https://i.redd.it/txcsmq57je831.jpg

Yeah, OP in the linked image is basically what I'm talking about when I tell someone "you're so woke, you're suffering insomniac psychosis."

You're not really being one of the "good guys*" unless you're constantly looking for nuance and context. There may have still been a useful discussion of gender tropes to be had about this scene, but this neener had to start with Their Great Cause and work backwards, steamrollering everything that got in the way, never bothering to seek a different explanation.

I've said it before: if you really think all it takes to be good is having the correct ideology, well, you're putting yourself at terrible risk of being bad—or at least, of suppressing something good, purely because it does not neatly fit your model of the world. In my experience, this does less damage to actual "evil" and more to punish things that are ambiguous or straddle two worlds.

I try to embrace the problematic. I may sniff at it, pick it up in my teeth and shake it, bat it around, even take a big old piss on it to show it who's boss, but I usually only try to maul it if it's about to really hurt someone...

But yeah. I don't _always_. THIS IS ALL A MISTAKE I HAVE MADE TOO. I'm not sitting in judgment over any individual, just discussing a habit that I see a lot and that keeps me awake at night. Even these "excessively woke" people are not evil—they're subject to the exact same protections I extend the "problematic." We're all layered and complicated people, and the best I can really do is mark the problem and hope people follow their own conscience.

Thank you for listening. By all means, stay woke. I still think "Our Team" has a far better angle on reality than the crappy nativists who are in charge right now. But as a feline, I can not possibly overemphasize the occasional utility of a good nap.

Sometimes you just gotta let some prey go, because there are more important... there are... huh. What was I talking about?

Meh. I'm sure it'll be fine. *snooze*

* for example, "guys" has imho effectively become gender neutral in this expression over the years and, while discussing the residue of androcentrism in it is still valuable, is a silly thing to nitpick individual uses of—and if it isn't, it should be, because it loses its clarity if you alter the wording in the pursuit of ideological purity (fite me 🐯​)

@zebratron2084

I dunno. This screenshot has done the rounds more than once and I’m disinclined to dunk on OP too hard for this one. I probably also would have thought ‘damn it, again?’ seeing the volcano short with no context – I just wouldn’t have started a Tumblr discourse about it, mainly because I’d rather eat a bowl of hair.

@zebratron2084

The trope in which a species of anthropomorphized object/animal has males with cool and interesting designs that are faithful to the object/animal, whereas the females are just sexy big titty humans with animal ears glued on, really is so common and so annoying and there’s almost *never* a slamdunk “a-HA, this seemingly unwoke thing is actually woker than you, checkmate SJW!” explanation to even bother looking for.

@zebratron2084

I guess it bothers me a little that the ONE time there actually is such an explanation, we get multiple rounds of Discourse shitting on this one poor Tumblr kid (and they probably are just some 16-year-old) for jumping the gun.

It’s true, sometimes you just gotta let some prey go. 😉

@Sig I mean, to be fair, I did note that there were probably fair comments to be made about the gender tropes surrounding this. It's the tone of callout culture, the presumptuousness and lack of interest in the context going into it that I find... heh... problematic. I went out of my way to make it clear I didn't think the kid should be pelted with stones or anything. :) It really is a mistake the best of us make—and I'm not sure I'd indemnify the person who clapped them *back* about Hawaiian culture for their tone, either.

But the general habit itself is something I'll maintain deserves criticism—yes, including when I do it, so thank you for standing up to the tigress. :D It's good to know people will keep me honest and keep the discourse *going*, instead of coming in and trying to end it in their favor by fiat. That's what's really important to me. <3 <3 <3

@zebratron2084 For sure, I think there's a lot to be said about the culture surrounding this kind of behavior. To some extent I think it has to do with the Tumblr platform itself encouraging call-outs, pile-ons and other nastiness by its very nature. You can make a post that will continue to exist in tens or hundreds of thousands of iterations, even if you delete the original, continuing to rack up notes, getting you harassed forever.

@zebratron2084 That’s why I’m iffy on using this particular kid (and again, I’d bet the farm they’re under 20) as an object lesson. Seems like they’ve been through enough. Basically, thank god I was never a teenager on the modern internet. Guarantee you there’d be screenshots of some dumb teenage thing I said bouncing around from Tumblr to r/TumblrInAction to Twitter and back in perpetuity.