There are some people in the gender critical movement, and within radical feminism, even, that we agree with more than others, or whose tone and focus we prefer. We don’t work with ethnic nationalists or tankies. But, as a group that works with conservative Christians ...
... who are we to say that people working to protect women’s rights and children’s health must all agree with each other, or always like each other, to get good work done? This is a big struggle we’re undertaking, and there’s more to do than all of us put together can yet manage.
We’ve seen the struggles with coalition work, how hard and stressful it can be, how it can wear on one’s patience even when everyone is doing their level best to be kind and polite. This is universal though, and not unique to this issue or some particular group of people.
In a mature movement, though, these disagreements can more often be managed proactively, by all parties, to minimize direct confrontation and reactive public conflict. This is done not for the sake of each other’s feelings, but for the sake of the larger goal.
When spaces are created where people feel confident in having robust, good faith debates around our issues, then a lot more people will talk about our issues. If there are many entry points to our concerns, a lot more people will engage with them.
This doesn’t mean we have to change our own perspectives, but does require a liberal democratic approach to managing our conversations around them. It means listening to many voices, sharing from many sources, and resisting the human temptation to control others’ conversations.
Because even when one is talking about changing the minds of the sorts of extremists that we’re not prepared to deal with, or interested in working alongside, it’s simply not true that the only effective means of dealing with them is shunning.
deseret.com/indepth/2020/7…
That isn’t our work, &probably won’t ever be, but knowing that it’s possible to change even the hardest hearts should inform all of our perspectives and strategic considerations.
This is a big, urgent fight, and our opponents are quite powerful and well funded. Act accordingly?
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