One of the trickiest balances to strike in activism or advocacy is reifying principles within the community vs educating persuadable outsiders about first principles. The latter often takes more patience, and these concerns often are zero sum, since people only have so much time.
On moral issues, my heart dictates that I want to help welcome anyone who is just learning how to advocate for others’ humanity, as I know I have so much to learn yet myself. But at a time when things are so urgent, I still often feel like “What took you so long?” Impatience.
Worse, it can feel humiliating & infuriating to have to explain my humanity, or the humanity of people I love, to those who only just figured out that basic human dignity is under attack. (Though admittedly I have a higher responsibility to do so, given my platform & privilege.)
I know none of these things are new, or particularly novel, but I imagine if they’re on my mind, maybe there are others reckoning with these things, too. I know I’ve certainly ended up much less inclined to do outreach to those who still profess “neutrality” in times like these.
