(no subject)

[alias_sqbr]

Short version: posts about race/gender/disability etc will for the most part now be at Dreamwidth account, under a stricter comments policy.

Something I try to balance in my lj is letting people honestly work through/express their opinions, and stopping people from feeling attacked or hurt by the things other people (or I!) say. Unfortunately, you can't easily do both of those things at the same time, especially since I lack the spoons to moderate very tightly. When I first started posting about race and gender on this lj I was working through the basic concepts, and found it useful to explain myself to people who weren't into the whole anti-racism/feminism etc thing. But at this point I'm sick of re-explaining the same basic ideas over and over again, and I've literally been afraid to post about disability issues because I'm worried someone will say something clueless and hurtful.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided I needed an opt-in filter, that way everyone who commented had agreed to abide by some basic rules without having to try to make everyone else change their behaviour unwillingly. But on the other hand I like having open posts so random people can wander by and I can link back from outside.

And then I went "Wait, I have this Dreamwidth account sitting around I'm not using, and since hardly anyone's friended subscribed to me yet.."

So I've set up some commenting rules (still in beta. It'll probably be a while before I post anything). There's also an lj feed for people with ljs who don't have accounts there but want to read what I'm saying. I'm also pondering an opt-in list for locked posts but will wait until after DW goes into open Beta and it's easier for everyone who wants one to get an account.

I will probably post about social justice type stuff here too from time to time, but only when I can be bothered dealing with the comments properly.

Comments

[tevriel.livejournal.com]

I think this is a very good idea.

I'm still working out what will go on LJ and on DW. Recent... events... have made me less happy about posting personal things in public on LJ, but at the same time, almost nobody is on DW yet, and I don't want to abandon my LJ entirely, so...

It may become the case that some stuff is crossposted, some stuff is DW only (most fandom stuff for a start), and some stuff is LJ only (stuff that's, I don't know, aimed at established LJ social circle, kind of thing). We'll see.

I like the idea of making your DW an explicitly safe space, as a thing where people who already know you who aren't down with tight rules don't have to go there.

I have to say, I'm uncomfortable talking about disability stuff lately, because people with disabilities will often make comments that make me uncomfortable - because they're objecting to behaviour they see as abled people abusing disabled services/accessibility-intended things, and I have these moments of "but I do that, and it's because of my own, oh-so-invisible disability issues, and... invisible disabilities are still real, aren't they?" kind of thing.

It's difficult.

[alias_sqbr]

I was pretty happy when it occurred to me, it turns the "but people have to make the effort to subscribe" thing a feature not a bug :) That and I don't have to figure out what to do with the darn thing, I REALLY can't be bothered crossposting.

I have to say, I'm uncomfortable talking about disability stuff lately, because people with disabilities will often make comments that make me uncomfortable

*nods*

Yeah, that sort of thing is one of the reasons I haven't gotten into disability stuff so much. I also managed to somewhat derail someone else's disability post the other day til she put her foot down, yay me :/

[tevriel.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

Dealing with it can be a hard line to walk between derailing/diminishing someone else's issues and trying to keep a hierarchy of disabled oppression forming/being maintained. Because, yes, my issues are different, and in most cases less severe, etc, but I'm not sure I call it an improvement to cause people with visible disabilities to be hurting those with invisible disabilities without even improving the condition of either group in any other respect...

[alias_sqbr]

*nods* I think people in liminal states around less privileged groups have their own specific set of issues (trans* people are very strong example of this). And unfortunately discussing them can be used as an excuse by those outside both groups to go "See! They're just as bad as us! And their definitions are flawed and arbitrary! Let's stop making false PC divisions and just judge people as people."

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I had a lot of problems with epiphany #2 from your "two epiphanies" post, which I didn't get around to expressing due to a combination of frustration and wariness, so I'm glad you're taking this channel of discussion away to be honest. As you would've seen with my comment on tevriel's LJ the other day, I'm not profitably able to discuss a lot of this stuff at the moment, I still think the standards to which debate is limited / attains kind of suck, and I still think the whole thing is at best marginally worthwhile (and I say a lot of stupid shit as well).

Which is not to say I haven't enjoyed your efforts posting on these subjects, but more and more I feel as if your views are normalised under the lens of external standards of which I'm under-informed / unaware, and that is creating a barrier to my participation and understanding, even in whatever good faith I can manage. Not that I can rightly demand all barriers to my participation should be removed, I need to work on that myself as well, and perhaps it's good for me to be excluded. Either way it would be a red herring, I think, to suggest this is "opening my eyes to what it's like to be oppressed/silenced ...": aside from the initial short sharp shock of being on the receiving end as someone habituated to privilege, I don't see the benefit of setting up asymmetric debates once you move on from those simple beginnings*.

I hope you'll consider my position (probably shared to some extent by other readers) and allow some of the Dreamwidth material (which I don't intend to subscribe to) to filter back to this venue and an audience with a wider range of demographics and interests and a lesser knowledge of the terms and principles within your world o' discussion about prejudice.

* a snapshot of me stuffing my foot down my throat had I commented on your previous posting

[alias_sqbr]

I feel as if your views are normalised under the lens of external standards of which I'm under-informed / unaware, and that is creating a barrier to my participation and understanding, even in whatever good faith I can manage

Same, from the other side. I was hoping working through stuff here would stop too much of a "What the hell is she talking about?" disconnect with my flist, but it hasn't worked that way. I actually used to somewhat feel the same way about a lot of the anti-racist discussions I saw (I mostly don't any more, though some stuff still bugs me ie the intense americanness of it all) which is another reason I worked through stuff on my lj rather than dealing with in spaces where people would get impatient with my not-getting-it-ness. But I had the motivation to continue because my not-getting-it-ness niggled at me like a toothache (and I needed another mental challenge after finishing my Phd :))

I hope you'll consider my position (probably shared to some extent by other readers) and allow some of the Dreamwidth material (which I don't intend to subscribe to) to filter back to this venue and an audience with a wider range of demographics and interests and a lesser knowledge of the terms and principles within your world o' discussion about prejudice.

Absolutely. But only when I think it will be helpful ie I feel up to explaining what I mean in words people will understand, and think the post will do more good than harm. Or I'm feeling troublemaking and want to shake people up :D

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds like good policy ... to some extent. I don't have anything productive to add despite having a lot of further reservations.

[alias_sqbr]

Fair enough.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Should you ever have a spare Dreamy account, you know, I'm poor and worthy:-)

And can I go on te new list?

[alias_sqbr]

Absolutely, though the list of people waiting for a Dreamwidth invite is pretty long. But if you create an OpenID account and confirm your email address you can create a reading list, leave comments, and read locked posts. The only thing you can't do is post blog entries, and apparently you should automatically get an invite to create a Dreamwidth blog on the 30th.

When/if I decide to create the list I'll post to let people know and ask if they want to be on it. It won't be until at least May, by which point everyone who wants a dreamwidth account should have one.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Set up OpenID account.