tumblr sensitivity in real life

[Philip K Dick]

I moved to Portland recently. I love it here, but as you might expect from a ultra-gentrified ultra-liberal city composed mostly of white people, I have been experiencing a serious wealth of real life social justice freaks. Reactivist types. Tumblr feminists. Before moving to Portland, my interactions with social justice people were rare, mostly happening with girls I met through tinder. (this is where i would put a thumbs down emoji if i were typing on my phone)

What I mean when I use the terms 'social justice freak' or 'tumblr feminists' is: someone who uses real social issues as a platform to project their ego, or who sexualizes victimhood, or spouts reductive rhetoric in regards to issues like racism, sexism, poverty, politics, etc.

But I refuse to walk on eggshells! I love raunchy jokes and hate sensitivity. I especially hate having PC sensitivity imposed on me. Years ago I had no absolutely no filter, and deliberately provoked offense more often I really should have. But even now, being more grown up and measured, I've offended multiple people with very tame jokes!


What do you think, fellow TBAtertots? What have your experiences been like with gratuitous sensitivity in your real life?

[Bamyasi]

A few years ago at a family gathering I voiced discontent with Obama's presidency, specifically his drone program, Operation Fast and Furious, and his cabinet's handling of the Libyan Civil War, then wondered aloud if I might vote Libertarian the next election, specifically for Ron Paul, because I liked his isolationist stances.

I was then informed by a second cousin that Ron Paul was "racist as fuck" and wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. I kept my mouth shut because I didn't have an answer, but another person chimed in that maybe the issues I was talking about were more urgent to me or something and that it was my right to vote for whomever I wanted to. A less tactful relative asked if maybe it wasn't affirmative action that got Obama elected in the first place, which was a stupid thing to say.

Said second cousin then has a meltdown, goes to a different room and cries on the bed for the rest of the night. Only a few people noticed but we were informed by an elder that the person was having this reaction because they were "transsexual" (they actually meant bisexual).

We're estranged now.

That's probably the worst of it, but I wish I could reconnect with this person because I'd always liked them. I hope to soon.

[basketweaver]

Was struggling to articulate my opinion about this issue, and here it finally is.

I've actually never seen true tumblr SJW behavior in real life, but it's gotten pretty close to it. I don't "look" like a conservative type and everyone assumes I'm a liberal and willing to circlejerk with them about liberal things at any moment. Usually I just hide my conservative opinions in real life by saying I'm a "centrist" (which honestly used to be true before I entered college) or telling half-truth, semi-affirmative responses if someone is doing a liberal diatribe at me. There was one time when a good friend I knew from an Islamic history class dragged me over to sign a petition supporting refugee migration to the United States, which was a tough one since I REALLY don't support that at all, so I just pretended I had an appointment to go to and left without signing. Another time, a club meeting of mine was canceled due to sit-in protests regarding a racebait non-issue, and I remember feeling this strange pressure as people asked me, "Why don't you come protest with us?". 

I guess I just feel like it's not even worth arguing with college students about politics. I really do understand where college liberals are coming from, and many of them are decent people, and I am also way too lazy to really want to "convert" them to the cause. It's also gotten way more difficult to unironically care about political issues after studying Daoism and esoteric perennialism because of arguments like: "We cling to our own point of view as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away." Despite this, I do enjoy making political shitposts online or on IRC, and I do legitimately get upset or sad in a conventional sense when I feel like society is on a bad path, but I also have this apathetic sense where I know that it's dumb for me to worry about society since none of it ultimately really matters anyways.

All this stuff applies to reasonable college liberals though. Extremist radicals are more like angry little children who don't fully know themselves rather than adults with fully-formed beliefs. I do think that it's extremely counterproductive to pick on these people (would you feel comfortable with yourself if you bullied a little kid?), but I guess if you're a naturally raunchy person with no filter, YOLO. You should definitely ignore this type of person unless you feel like you can slap them into awakening IMHO.

[basketweaver]

Said second cousin then has a meltdown, goes to a different room and cries on the bed for the rest of the night. Only a few people noticed but we were informed by an elder that the person was having this reaction because they were "transsexual" (they actually meant bisexual).

We're estranged now.

That's probably the worst of it, but I wish I could reconnect with this person because I'd always liked them. I hope to soon.

Wow, really? Were you the one who triggered (TW) this meltdown, or did it happen for some other reason?

[Bamyasi]

The cousin could not handle three people disagreeing with them at the same time, but I'm pretty sure it was the dumb statement about affirmative action that sent this cousin over the edge.

