Yknow you guys. I understand calling folks out on their bullshit. However, is there really a need to jump on the bandwagon of bullying folks with good intentions especially hard when they slip up and say something regrettable?
We get off on knowing we're part of a group of like-minded folks bashing some celebrity or newsperson or activist or even just your average OP for saying or doing that one thing that one time we find so immensely deplorable while completely forgetting how we were in-fucking-love with them like half a second beforehand. Do we not get how people work, that we're fallible?
To completely ignore all the good that someone has done simply because we were clever enough to catch how they slipped up or misspoke one time is NOT the same thing as recognizing that we're not all perfect. We should hold our heroes to a high standard, sure, but I would question the wisdom of making heroes out of humans without recognizing that they still are human.
It is the good that we do in spite of all the crap that we do, it's that we're still growing and changing and our views may differ by the hour, it's that life is more a dialogue than an inaugural address--these are measures of how we should talk about people. Turning an actual real-life person into our scapegoat. for whatever personal social justice crusade we're on is a pointless exercise in shaming.
If we wanna make a real difference for whatever cause we think they offended, we should do more to promote the good being done, growing those roots deeper and those branches higher. Jumping on the hate train may make us feel better in the moment, but it probably does less to help than we realize.
What do you think?
I agree. It all comes back to treating people the way we want to be treated. When we stop treating people as folks like us, and start treating them as objects for our worship or our scorn, we also lose something of ourselves.
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