone? Let me explain to you what it is you just did.
You just picked up a ball of squishy, slimy, squelchy mud off the ground and 'accidentally' hauled it at their face. No, not hauled. You picked it up and stuck your mud-caked hand in their face and rubbed that mud right into their skin, into their eyes, into their mouth. And then they slapped you, and you said: "Why did you hit me? Why are you being so rude? Why are you being aggressive when I just made an innocent mistake? Why are you so angry? Please explain your anger to me. I don't have to listen to your reasoning when you're so defensive."
Now, imagine that somehow, that mudball didn't just affect the person in front of you that you inadvertently hit. Imagine that, somehow, that mudball managed to smear dirt on everyone of that person's family, the place they come from, the gender or sexuality they identify as. Imagine that your mudball has dirtied them on a personal level as well as on a widespread, social level. Imagine that these people face mudballs every day to the point where some of them feel like their place has been dirtied by dint of existing.
Does that explain the anger more? Does that help you realize why they are lashing out, in hurt, in fury, in the desire to make you understand where they are coming from and make sure you don't launch any more fucking bombs of filth at them? Theirs was not the first insult thrown.