please temp-ban Mordy from the Thatcher Is Dead thread

i'm not at all chill; that's why Mordy and you so successfully get under my skin when dismissing identity politics, dmac. irl i get tagged as angry more times than not. that's my secret: i'm always angry.

i've endeavored not to get involved in "identity politics" argument as of late but in my experience (mostly irl) i have had many chill conversations w/ ppl who are passionate about these particular issues. it's really only on the internet that i find commentators who seem to be -- idk -- like looking for a fight? or maybe looking to yell at someone as a surrogate for all the other shit they've heard + thought about? but i don't think that describes u at all - i always find you sincere and thoughtful. really the ppl who have historically pissed me off the most on ilx are [i'm putting on my most unsympathetic hat here - i'm sure other ppl see them as important allies] white males who seem like they're trying to earn extra credit by attacking someone whose position might not even be in contradiction w/ [identity studies] but just w/ the superficial politically angry subset that they feel will get them the most traction in online communities. i know it's unfair to call someone disingenuous or speculate about their motivations, but like all the talk of "tone policing" has obscured the fact that most of us care a lot about tone in all areas of our lives. we like to be talked to nicely, and we like to have chill conversations. that's a human thing.

but like i said, i mean i'm like 30 years old now i think there are probably more important things in life than having online debates about hot leftist topics w/ ppl w/ whom i agree about 95% of things but that 5% makes us mortal enemies. so i'm working [have been working] on scaling that back considerably.

the left is pretty marginal in the world anyway. the most radical fringe whose opinions i most often disagree w/ are marginal even to the left. it's not important that i fight those ideas. they barely exist.

better response when not 4am pilled but I want to note hulk ref as soon as poss

really the ppl who have historically pissed me off the most on ilx are [i'm putting on my most unsympathetic hat here - i'm sure other ppl see them as important allies] white males who seem like they're trying to earn extra credit

― Mordy, Saturday, February 14, 2015 5:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

def a lot of cookie seeking out there

the white male cookie gaze: anatomy of ally cookie wanting in post internet affinity communities

one thing thats kind of odd to me abt the internet social justice scene (tho obvs not unique to it) is a. the total denial that it represents a culture b. the unwillingness to see that some ppl might find that culture obnoxious in a way that doesnt represent siding with its hegemonic enemies

idk how many times ive heard ppl express the sentiment we are just ppl who are fed up and fighting oppression, tho im sure the vast majority of ppl who have ever come close to expressing that opinion wld in safer spaces have a lot to say abt the culture of social justice

the sense of total war, projection, and aggression is pretty sad and goofy overall and often leads to an impression of ppl devoid of self awareness, the saddest part of it of all tho is obvs the enemies of social justice are very real and do need to be fought but this approach of all out internet warfare is a recipe for burnout that is destined to rob the movement of valuable people and any sort of wisdom earned through experience, just feeding more young virtual cannon fodder through the humanities to battlefield pipeline

a lot of this is prob just a symptom of our overly extroverted society in general and the same tendencies can be seen in pretty much any group you want to look at, and to be sure im just musing and wldnt pretend to have any sort of handle on the totality of the situation, also the internet warfare is really good sometimes too imo and rasies all sorts of worthy important questions that i personally at least have learned a lot from

+academic language is the worst

let's unpack that last statement

lol

you will then need a lens through which you can view the unpacked statement

then maybe you can view that statement again, but through a different lens

srsly we need to tease lagoon out from his cave more often for these longer thoughts imo

Pretty sure he lives in an actual lagoon not a cave

i only surface for one sentence at a time

lag∞n uncoils himself in the I Love Hoops forum, where he displays his passion and erudition at greater length than one sentence at a time.

