Comments | jimkeller: Derailing for Dummies

jimkeller

Derailing for Dummies

Feb 04, 2010 14:43

sophiaserpentia spotted this one. It's a revelation actually. I shall never again enter one of these awkward conversations -- on either side -- without thinking of this:

Derailing for Dummies

women's issues, gay rights, transgender rights, diversity, racism, disabilities, links, gender issues, equality, bigotry

Comments 9

Eh... dark_of_night February 5 2010, 01:14:45 UTC

One group of people I marginalize are people who believe in alternative medicine. I marginalize them because they tell me that their experiences of alternative medicine are much more important than research by trained professionals. So, I object to the tactics in 'Derailing for Dummies' that suggest that personal, anecdotal, experience is really far more deserving of consideration than conclusions reached empirically ( ... )

Re: Eh... sophiaserpentia February 5 2010, 04:30:35 UTC

People who believe in alternative medicine are not an oppressed community.

Re: Eh... dark_of_night February 5 2010, 15:56:56 UTC

Irrelevant. This is what is called an 'analogy.' My analogy holds inasmuch as membership in an oppressed community does not make fallacies more acceptable in arguments in favor or against the lifestyle or identity of that community.

Re: Eh... sophiaserpentia February 5 2010, 16:20:03 UTC

It's not irrelevant, it's the whole point. If they are not oppressed, then you as a member of the larger community outside them are not someone with privilege in respect to them.

The webpage in question is to highlight a number of the derailing tactics that often come up when members of oppressed communities try to describe their experiences.

For example, in your first point, you quoted the page in question:
"If you really want to excel as a Privileged Person® you need to learn to value data, statistics, research studies and empirical evidence above all things" Yeah, actually, I do value those things. Whoo hoo! I'm doing well!The point is not that data, statistics, research studies, and empirical evidence are bad things. The point is that when someone who is black, or gay, or trans, tries to talk about their experience, it's not uncommon for someone who's white, or straight, or cis, to come along and pick at every last detail in the person's account, especially if they make generalizations to get across how everyone they know in ( ... )

Thread 9