"We cling to our own point of view as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away."

This is the best quote ever. I have some opinions related to taste that I think I'm stuck with, but my politics are completely malleable. I guess it's different for people who (sometimes rightfully) believe their lives are in danger for not living in a progressive enough society.

All three of your paragraphs are full of truth.

[basketweaver]

"We cling to our own point of view as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away."

This is the best quote ever. I have some opinions related to taste that I think I'm stuck with, but my politics are completely malleable. I guess it's different for people who (sometimes rightfully) believe their lives are in danger for not living in a progressive enough society.

All three of your paragraphs are full of truth.

Thanks. And yeah, I completely agree. I think issues of irrational preferences are basically completely due to your early upbringing and maybe genetics. I absolutely can't stand sleeping in hot weather, and although I can train myself to change this preference, it would just be really hard and painful. So I think I'm stuck with it.

I do feel like a reactionary stranger-of-the-world a lot of the time, but I also think that I'd probably be liberal and revolutionary if I was born into an oppressive political regime. My "real" political opinions are probably nearer to the center, objectively speaking, but I think they just appear to be right-wing because of the way America is in 2016.

[Bamyasi]

I can't sleep in heat either.

I do feel like a reactionary stranger-of-the-world a lot of the time, but I also think that I'd probably be liberal and revolutionary if I was born into an oppressive political regime. My "real" political opinions are probably nearer to the center, objectively speaking, but I think they just appear to be right-wing because of the way America is in 2016.

Same here. Also a lot of my "conservative" opinions come from growing up in liberal areas and having a very liberal family (except for my father). Some people act surprised when I tell them that the most militaristic atheist and bra-burning feminist I know happens to be my paternal grandmother. This is the same woman who would take out her frustrations with her own father/God/men in general on her son (sometimes physically). It's a bad reason for being sympathetic to Christianity, but a lot of people who grew up in religious households think having atheist parents would've been the cat's pajamas, and then people like me who used to think having conservative parents would've been the bees knees (because I'm only a little gay).

Obviously the real problem is always: shitty parents.

[Unless]

What I mean when I use the terms 'social justice freak' or 'tumblr feminists' is: someone who uses real social issues as a platform to project their ego, or who sexualizes victimhood, or spouts reductive rhetoric in regards to issues like racism, sexism, poverty, politics, etc.

People who use any form of condescending interactions with other people to project their ego are annoying. People who have firm, unshakeable opinions on topics and only talk about these topics to 'spread the good word' as opposed to being willing to debate them are annoying as well. These sorts of people tend to be very vocal and constantly impose straw man fallacies and think that they 'won the argument' because the other person doesn't get a chance to get a word in edgeways, which is also annoying as well.

I'd rather just have somebody I can talk to about this sort of stuff than people who are so firmly on one side or the other.

But I refuse to walk on eggshells! I love raunchy jokes and hate sensitivity. I especially hate having PC sensitivity imposed on me. Years ago I had no absolutely no filter, and deliberately provoked offense more often I really should have. But even now, being more grown up and measured, I've offended multiple people with very tame jokes!

My primate experience with feminism is my housemate showing posts about particularly hypocritical OTT feminists online being made a fool of, and I don't think he even realises that spending all day in an echo chamber of like-minded people all thinking they're better than a group of people with differing opinions is just as bad as spending all day in an echo chamber of like-minded people all thinking they're better than a group of people with differing opinions.

I'm not hugely offended by him taking humour in hypocrites being called out on their contradictions, but considering that's by far his biggest experience with feminism, it displeases me that he's just applying this idea of feminism onto anybody who calls themself a feminist. Of course, I can't bring that up with him because then I'm the one who's out of line in assuming he thinks all traditionally feminist values are nonsense, which he doesn't directly say in as many words.

I should stress that concept of boundaries being applied to comedy for fear that somebody may be offended is also annoying as well, too. Any good comedian would rather tell a joke that 66% of the audience find hilarious and 33% find offensive than a joke that 100% found sort of funny they guess. At the same time, there's a massive amount of people that love to say things that are intentionally offensive and also not even funny, just for the shock element, and then like to call you an idiot for pointing out that it's not funny — because it's just a joke and you should get over yourself apparently. Which is stupid.

My sister posts pictures of vegan snacks on Facebook from time to time and people very often reply with "yeah but bacon yum" or something similar but more blatantly patronising, and I don't really get the point of being an asshole in that manner at all.

