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harborshoreAnd the no. 1 way to make me break posting hiatus?
Making me furious. Well, no, none of you did that, but there's been a particular confluence of Groups Behaving Badly Because Everyone Else is Doing It, and I can't write about analytical methods of studying translation unless I get this post out of my system.
This post briefly discusses a community taking the side of a rapist but the focus is on the community behavior, not the rape itself, because it's the pattern I'm after.
So. This is about Constance McMillen, the homophobic douchebaggery in canceling prom because she wanted to attend with her girlfriend, and the fake prom she and other seven students were sent to. This is also about Bjästa in Sweden, the community that took the side of a twice convicted rapist and organized demonstrations in the school in his favor and invited him to graduation despite the restraining order against him. Needless to say, the victim chose not to attend.
I just. The thing that gets to me isn't even the failure of the authorities to do the goddamn right thing, it's that everyone else goes along with it. It's that mentality that says, "I don't actually have to engage in critical thinking, I'm just going to add my voice to the loudest crowd, because I want my prom/that guy is cute and surely didn't rape anyone/the stand-up members of my community are saying one thing, they must be right."
Fuck that shit. It's easier, sure, but it's easier for now, because somewhere in there at least some of the people being idiots know they're doing the wrong thing, just shuffling along, and I don't have a goddamn clue why they cannot find the beat of a different song to dance to. It doesn't take much more than to look and listen, and to make yourself okay with the fact that the easiest choice might be the wrong one. That's our--that's the duty we have, as people. In fact, it's the only real safeguard we have against extremists getting the upper hand because they know how to shout the loudest. I want to live in the world where people accept personal responsibility and do the right thing, I want that world. And not just because I'm an idealist, but because it is goddamn necessary and it is what we have to do, it's what we owe ourselves and the one way we can protect the people who deserve to be protected.
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seperis said it really well in her latest post:
You don't do the right thing only when it's easy or convenient or socially sanctioned or in secret. You do it because to do anything else makes you so much less. So much less.
Making me furious. Well, no, none of you did that, but there's been a particular confluence of Groups Behaving Badly Because Everyone Else is Doing It, and I can't write about analytical methods of studying translation unless I get this post out of my system.
This post briefly discusses a community taking the side of a rapist but the focus is on the community behavior, not the rape itself, because it's the pattern I'm after.
So. This is about Constance McMillen, the homophobic douchebaggery in canceling prom because she wanted to attend with her girlfriend, and the fake prom she and other seven students were sent to. This is also about Bjästa in Sweden, the community that took the side of a twice convicted rapist and organized demonstrations in the school in his favor and invited him to graduation despite the restraining order against him. Needless to say, the victim chose not to attend.
I just. The thing that gets to me isn't even the failure of the authorities to do the goddamn right thing, it's that everyone else goes along with it. It's that mentality that says, "I don't actually have to engage in critical thinking, I'm just going to add my voice to the loudest crowd, because I want my prom/that guy is cute and surely didn't rape anyone/the stand-up members of my community are saying one thing, they must be right."
Fuck that shit. It's easier, sure, but it's easier for now, because somewhere in there at least some of the people being idiots know they're doing the wrong thing, just shuffling along, and I don't have a goddamn clue why they cannot find the beat of a different song to dance to. It doesn't take much more than to look and listen, and to make yourself okay with the fact that the easiest choice might be the wrong one. That's our--that's the duty we have, as people. In fact, it's the only real safeguard we have against extremists getting the upper hand because they know how to shout the loudest. I want to live in the world where people accept personal responsibility and do the right thing, I want that world. And not just because I'm an idealist, but because it is goddamn necessary and it is what we have to do, it's what we owe ourselves and the one way we can protect the people who deserve to be protected.
seperis said it really well in her latest post:You don't do the right thing only when it's easy or convenient or socially sanctioned or in secret. You do it because to do anything else makes you so much less. So much less.