Thread by @CriticalReikan

The conventional wisdom that ppl don’t act the same that they do online may be true w/ how we choose to present ourselves in different contexts. But to constantly be told that “Social media stuff isn’t real” is to be told that we don’t carry our biases and prejudices offline.

When I’m constantly told fallaciously that when somebody says a slur online or when some jagoff artist does some white washing and their defenders dismiss your main issues with it as “not a real concern”, that constant dismissal is a politics that impacts us elsewhere

What happens when every day for years we have segments of the population constantly dismiss every claim of racism? We have what’s called normalized prejudice. This impacts other attitudes towards serious stuff that some (not all) dismissive ppl would consider “real issues”

“The boy who cried wolf” argument implies that the ppl telling you their concerns are lying. What happens when they actually have a point and you CHOOSE to never listen to them? Those “few bad eggs” of a movement, ideology, w.e will gain momentum and become normal

For anybody reading this thread, I think continuing to use plain language is all you can do alongside building a coalition of ppl over time for any given issue (no matter how big, or how small).

It works when you say: “I will not allow this to be normal”

When bigotry of any kind finds grounds to gain with being normalized, whether it be sexism, biphoboa, transphobia, ableism, make it abundantly clear who you are speaking to and make it clear what you want.

This type of rhetoric is most effective for fighting back.

And for fucks sakes, please stop getting suspended. Telling off some TERF or gamer with an edgy (even if funny) comment isn’t worth it when we need all of the help we can get. We need strong voices. Don’t be the strong voice that gets silenced by cynical Machiavellian politics

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For anybody that needs it