Let us speak of radicalization.
Jun. 24th, 2010 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
risha(All of the below examples are deliberately broad and/or ridiculous ones, so as to not distract from the point with quibbles.)
I'm sure it won't surprise anyone who hangs here when I say that I'm a liberal. I'm on the far, far left in the U.S. on social issues, and almost always vote based on those. I've gone out of my way to learn about feminism, sexuality, gender identity, racial issues, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera; I'm probably not qualified to teach a class on them or anything, but I can occasionally scrape up a reasonably intelligent rant or two.
The internet in general, and fandom in particular, tend to be (and yes, I know that there are a million million exceptions) more accepting of the outliers in our population. Or at least, we allow them to be much more visible and vocal than they are out in "the real world". And we in fandom have taken this to heart, which I wholeheartedly believe to be a wonderful thing. If someone is disabled and chooses to speak out about their life and the problems they face, then people listen, and hopefully learn. Not everyone, but enough.
There's a danger in this, however. When everyone's voice is heard uncritically, as we are taught to do so as to not to invalidate someone's experience... well, sometimes people are wrong.
Yes, I mean that. Let me repeat: sometimes people are wrong. Anyone who claims to always speak the absolute truth at all times is fooling themselves. They might always be honest; generally speaking, I hope that they are. But I gave up pretending, years ago, to myself or to others, that I can never make an honest mistake, or have all the answers.
As a white person living in the United States, I am not in a position to invalidate a black person's experiences living here. I don't in any way have the right even try to do so. But that truth doesn't automatically make a given black person right when they explain their position on a given issue. They could be wrong. People are wrong every day. Lots of them. All the time. Even when we're talking about something that effects them all the time.
Fandom has become very good at accepting radical positions, precisely because we are trying to listen to the disenfranchised in our midst. But the infamous geek fallacies come into play more often then we'd like to admit. In our efforts to be accepting of different viewpoints, we forget to think critically about those viewpoints. Or to remember that we have the right to disagree with them.
Yes, I said it. We can listen to a position, think about it, accept that the person genuinely believes it to be true, and that they have good arguments to back it up. And then we can still decide that it is wrong.
These are actual radical positions that people, a varying but relatively large number of people, hold right now:
- all heterosexual sex is rape
- all domestic dogs and cats live in slavery and should be released
- vaccines cause autism
- dinosaur bones aren't as old as we think because the world isn't that old
And I firmly believe (often with eyes rolled) that those are ridiculous positions. Most people do. That doesn't stop the believers from believing them, or presenting arguments of varying levels of quality to support them.
The furry community (which I do not belong to, so my scuttlebutt, hey, might be wrong) is infamous for accepting zoophiles into their midst, even if they themselves think that it's wrong. And they get laughed at (or frowned at) for it, because the zoophiles haven't made it onto the list yet (thank goodness) of people whose positions we can't invalidate without experiencing it ourselves. (I don't actually expect that they ever will, but, hey, I can't see the future. I really, really hope not.)
Many radical positions are proven right, of course, and join the mainstream. It was not too long ago in the grand sweep of history that believing that women were smart enough to vote was a radical position. No one is seriously arguing this anymore. (Well, actually, I'm sure someone is, but certainly not in the mainstream.)
I hang at the edges of the fat acceptance movement, and I absolutely believe that I am right to support it. I can quote statistics at you and cite studies. This, however, is a radical position in the United States at this time, and most of the country thinks that I'm a lunatic. I believe and trust that history will prove me right. That doesn't make those who disagree with me evil well, aside from Meme Roth, or even make their beliefs unreasonable or their skepticism unjustified. I might hate it when they write something disagreeing with me (oh, and I do!), but that is the price I pay for having a radical position. And there's nothing wrong with them doing that. I can argue with them, and attempt to convince them, and I can attempt to rally other people to join in my arguing. But I can't make them into a villain for taking the mainstream position.
