Just for reference:
Aug. 21st, 2013 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynI have a Tumblr. I got it because I was tired of trying to remember the names of all the Tumblrs I wanted to check up on individually - Escher Girls, Fatty Thor, Memos From Fury, Nature Wants To Eat You, and so on. I originally thought I was just gonna use it to post some recipes, otherwise. I've since taken to posting and reblogging other things that I think are neat.
However.
If someone else's post says "Reblog this if", I won't.
If someone else's post says "Signal boost", I probably won't, although I reserve the right to do so should I choose.
If someone else's post is an attempt to name and shame someone for being a horrible person, even if they deserve to be known forever as a horrible person because they're exceptionally horrible and the world is trying to make them look good, I'm not going to reblog it.
If someone else's post says "Always reblog" or "PEOPLE DESERVE TO KNOW" or "I DON'T CARE IF THIS MAKES YOUR PRETTY BLOG LOOK UGLY, THIS IS IMPORTANT, REBLOG IT", I particularly won't.
Nobody gets to tell me what goes on my blog. No one. And the harder people try to make me feel guilty for not doing it, the less likely it is that I'll respond.
I came to Tumblr to look at funny things and pretty things and maybe wince a bit at stuff that didn't look quite right. I got that, but I also got buried under an avalanche of Righteous Outrage and Outraged Righteousness and enough feminist analysis of everything in the history of ever that my shoulders reflexively tense up at the syllable 'bech' whether the next one is 'del' or not. And, you know, that's okay- discussion and outrage and free exchange of ideas are all part of changing the world around us. Tumblr's a platform for that.
But you know what else?
I donate to Amnesty International; I write and send emails and letters for them on behalf of prisoners of conscience and other individuals whose causes they've taken up. I donate to Greenpeace and write and send emails to corporations and legislators as part of their environmental campaigns. I regularly submit comments to Federal agencies for environmental causes, social causes, and other issues. My Senators and Representatives have been hearing from me about the causes and issues I think are important on a regular basis for years now, and I don't mean via petitions, I mean by emails and letters that they've actually had to answer, and phone calls to their offices. I contact bank officials on behalf of Occupy Our Homes' efforts to keep people from being thrown out of their houses after predatory lending practices have screwed them over. I get email about all of this and more every single day. I get physical mail about all of this every single day. I already know what you're trying to shove in front of my face, Tumblr.
This isn't privilege talking- this isn't me saying "boo hoo hoo I shouldn't have to face the unpleasantness because it makes me unhappy when I was perfectly content before!" I wasn't. I was already unhappy about this stuff. And it's because I already know this stuff. I'm already working on this stuff. I have been working on this stuff, whether it's gender or race or religion or environment or whatever. I don't talk about it because I was brought up to believe that if you did a good thing and then you bragged about doing a good thing, the kudos you got for doing a good thing were the only reward you got for doing the good thing and so the good thing no longer had any merit or meaning.
Maybe I'm not doing enough. I don't know. But the fact is that I'm doing as much as I can handle, and I reserve the right to respond to social/racial/economic/gender/sexual injustice and environmental devastation in the ways I think I can best manage. That includes governing my intake of information on the topics as well as reacting to them or relaying information about them. So if you think I don't care, fine, whatever. If you wanna unfollow me, also fine, whatever. I don't have to prove anything to you.
I'll do my thing. You do yours. And be aware that I may choose not to look at your information no matter how important you think it is, or respond in the way you think is important. That's all.
However.
If someone else's post says "Reblog this if", I won't.
If someone else's post says "Signal boost", I probably won't, although I reserve the right to do so should I choose.
If someone else's post is an attempt to name and shame someone for being a horrible person, even if they deserve to be known forever as a horrible person because they're exceptionally horrible and the world is trying to make them look good, I'm not going to reblog it.
If someone else's post says "Always reblog" or "PEOPLE DESERVE TO KNOW" or "I DON'T CARE IF THIS MAKES YOUR PRETTY BLOG LOOK UGLY, THIS IS IMPORTANT, REBLOG IT", I particularly won't.
Nobody gets to tell me what goes on my blog. No one. And the harder people try to make me feel guilty for not doing it, the less likely it is that I'll respond.
