If all it took to turn a terf into a bigot was to give the author some moderate criticisms about the systemic failings of their world building to turn them into a Nazi, I think the only solution is to prevent terfs from becoming authors.
Either that or we need to accept that this was always going to be the outcome of some privileged rich white idiot who can’t handle the slightest bit of pushback who’d rather cozy up to Nazis than admit that maybe her writing isn’t perfect.
I really disagree that twitter arguments are the same as “moderate criticism”. Even if every single person who criticises someone does so moderately and reasonably, which is already very unlikely, simply being moderately criticised by hundreds of thousands of people is not something the human mind is equipped to deal with in a healthy way.
I disagree with the idea that she needed to be on Twitter and engage in twitter arguments. There was moderate criticisms of her across the net, the fact she WILLINGLY chose to engage in an opinion cesspool that let her drown in shit is her own goddamned fault.
Plenty of other people hired someone to deal with their social media accounts because they didn’t want to subject themselves to socially-acceptable-4chan, she chose to chug sewage straight from the pipe despite having plenty of money and the connections to have it. Honestly, her not engaging with criticism with hostility would have done wonders for the whole situation.
I think you’re focusing on what she could have done differently, and I’m focusing on what I believe will inevitably happen to some people, even if individuals can choose differently. So I’m not saying that “she needed to be on Twitter and engage”. I’m not disagreeing that you can attribute blame to her for engaging in that way, besides blame for her initial opinions.
I’m saying that, from a practical perspective, you can think all of that, but still acknowledge that many people just are not good at disengaging from criticism, and that services like Twitter will inevitably attract people because they’re designed to attract people. So it would be a good idea to try and move away from ways of acting which tend to cause that.
Basically I think we can break down JK’s personality into three initial relevant features:
somewhat bigoted
the kind of person to want to use twitter
stubborn in the face of criticism
Of these, I think only the first is a true flaw and worthy of blame. The second would carry some blame nowadays but back then it wasn’t owned by a Nazi. The second and third both describe a huge portion of humanity. I use Mastodon and other social media, so I don’t feel like I can judge someone negatively for being the same, and I too can be stubborn in the face of criticism, as can many people I know, so same. But bigotry is clearly wrong.
All this means I really only feel like it’s valid to judge JK as if she were the somewhat bigoted person she originally was, rather than today’s turbo-Nazi version of her.
I don’t disagree with a lot of what you wrote, other than the end:
All this means I really only feel like it’s valid to judge JK as if she were the somewhat bigoted person she originally was, rather than today’s turbo-Nazi version of her.
I disagree, we can judge her on the choices she made that brought her to this point. She chose to engage with negative criticism with hostility and surrounded herself with people who validated the beliefs and behaviors that culminated in where we are today.
She could have chosen to remove herself from those situations instead of jumping in with both feet, but there would have been a social/ego cost to it, so she continued letting herself be radicalized into the hateful thing she has become.
And I judge her as someone having almost walked a similar path. I was on the alt-right pipeline over a decade ago when they were getting their feet underneath themselves, and I had a combination of self-awareness/shame that helped me come to my senses.
If all it took to turn a terf into a bigot was to give the author some moderate criticisms about the systemic failings of their world building to turn them into a Nazi, I think the only solution is to prevent terfs from becoming authors.
Either that or we need to accept that this was always going to be the outcome of some privileged rich white idiot who can’t handle the slightest bit of pushback who’d rather cozy up to Nazis than admit that maybe her writing isn’t perfect.
I really disagree that twitter arguments are the same as “moderate criticism”. Even if every single person who criticises someone does so moderately and reasonably, which is already very unlikely, simply being moderately criticised by hundreds of thousands of people is not something the human mind is equipped to deal with in a healthy way.
I disagree with the idea that she needed to be on Twitter and engage in twitter arguments. There was moderate criticisms of her across the net, the fact she WILLINGLY chose to engage in an opinion cesspool that let her drown in shit is her own goddamned fault.
Plenty of other people hired someone to deal with their social media accounts because they didn’t want to subject themselves to socially-acceptable-4chan, she chose to chug sewage straight from the pipe despite having plenty of money and the connections to have it. Honestly, her not engaging with criticism with hostility would have done wonders for the whole situation.
I think you’re focusing on what she could have done differently, and I’m focusing on what I believe will inevitably happen to some people, even if individuals can choose differently. So I’m not saying that “she needed to be on Twitter and engage”. I’m not disagreeing that you can attribute blame to her for engaging in that way, besides blame for her initial opinions.
I’m saying that, from a practical perspective, you can think all of that, but still acknowledge that many people just are not good at disengaging from criticism, and that services like Twitter will inevitably attract people because they’re designed to attract people. So it would be a good idea to try and move away from ways of acting which tend to cause that.
Basically I think we can break down JK’s personality into three initial relevant features:
Of these, I think only the first is a true flaw and worthy of blame. The second would carry some blame nowadays but back then it wasn’t owned by a Nazi. The second and third both describe a huge portion of humanity. I use Mastodon and other social media, so I don’t feel like I can judge someone negatively for being the same, and I too can be stubborn in the face of criticism, as can many people I know, so same. But bigotry is clearly wrong.
All this means I really only feel like it’s valid to judge JK as if she were the somewhat bigoted person she originally was, rather than today’s turbo-Nazi version of her.
I don’t disagree with a lot of what you wrote, other than the end:
I disagree, we can judge her on the choices she made that brought her to this point. She chose to engage with negative criticism with hostility and surrounded herself with people who validated the beliefs and behaviors that culminated in where we are today.
She could have chosen to remove herself from those situations instead of jumping in with both feet, but there would have been a social/ego cost to it, so she continued letting herself be radicalized into the hateful thing she has become.
And I judge her as someone having almost walked a similar path. I was on the alt-right pipeline over a decade ago when they were getting their feet underneath themselves, and I had a combination of self-awareness/shame that helped me come to my senses.