Comment by RangerScience
5 years ago
> ideas as either "safe" or "unsafe"
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates left unguarded".
Thing of it is, there ARE safe and unsafe ideas (or, more commonly, safe and unsafe presentation of ideas). And it's critical thinking skills that render you capable of safely handling unsafe ideas / presentations.
You're right that the introspection is valuable, and that encountering "unsafe" ideas should lead to it; so I'm going to suggest: it's a person's attitude towards introspection that realizes the risk posed by an idea.
> who want to silence debate
IMO these people are just very badly communicating the idea "stop talking about other people's lives, and have those people speak instead" (plus layers of baggage and trauma). Halle Berry's recent controversy over a trans role is a good example of this; people talked about how she should't play the role (and some other issues), what they meant was "someone who lived this story should tell this story".
> people are strong/wise enough
Yes. Do you support massively more funding for education? Or do you see something else as a means to fight for this?
> "there ARE safe and unsafe ideas"
A nit to pick: The consequences of ideas can be safe and unsafe. The words "The police are racist" can be questioned, examined, and judged accordingly. The _result_ of the ideas and how you process them are the issue here. Gasoline is perfectly safe if left alone. But thrown in a live fire it will cause major damage.
Discarding ideas simply because others might abuse them isn't the right way to go about this.
> "someone who lived this story should tell this story"
I feel that there is a danger to this argument. It is in the same vein as what I have encountered before: a refusal to hold any sort of meaningful conversation due to an intersectional party who claims that their point is "more valid" because of lived-experience. And they would not allow anyone else to say anything because they were not <insert intersectional crossroads here>.
This promotion, if left unchecked, can mean that the person lives within an echo chamber and can be very unhealthy. They are unwilling to have other people influence them. It can be very detrimental.
> Do you support massively more funding for education?
We homeschool, so I'm not really a proponent of state-run education. However, as a parent just talking to our children and fostering good relationships with everyone around us should be a priority. I'm for the idea that this concept starts within the home and then extends out. Kids mirror what they see at home.
> nit
"What, pray tell, is an outcome? When can the consequences of an action ever be fully accounted for?" (https://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-6/page-112-2/)
> a refusal to hold any sort of meaningful conversation
Hmm. I disagree. This is how you have meaningful conversations; you speak of your own experiences, and you ask people of theirs. I don't see this happen all that often. Mostly I see people, to put it harshly for clarity, dictating to others what those others' lived experiences were. AKA, speak for yourself, not for others. If you find yourself speaking for others, pause, and turn it into a question and ask those others.
I really do mean "this is HOW". As in, if you, the person reading this, does this practice, I would expect you to have a bunch of meaningful conversations where before you might not have. That's how it's worked for me. I'd be interested in hearing experiences to the contrary.
> We homeschool
Do you support maternity/paternity leave, or other societal support for more parents having more capacity to home-school?
> and you ask people of theirs.
In my experience, when dealing with someone who works from an intersectional framework, this isn't something they tend to do. Maybe I've just talked to the wrong people, though. Perhaps I ought to broaden my horizons some!
> Do you support maternity/paternity leave, or other societal support for more parents having more capacity to home-school?
That would be wonderful. I am hoping that many people realize the wonders of homeschooling during the stay-at-home stuff.
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But you see, even if you are a member of an oppressed group, but you, as an individual don't adhere to the ideology of the day, or whose lived experience is contrary to the current narrative, what you say will be ignored or discounted. Ask Terry Crews or any Black conservative.
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