I remember feeling this strange pressure as people asked me, "Why don't you come protest with us?".

And while I wish I had a few more local activist friends, I am somewhat grateful in that the majority aren't, because this is an incredibly awkward question.
Your marches are noisy and crowded and don't coincide with anything enjoyable going on in the same place and don't even pass by any of the shops I like, also you'll probably just say hi to me and then go talk with your other friends.

[Bamyasi]

Yes echo chambers are annoying but they tend to happen when either side is too emotional for rational discourse, as you stated. Both sides are equally guilty of this in the culture war in question: it's just that most of us (like OP) are from urban areas where tear-stained liberal ideology tends to be in vogue and thus reinforced.

I also don't think people should have to reign in their opinions to facilitate said discourse. Everyone has opinions, and people who profess neutrality or keep silent tend to have the strongest of all, because they don't test them in rational conversation. It's all a matter of how well one can articulate them. Problems SJWs tend to have with conservative "rhetoric" (insensitivity, use of slurs, flippancy, etc.) can be chalked up to the defendant being stupid and thus unable to form coherent arguments. The same goes for conservative issues with SJW rhetoric (oversensitivity, political correction, martyrdom, etc.)

I would consider myself a feminist, but it's almost hopeless to separate the kind of feminism I endorse with Buzzfeed and Gawker's brand: third-wave click-bait bullshit, so I don't typically defend it unless people know what I'm talking about, and those people tend to have better words for it anyway (words that aren't humanism or egalitarianism).

[soup]

im at art school. everyone has dyed hair, wearing flower crowns and what look like trashbags. Im not joking. its like theyre all trying to be really original in the same sad affected way. i look really really out of place in comparison

mostly all of them are in animation. i hate most of the animators. they tried to form a union to get out of doing any work (spoiler alert none of them can draw lol), its pathetic

[Unless]

I would consider myself a feminist, but it's almost hopeless to separate the kind of feminism I endorse with Buzzfeed and Gawker's brand: third-wave click-bait bullshit, so I don't typically defend it unless people know what I'm talking about, and those people tend to have better words for it anyway (words that aren't humanism or egalitarianism).

This is why, while I agree with many of the points for which feminism stands, I'm not willing to call myself one. I realise that there are plenty of feminists that aren't nut-cases, and it takes somebody truly ignorant on the subject to think otherwise, but at the same time you ought be ready to be associated with the negative connotations of the word if you're planning on calling yourself by it. I try to avoid labelling myself too much in any case, if only because they tend to be imperfect and backlash from both sides arises from (mis)using the word. Also because you'd be misusing the word.

its like theyre all trying to be really original in the same sad affected way. i look really really out of place in comparison

You'd be non-conforming too, if you looked just like them.

[SrsSam77]

I don't run into them too often (thank god for north texas) but still more than I would like too.

A few cases that stick out are the time when I saw a protest go on at the college cafeteria I worked at because we had a mexican food event for cinco de mayo where we handed out cheap sombreros as prizes and fake mustaches and the exact people you'd think were screaming bloody murder about it and that we were destroying 500 years of mexican culture (not like the spanish destroyed 2000 years of mesoamerican culture tho lol :^) ).

The other time was when some femishits destroyed a pretty good interactive dada exhibit at my comm college's gallery by by throwing black paint on all the walls and then sloppily painting "GENDER IS A SPECTRUM" in red paint everywhere.

Another one is my reference point for about how unstable I expect those people to be. We had this rather androgynous looking person called kevin in my art class that didn't want to do any work and kept trying to play rather normie level vocaloid music over the speakers, 2 weeks in when the prof told us that we needed to do 10 tiny (like you could put them all on a single page) sketches for a photobashing project kevin stood up and started autistically screaming gibberish, then xir turned to the prof, told him that he's an inhuman slave driver and that xir has a lot of "important stuff going on" that xir needs to do, flipped him off, then stormed out of class and dropped out later that day.

[fish]

I went for dinner with my younger cousin and his mom a couple nights ago, it was kinda nice but his mother is kind of a feminist crazy at times and has a bunch like minded friends - two of which were a touchy lesbian couple.

It wasn't so bad overall they were mostly normal people but there were a few awkward moments like when my younger cousin made a reference to "king of the lesbians" from a popular flash cartoon he saw on the youtube. They assumed it was something I had told him and looked at me asking how a man could be "king" of the lesbians and took time to make some really awkward complaints about how (and I quote) "my pussy isn't aching for cock, do we need a king because all lesbians need cock because I sure don't need cock" in a really standoffish way directed at me for some reason.

