Blame is the cure

[xmatt]

So I've been sort of following the anonymous confession board as it becomes more and more heated and hostile. I realize that I have very little of value to add to a discussion of...anything, being a straight white male who grew up in the white-picket-fenced suburbs of a sleepy New England city and heard nary a discussion of sexuality and gender

Comments

[anonymous]

Woah, hang on here, are you suggesting that verbal violence is equivalent to physical violence and that the two are therefore interchangable?
because those are the very mechanics of conflict escalation...

and since when was logic opposed to called for anger? The think about verbal communication is that, you know, It's not being beaten with a nightstick.

And as for safe space, who gets to define oppressive? that requires normative judgement. I'm cool with that, you? And once you're cool with that, then you need a definitive answer, as in, "really: who gets to define it?" And once it's normative, it applies universally. i.e., if the police at stonewall being aggressive and hateful is a problem, aggressive, hateful responses are just a recapitulation of a problematic theme. Is the problem really the people, or is it what they're doing? If we had a homo-normative world, would the bizzarro-stonewall be OK? because that seems to me to be what you're saying.

Certianly, there needs to be self defense. but to give blanket justification to anything done in the name of self defense is to lack the footing to call that which is being defended against wrong.

so there. pbbbbbbbblt.

[piratehall]

crap. that was me. up there. the anonymous one.

-E

[ktclapsforpaul]

Way to work the philosophy, Evan. Unlike me, when you're blowing off your homework, you're actually thinking. Woo hoo!