I feel like a lot of progressive vocabulary words get used outside the contexts where they apply.
“It’s not my job to educate you” is a fair and valid thing to say when someone demands you defend the validity of your identity while you’re just trying to live your life. It’s unreasonable to expect every trans person to explain the history and complexity of gender to every chud who gives them shit.
It is, however, the opposite of activism and super unhelpful for an activist to say while ostensibly trying to build a movement.
Similarly, “mansplaining” is not a blanket term for any man explaining anything, listening to a friend vent is not “emotional labor”, and participating in cultures other than the one you grew up in is not “cultural appropriation”. All real terms that point at real problems, all sometimes used outside the contexts in which they are helpful.
And the thing to remember most is that the side we need to defeat doesn’t care about any of these terms.
If you instead choose to level these “academic” arguments at allies because they’re more likely to address your concerns and engage like a human being, you are making a mistake. A human mistake, but a huge mistake nonetheless.
It’s so easy when you’re charged up emotionally and scared and also prepared to exercise your knowledge and express your feelings, you might not know what to do with all that energy other than try to rip apart someone adjacent to you because it’s easier than feeling like you’re beating your head against a wall arguing with the actual mindless blocks of concrete who make up the conservative right.
Sure, I personally don’t use “academic” terms against other people. It does make the words lose meaning, which is why I use context and followup questions to really understand if the distinction is important.
I think it’s ok to bemoan the semantic drift of useful terms, away from the people trying to simply communicate with me. (No point in chastising.)
I’m not sure where you are getting where I am “ripping apart someone adjacent to me.”
In this instance, like most comments here, my comments are directed generally to readers, exactly like yours was. You’re obviously not attacking anyone and I didn’t suggest you were, which is why I started my comment with “and.”
I feel like a lot of progressive vocabulary words get used outside the contexts where they apply.
“It’s not my job to educate you” is a fair and valid thing to say when someone demands you defend the validity of your identity while you’re just trying to live your life. It’s unreasonable to expect every trans person to explain the history and complexity of gender to every chud who gives them shit.
It is, however, the opposite of activism and super unhelpful for an activist to say while ostensibly trying to build a movement.
Similarly, “mansplaining” is not a blanket term for any man explaining anything, listening to a friend vent is not “emotional labor”, and participating in cultures other than the one you grew up in is not “cultural appropriation”. All real terms that point at real problems, all sometimes used outside the contexts in which they are helpful.
Gaslighting is another often misused term. It’s not just a blanket term for lying, it is a specific type of lie.
And the thing to remember most is that the side we need to defeat doesn’t care about any of these terms.
If you instead choose to level these “academic” arguments at allies because they’re more likely to address your concerns and engage like a human being, you are making a mistake. A human mistake, but a huge mistake nonetheless.
It’s so easy when you’re charged up emotionally and scared and also prepared to exercise your knowledge and express your feelings, you might not know what to do with all that energy other than try to rip apart someone adjacent to you because it’s easier than feeling like you’re beating your head against a wall arguing with the actual mindless blocks of concrete who make up the conservative right.
Sure, I personally don’t use “academic” terms against other people. It does make the words lose meaning, which is why I use context and followup questions to really understand if the distinction is important.
I think it’s ok to bemoan the semantic drift of useful terms, away from the people trying to simply communicate with me. (No point in chastising.)
I’m not sure where you are getting where I am “ripping apart someone adjacent to me.”
In this instance, like most comments here, my comments are directed generally to readers, exactly like yours was. You’re obviously not attacking anyone and I didn’t suggest you were, which is why I started my comment with “and.”
Thanks for the clarification! Sorry, I misunderstood.