Okay, so I was warned when starting a blog on tumblr that it is chock full of ideologically unhinged people. That's somewhat proved to be true. Still Tumblr is great for seeing cool artwork. (I'm reblogging loads of Metroid artwork. Love it.) Also there are also a fair fewcool blogsdedicated to reviewsand movie stuff.
But on the other hand I have real trouble finding blogs which don't look like incredibly eclectic scrapbooks. I recently had about 10 new people start following me all at once. Their blogs look very very similar, they all seem to posting the same images of cosmetics and food, and occasionally reblogging the same random inconsequential comment. I think there's a strong possibility that many of these were actually the same person. Or possibly all bots running on the same algorithm.
The ideology stuff is crazy sometimes. It's like there are these weird cliques and certain words are set off major disagreement. The most bizarre thing was seeing post after post straight after the Paris attacks claiming that the terrorists weren't Muslims. I even saw a post being reblogged in a number of places trying to assert that ISIS didn't have any copies of the Qur'an.
But the biggest thing that is irritating me is the bleeding Vine videos. They drive me frikkin' nuts and they are NEVER FUNNY.
Going back to the ideological stuff, in a recent conversation it was suggested to me that these kids on tumblr have no real influence. So I was quite surprised to see this post today: http://regeek.tumblr.com/post/137896094662/how-trigger-warnings-are-hurting-mental-health-on
The assertion of the article is that 'trigger warnings' are genuinely hurting people in real life. Now at first glance this sounds ridiculous. I'm certainly going to continue to say "trigger warning" before any reviews of films including r*pe because I think it's only reasonable. What the article says is that helping people avoid contact with ideas that trigger them will ensure they can never heal. I can tell there are plenty of people shaking their heads wondering what the practical relevance is of this news. A trigger warning on a review certainly isn't ensuring that someone never hears about triggering content. It's just making it easier to avoid than it might have been otherwise. Someone who is easily triggered may still read the review, but they just have a warning beforehand.
Well here's the practical problem and frankly I don't think anyone needed this article to recognise that what I'm about to describe is absurdly unhealthy. On university campuses (universities ffs!) there has been an increasing move to include "safe spaces" where people can avoid being offended or unduly upset. And it seems like the major example of how wrong this has gone can be seen best when we look at Goldsmiths University in London:
A safe space which prevents women speaking on free speech, is not a progressive move. It is regressive.
That demands for segregation are not progressive should be obvious. And certainly when it is to cater to Islamic beliefs, it is privileging the most extreme patriarchal elements of that religion. (And it cannot be even be argued to be privileging traditional elements of Islam. Men and women mingle together in many Islamic societies and actually pray side by side during the Hajj).
Bahar Mustafa may just be a bit misguided and the furore around her actions may be a bit of a storm in a teacup, but she represents the same wider attitude which silenced Smuthwaite and Namazie on those other two occasions. This also isn't at all limited to Goldsmiths. I was shocked to hear that Maryam Namazie was actually banned from Warwick University, though thankfully it seems that they've recognised that this was a mistake now.
A left which supports Islamist extremists over the free speech of women and sets up a safe space where challenging the status quo is banned is not progressive. And while social media generally doesn't matter, these polarised unhealthy attitudes are finding their way into the mainstream and, frankly, I'm a little worried....
But on the other hand I have real trouble finding blogs which don't look like incredibly eclectic scrapbooks. I recently had about 10 new people start following me all at once. Their blogs look very very similar, they all seem to posting the same images of cosmetics and food, and occasionally reblogging the same random inconsequential comment. I think there's a strong possibility that many of these were actually the same person. Or possibly all bots running on the same algorithm.
The ideology stuff is crazy sometimes. It's like there are these weird cliques and certain words are set off major disagreement. The most bizarre thing was seeing post after post straight after the Paris attacks claiming that the terrorists weren't Muslims. I even saw a post being reblogged in a number of places trying to assert that ISIS didn't have any copies of the Qur'an.
But the biggest thing that is irritating me is the bleeding Vine videos. They drive me frikkin' nuts and they are NEVER FUNNY.
Going back to the ideological stuff, in a recent conversation it was suggested to me that these kids on tumblr have no real influence. So I was quite surprised to see this post today: http://regeek.tumblr.com/post/137896094662/how-trigger-warnings-are-hurting-mental-health-on
The assertion of the article is that 'trigger warnings' are genuinely hurting people in real life. Now at first glance this sounds ridiculous. I'm certainly going to continue to say "trigger warning" before any reviews of films including r*pe because I think it's only reasonable. What the article says is that helping people avoid contact with ideas that trigger them will ensure they can never heal. I can tell there are plenty of people shaking their heads wondering what the practical relevance is of this news. A trigger warning on a review certainly isn't ensuring that someone never hears about triggering content. It's just making it easier to avoid than it might have been otherwise. Someone who is easily triggered may still read the review, but they just have a warning beforehand.
Well here's the practical problem and frankly I don't think anyone needed this article to recognise that what I'm about to describe is absurdly unhealthy. On university campuses (universities ffs!) there has been an increasing move to include "safe spaces" where people can avoid being offended or unduly upset. And it seems like the major example of how wrong this has gone can be seen best when we look at Goldsmiths University in London:
The comedy society at Goldsmiths ended up cancelling a talk by Kate Smurthwaite (a comedian they invited) because they worried that what she had to say about free speech might breach their safe space policy. Apparently they were expecting her comedy gig to be picketed by the feminist society. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/feb/02/goldsmiths-comedian-kate-smurthwaite-free-speech-show-feminist-campaigners
A talk by Maryam Namazie (an ex-Muslim giving a talk on, guess what, free speech) was disrupted by members of the Islamic society. She was shouted down and harassed. At one point the computer she was running her presentation from was shut off. (This is in a university btw.) Afterwards, the Islamic society claimed that the event never happened, but there is video footage of the event. Afterwards the LGBT society and the feminist society at the university both gave their full support to the Islamic society because they believed this was a matter of the Islamic society have its space space breached. (No, seriously.) http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/muslim-students-from-goldsmiths-university-s-islamic-society-heckle-and-aggressively-interrupt-a6760306.html
On top of that Bahar Mustafa, the diversity officer for the Student Union got into trouble because she organised a public event where white men would not be allowed to attend and tweeted: #killallwhitemen While I can understand why certain societies on campus might want private meetings, that's different from Student Union meetings as a whole and certainly isn't excused by saying "well I can't be racist or sexist because I'm not white or male". http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/bahar-mustafas-racism-controversy
This comes at the same time as a wider issue concerning segregation in universities being advocated to cater to more extreme Muslim beliefs: https://youtu.be/2d25-rXuJyo
A safe space which prevents women speaking on free speech, is not a progressive move. It is regressive.
That demands for segregation are not progressive should be obvious. And certainly when it is to cater to Islamic beliefs, it is privileging the most extreme patriarchal elements of that religion. (And it cannot be even be argued to be privileging traditional elements of Islam. Men and women mingle together in many Islamic societies and actually pray side by side during the Hajj).
Bahar Mustafa may just be a bit misguided and the furore around her actions may be a bit of a storm in a teacup, but she represents the same wider attitude which silenced Smuthwaite and Namazie on those other two occasions. This also isn't at all limited to Goldsmiths. I was shocked to hear that Maryam Namazie was actually banned from Warwick University, though thankfully it seems that they've recognised that this was a mistake now.
A left which supports Islamist extremists over the free speech of women and sets up a safe space where challenging the status quo is banned is not progressive. And while social media generally doesn't matter, these polarised unhealthy attitudes are finding their way into the mainstream and, frankly, I'm a little worried....