some things are important enough to demand my full effort

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B96RtQPCMAARMPo.png

theres a web comic for everything now

http://www.ssobrasil.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/suicide.gif

comics r bad ppl shd grow the heck up

joeks on u thats a webcomic, from the web

http://shermanslagoon.com

shermans march to the lagoon

this approach of all out internet warfare is a recipe for burnout that is destined to rob the movement of valuable people and any sort of wisdom earned through experience, just feeding more young virtual cannon fodder through the humanities to battlefield pipeline

tbf this same cycle exists in "irl" or "afk" w/e activism too--people who've read lots of critical theory going all to the wall and maybe winning a few, maybe losing a few, then realizing society still sucks and all their righteous energy is burnt up for a while. the unique danger of this stuff on the web i think is that the cycles are faster and the echo chambers longer and more hardened from the outside world: you're supported by your community and shielded from damaging things unless the damaging things are explicitly a target for you to direct antagonistic energy at, so you come out the echo chamber a spent husk disillusioned with everything in the world as much as the internecine warfare within your echo chamber.

the web is a realm of pure ideology for ideologies sake, an ideologysphere, its insane and terrifying

i think if you read "critical theory" and come away thinking you can change the world through angry tweeting you've probably read the wrong theory or read it very, very poorly.

idk there is a certain underlying logic there, like the critical theory might not be saying that u can change the world through tweeting but then again it itself is in the form of just a very long tweet

i used to have a friend who went to seminary who liked to say all the problems with christianity would be solved if people just "read the bible." same thing applies to theory some respects.

read yr blogs ppl, read yr blogs

maybe it's like okay Adorno makes it seem pretty hopeless but if he had been alive for Twitter he would've understood its revolutionary potential

Adorno turned his back on actual political activity, arguing that the relentless negativity of dialectical criticism was the only thing that could stay true to the progressive spirit of the Enlightenment that history had failed to actualize. This is not a far cry from the "sense of total war" lagoon describes, although it's true adorno's writings are more careful and nuanced than most tumblrs. The turn from activism to criticism ppl are describing seems to exist in the earliest texts considered part of the critical theory canon.*

*Not disparaging anyone here, least of all not Adorno

'the only philosophy which can be responsibly practiced in face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption'

it always bums me out that there are ppl out there depressed because they read some bs critical theory about the ennui of late capitalism

id actually be curious to know *which* theorists--if any--really inspire the "internet social justice" culture. i dont follow it very much so i dont know.

in my case i was depressed before and found that sort of thing sustaining and inspiring on the whole even if there is a lot of misleading crap in there. xp bet he's thinking of jameson

bell hooks seems real popular xp

hooks, lorde, foucault, a scoop of adorno in there, and then all of it on puree until you have a nice flavorless slurry

dudebros love zizek

like its less critical theory i think than like second-gen popularizations of ideas that originally were proposed by critical theory?

xps

jameson, especially later jameson, is pretty damn nuanced and not very easily appropriated to this or that activist agenda. despite some marxist protestations otherwise he's always seemed more interested in the status and possibility of *theory* as a discipline. im working my way through all of his stuff lately so i could be wrong.

i was thinking maybe foucault--especially "history of sexuality" foucault?

yeah the only people i know who talk jameson regularly are not enmeshed in this culture really

much prefer the bell hooks personal experience vein of theory influenced twitter to the adorno actually socialism ppl myself

like its less critical theory i think than like second-gen popularizations of ideas that originally were proposed by critical theory?

yeah this is what i mean. i dont think a careful reading of foucault or whoever is really gonna jive with what some of these types seem to think they are doing. that's what good about theory--it's in tension with activism. this doesn't mean dont be an activist but it does allow you to critique it, and it leaves you open to critique yourself.

ftr the most textbook tumblry social justice person i know is writing their grad thesis on *capitalism & schizophrenia*

my method for judging philosophers: how awful are their admirers on twitter

i judge by their quote bots

can I be an ally if I don't have a twitter?

i judge by their quote bots

― ryan, Friday, February 27, 2015 2:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a good praxis too tbf