I just kinda ignored it and told them they were free to be whatever kind of lesbians they wanted to be. since I didn't really wanna cause any potential friction with family members around.

Being from a small backwards town in the countryside where it's progressive if a black guy moves in - I was pretty surprised how fast they jumped on me knowing nothing about my personality or beliefs and quickly assumed I was either an idiot or a bigot.

[bd648]

[spoiler]

I went for dinner with my younger cousin and his mom a couple nights ago, it was kinda nice but his mother is kind of a feminist crazy at times and has a bunch like minded friends - two of which were a touchy lesbian couple.

It wasn't so bad overall they were mostly normal people but there were a few awkward moments like when my younger cousin made a reference to "king of the lesbians" from a popular flash cartoon he saw on the youtube. They assumed it was something I had told him and looked at me asking how a man could be "king" of the lesbians and took time to make some really awkward complaints about how (and I quote) "my pussy isn't aching for cock, do we need a king because all lesbians need cock because I sure don't need cock" in a really standoffish way directed at me for some reason.

I just kinda ignored it and told them they were free to be whatever kind of lesbians they wanted to be. since I didn't really wanna cause any potential friction with family members around.

Being from a small backwards town in the countryside where it's progressive if a black guy moves in - I was pretty surprised how fast they jumped on me knowing nothing about my personality or beliefs and quickly assumed I was either an idiot or a bigot.

[/spoiler]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCTbFN0EsDM
this is all i could think of. if he means this then good on the kid. this is quality animation.

[Unless]

I was pretty surprised how fast they jumped on me knowing nothing about my personality or beliefs and quickly assumed I was either an idiot or a bigot.

Personally I find it weirder still that they jumped on you over him.

my pussy isn't aching for cock, do we need a king because all lesbians need cock because I sure don't need cock

Yeah, that sentence is pretty much designed to make any situation at least 20% more awkward.

this is all i could think of. if he means this then good on the kid. this is quality animation.

That was pretty gay.

[Bamyasi]

Breaking: millions displaced and seeking refuge due to Unless's continued indifference to flash animation.

college cafeteria

Hey I work at one of those.

I hate it. College kids are d i s g u s t i n g (except basket of course).

Also what the fuck was their defense of ruining that Dada installation?

[SrsSam77]

my pussy isn't aching for cock, do we need a king because all lesbians need cock because I sure don't need cock

She sounds like she hasn't been properly aquainted with the friend of all good lesbians, lesbian bed death, yet.

Also what the fuck was their defense of ruining that Dada installation?

The gist of it was that students could come by and paint or draw something on the walls, like graffiiti, and most people were humble and did a relatively small doodle (on one of the 10x20 walls) and leave, The femishits brutally colonized the space and just shit all over it to push their tumblr psuedoscience and make themselves feel good in the only way tumblr social justice terrorists can, destroying the work of others and ruining people's fun.

[Unless]

Breaking: millions displaced and seeking refuge due to Unless's continued indifference to flash animation.

What? At 0:22, you can see two girls' bathrooms beside each other, which is obviously the work of a stroke of genius. My opinion needn't bother being taken into account with regards to something so unquestionably beyond reproach.

[fish]

Personally I find it weirder still that they jumped on you over him.

Well it's because I'm much older and my younger cousin's mom probably thinks I'm a bad influence or encouraging his recent development to be an MRA and while I'm really not and mostly oblivious to these sorts of things they're holding me accountable for his beliefs anyway. At least that is what I got from it being directed at me. (I told her once I wasn't a feminist and she never forgave me)

And yeah, pretty sure that's the animation. thx

[Bamyasi]

The gist of it was that students could come by and paint or draw something on the walls, like graffiiti, and most people were humble and did a relatively small doodle (on one of the 10x20 walls) and leave, The femishits brutally colonized the space and just shit all over it to push their tumblr psuedoscience and make themselves feel good in the only way tumblr social justice terrorists can, destroying the work of others and ruining people's fun.

Oh that first part was important. Doesn't make it any more forgivable what they did though.

What? At 0:22, you can see two girls' bathrooms beside each other, which is obviously the work of a stroke of genius. My opinion needn't bother being taken into account with regards to something so unquestionably beyond reproach.

You realize it's like, supposed to be stupid right? I'm not even a fan of Harry Partridge but I at least get he's not meant to be taken seriously.

I mean, you do understand the forum you're browsing was once a community dedicated to that medium right?