I'm torn between rageful flailing and a defeated sigh

[the_moonmoth]

Some days, you just lose all faith in intelligent life on the internet. Yesterday, I spent several hours reading a story called Metaphors As Mixed As You Can Make Them, by halflinen, until, after almost 50,000 words of emotional investment, I got slapped in the face by this little gem of an exchange between Eames and Yusuf:

“Oh my God, get up here. Come on,

Comments

[rivier]

Eh, looked racist to me. I don't think she understands that it is, any more than she seems bothered by the casual justification of " oh well Arthur calls Eames a girl as a bantering insult, which would be sexist and offensive but only if you were equally foolish enough to take it the wrong way, which Eames obviously won't because he knows it's done with leurve

[rivier]

Oh - and stay angry. I wish I could think of a way to make you feel better about the lone battle, but I can't, because I'm fighting a similar one every damn day in life and online. You know, how albino's a joke term or shorthand for freakish evil, and how I tell people in our nice new refurbished office that I can't read teh fucking lift buttons or floor signs, and they laugh nervously or say oh dear... Or how fandom thinks disability fic is a satisfying emo porn kink. What can I tell you? It's probably all getting better and more equal, all around the globe, one micron here and another one there. Not in my lifetime though, and not in yours. Keep noting, stay angry, look to make your point whenever you can, and I suppose just accept that it's micron by slow, slow, fucking slow micron. But it's microns, or give up and let them trample on unrecorded. That's the only choice we have.

[the_moonmoth]

Riv, I would just like to take this opportunity to tell you how awesome you are

[anon_j_anon]

re all getting more equal all around the globe one micron at a time

[anon_j_anon]

I don't know. That just kind of gets down to a question I'm struggling with right now-- how do you value human life? Does it even make sense to say something like that? But given the system we live in (commodify everything!) and the choices we make and the fact that our frontal lobes can judge things (amazing, that)... is the value of life absolute, or does it depend on the context ie the value system? If we are able to place a value on human life, is it because life itself has some intrinsic value (as opposed to death), or because of the way we have been taught to view life? What are we valuing-- life itself, or humans? Because if it's life itself, then why not extend it to everything that has DNA or something (what about viruses :P).

...eh, you see what I mean? I go from racism to valuation of life in the universe. It's distracting, keeps me from thinking to hard about the fact that people like that exist.. because in the end, what can you do?

[the_moonmoth]

Okay, I'm going to try to reply to this intelligently. Try being the operative word here. Rivier made the initial comment about improvement coming in microns, but on the inter-country level, yes I think she's right. It's a deeply dissatisfying feeling, as when it effects you personally, you always want the change to be sweeping and immediate. But then I suppose I'm better placed than most to help effect that change, sometimes just by my very presence. I also agree with you about the global aspect, which is an interesting aspect indeed, and one I hadn't considered before. It's perhaps more heartening to think on that scale? Although I still get hung up on individual injustices, like the stoning of so-called adulterers in Iran. I don't know.

how humankind can be progressive and so fucking backward at the same timeI think the term you're seeking is "global village"?! I'm sure why you're saying they exist without contradiction, though. All I see is contradiction