Please forgive my babbling - this all fits together in my head, but it probably doesn't hang together all that well on the page. But I do think that it's important that this be said.
I could be wrong.
I'm sure it won't surprise anyone who hangs here when I say that I'm a liberal. I'm on the far, far left in the U.S. on social issues, and almost always vote based on those. I've gone out of my way to learn about feminism, sexuality, gender identity, racial issues, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera; I'm probably not qualified to teach a class on them or anything, but I can occasionally scrape up a reasonably intelligent rant or two.
The internet in general, and fandom in particular, tend to be (and yes, I know that there are a million million exceptions) more accepting of the outliers in our population. Or at least, we allow them to be much more visible and vocal than they are out in "the real world". And we in fandom have taken this to heart, which I wholeheartedly believe to be a wonderful thing. If someone is disabled and chooses to speak out about their life and the problems they face, then people listen, and hopefully learn. Not everyone, but enough.
There's a danger in this, however. When everyone's voice is heard uncritically, as we are taught to do so as to not to invalidate someone's experience... well, sometimes people are wrong.
Yes, I mean that. Let me repeat: sometimes people are wrong. Anyone who claims to always speak the absolute truth at all times is fooling themselves. They might always be honest; generally speaking, I hope that they are. But I gave up pretending, years ago, to myself or to others, that I can never make an honest mistake, or have all the answers.
As a white person living in the United States, I am not in a position to invalidate a black person's experiences living here. I don't in any way have the right even try to do so. But that truth doesn't automatically make a given black person right when they explain their position on a given issue. They could be wrong. People are wrong every day. Lots of them. All the time. Even when we're talking about something that effects them all the time.
Fandom has become very good at accepting radical positions, precisely because we are trying to listen to the disenfranchised in our midst. But the infamous geek fallacies come into play more often then we'd like to admit. In our efforts to be accepting of different viewpoints, we forget to think critically about those viewpoints. Or to remember that we have the right to disagree with them.
Yes, I said it. We can listen to a position, think about it, accept that the person genuinely believes it to be true, and that they have good arguments to back it up. And then we can still decide that it is wrong.
These are actual radical positions that people, a varying but relatively large number of people, hold right now:
- all heterosexual sex is rape
- all domestic dogs and cats live in slavery and should be released
- vaccines cause autism
- dinosaur bones aren't as old as we think because the world isn't that old
And I firmly believe (often with eyes rolled) that those are ridiculous positions. Most people do. That doesn't stop the believers from believing them, or presenting arguments of varying levels of quality to support them.
The furry community (which I do not belong to, so my scuttlebutt, hey, might be wrong) is infamous for accepting zoophiles into their midst, even if they themselves think that it's wrong. And they get laughed at (or frowned at) for it, because the zoophiles haven't made it onto the list yet (thank goodness) of people whose positions we can't invalidate without experiencing it ourselves. (I don't actually expect that they ever will, but, hey, I can't see the future. I really, really hope not.)
Many radical positions are proven right, of course, and join the mainstream. It was not too long ago in the grand sweep of history that believing that women were smart enough to vote was a radical position. No one is seriously arguing this anymore. (Well, actually, I'm sure someone is, but certainly not in the mainstream.)
I hang at the edges of the fat acceptance movement, and I absolutely believe that I am right to support it. I can quote statistics at you and cite studies. This, however, is a radical position in the United States at this time, and most of the country thinks that I'm a lunatic. I believe and trust that history will prove me right. That doesn't make those who disagree with me evil well, aside from Meme Roth, or even make their beliefs unreasonable or their skepticism unjustified. I might hate it when they write something disagreeing with me (oh, and I do!), but that is the price I pay for having a radical position. And there's nothing wrong with them doing that. I can argue with them, and attempt to convince them, and I can attempt to rally other people to join in my arguing. But I can't make them into a villain for taking the mainstream position.
Please forgive my babbling - this all fits together in my head, but it probably doesn't hang together all that well on the page. But I do think that it's important that this be said.
I could be wrong.