I came to Tumblr to look at funny things and pretty things and maybe wince a bit at stuff that didn't look quite right. I got that, but I also got buried under an avalanche of Righteous Outrage and Outraged Righteousness and enough feminist analysis of everything in the history of ever that my shoulders reflexively tense up at the syllable 'bech' whether the next one is 'del' or not. And, you know, that's okay- discussion and outrage and free exchange of ideas are all part of changing the world around us. Tumblr's a platform for that.
But you know what else?
I donate to Amnesty International; I write and send emails and letters for them on behalf of prisoners of conscience and other individuals whose causes they've taken up. I donate to Greenpeace and write and send emails to corporations and legislators as part of their environmental campaigns. I regularly submit comments to Federal agencies for environmental causes, social causes, and other issues. My Senators and Representatives have been hearing from me about the causes and issues I think are important on a regular basis for years now, and I don't mean via petitions, I mean by emails and letters that they've actually had to answer, and phone calls to their offices. I contact bank officials on behalf of Occupy Our Homes' efforts to keep people from being thrown out of their houses after predatory lending practices have screwed them over. I get email about all of this and more every single day. I get physical mail about all of this every single day. I already know what you're trying to shove in front of my face, Tumblr.
This isn't privilege talking- this isn't me saying "boo hoo hoo I shouldn't have to face the unpleasantness because it makes me unhappy when I was perfectly content before!" I wasn't. I was already unhappy about this stuff. And it's because I already know this stuff. I'm already working on this stuff. I have been working on this stuff, whether it's gender or race or religion or environment or whatever. I don't talk about it because I was brought up to believe that if you did a good thing and then you bragged about doing a good thing, the kudos you got for doing a good thing were the only reward you got for doing the good thing and so the good thing no longer had any merit or meaning.
Maybe I'm not doing enough. I don't know. But the fact is that I'm doing as much as I can handle, and I reserve the right to respond to social/racial/economic/gender/sexual injustice and environmental devastation in the ways I think I can best manage. That includes governing my intake of information on the topics as well as reacting to them or relaying information about them. So if you think I don't care, fine, whatever. If you wanna unfollow me, also fine, whatever. I don't have to prove anything to you.
I'll do my thing. You do yours. And be aware that I may choose not to look at your information no matter how important you think it is, or respond in the way you think is important. That's all.
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Date: 2013-08-21 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 06:52 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, with the changes from text-based to visual-based blogging, I don't think the younger generations have the platform we did to talk these things out. Tumblr, in my opinion, is for looking at stuff, and not really discussing serious topics. But it's all some users have, which is a shame. And the misinformation? Yeeeeesh.
I have plenty of the real world to deal with, and plenty of upsetting things to fight against. I just wanna look at pretty pictures in peace.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 10:19 pm (UTC)Definitely agreeing with this thought. It doesn't help that many of the you must reblog posts that I see scattered about on various and sundry Tumblrs are...to put it charitably, well meant but not often well thought out. Which is not to say that there isn't some amount of truth in what's being said, or ideas that may be worth contemplating, but I do agree that it often doesn't lead to an actual discussion -- just the temporary high of shouting into an echo chamber so loudly that you can't hear anything but the same thing you're saying back at you.
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Date: 2013-08-22 05:30 pm (UTC)And...it's horrible of me, but I'm kind of pleased that my Always Reblog list consists of:
Darkwing Duck, Freakazoid, Symbiotic Titan, and Samurai Jack.
:D
no subject
Date: 2013-08-21 08:07 pm (UTC)I just try to balance them out with silly and cute and maybe interesting historical stuff. Sorry if I've added to the flood on your dash, its a tough thing to work out.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-22 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-22 06:36 pm (UTC)I like a lot of things about Tumblr, but it's so young. It's so reactive, so much response without context or analysis. Elseweb, I've blamed it on the format- it isn't a place for discussion, it's a place for presentation. It's a crowded lecture hall where you take turns at the podium but can only address the audience, not an individual, and that feeds into a tendency to passive-aggresiveness and grandstanding.
I try to have some patience with it, and remind myself that humans are still animals who mostly want to act along with society, and while I might not like all the voices yelling about which way to go, there's doubtlessly someone out there that may find that a useful guide for what we do now- visibility, in and of itself, can be useful, even if I, personally, find it annoying (Damn You Kids Get Off My Internet). But sometimes people will read a three sentence post who would feel intimated by a ten paragraph essay, and it will expose them to an idea or acceptance of an idea they might otherwise have avoided. It would be better if the "Agree with us!" posts had some more useful components more often, but then I remind myself, Tumblr is young, maybe these are baby steps. I hope.