Random observation
When I look at some of the political/social discussions on Tumblr, I'm actually happy that LJ is going out of fashion. (Although of course these debates take place on LJ, too -- but you have to join the respective communities, or friend the right people, to get in on them. And the actual heat is elsewhere. On Tumblr, everything is everywhere all the time.)
Maybe I'm just lazy, or too comfortable, or too privileged, or too whatever. But even what little I see through the filter of the few people I follow there just makes me feel tired. I respect people's struggle, but sometimes I feel that in everyone's attempts to make everything better, the only result is an environment where everybody has to watch every word they say lest they be considered sexist (in any direction), racist, abilist*, culturally appropriating, apologistic or whatever. I am not saying that fighting against these attitudes in their actual incarnations isn't worthy. But I do think it can be overdone. Not too mention the whole "more under-privileged than thou" thing going on, or the debate whether you're actually allowed to fight for something that doesn't directly immediately concern you, or whether that means you're appropriating and thereby devaluing the cause, and... oh good grief, this is precisely why I am too lazy most of the time.
I recently read somewhere that our society is currently becoming more and more Jacobinic. Without meaning to appropriate, belittle, water down or otherwise corrupt either the historical or the cultural context of post-revolutionary 18th century France, I think there's some truth to that. I don't like to blame social media for everything, either, but sometimes the atmosphere on Tumblr (as well as in the specific LJ communities, or on general Social Justice sites) really encourages Reign-of-Terror-esque² attitudes.
And that's not what you want, especially when you've actually got a worthy cause, because it's only going to (at best) alienate the people you want to have on your side.
So really, all I want to say is RELAX. AND PICK YOUR BATTLES WISELY.
And more sparingly.
Though I guess that's not a wise thing to say on Tumblr.
- - -
*Yes, I hate the term "ableist". "Fundamentally away from lions"? Whatev. So I use my own. If that means I'm abilist towards the morphologically challenged, so bloody be it.
²Disclaimer: No, I didn't experience the Reign of Terror first-hand. (SURPRISING! I KNOW!) I didn't even grow up in the GDR! I am wholly unqualified! This is more what we lazy people call a hyperbolic metaphor. Possibly slightly polemic, too.