I don’t want to get into the weeds about this much but here is today’s mini rant. Holy pope on a rope am I tired of folks being immobilized from taking ANY action at all because that action may be seen as imperfect.
I am using the Buy Canadian movement as an example because I have never seen so much hand wringing over what constitutes “Canadian” in my LIFE. Yes, for sure it would great if you could buy 100% Canadian from a company that is HQd in Canada, is listed on the TSX and who employs Canadians. But it isn’t very realistic. Firstly, we don’t have everything we need here – it’s a global economy; and secondly, most products are a combination of: sourced, made, packaged, cooked, designed in, supplied by, HQd in…etc.
I am very tired of coming across posts every day by martyrs hoping to lead us all down the road of salvation by eulogizing on the topic of inclusivity. They (rightly) point out that disabled folk, poor folk, newcomers, older folks etc. may not be able to fully commit to this movement because of limitations and barriers. But the thing is: no one is going after marginalized people! We instinctively know that not everyone is able to fully participate.
As a person who is disabled it absolutely infuriates me when someone white knights their way into using marginalized folks as a shield for their own behaviour. I know a lot of disabled folks. They were able to function before amazon and almost no one I know uses amazon at all because there are alternatives. Even if they are, no one cares that they are. Writing a post about how if amazon goes away it will harm disabled people is a red herring these people use to justify their own unwillingness to divest from their comfortable and easy purchasing decisions. What they are looking for is absolution and they are getting it by posting and seeing all the comments agreeing with them. But I am willing to bet that they’ve never advocated for more accessibility in their communities (ramps and door openers are a great start!) and probably use the disabled stall with regularity.[1]
This is not a treatise against advocating for marginalized communities. Au contraire, it’s a call to reflect on whether or not you are using marginalized folks to gain wider culture points or as a justification for your own choices. But generalizations exist for a reason and so when someone says, “Buy Canadian!” it is with the caveat that we all have limitations that others may not see. Perfection is the enemy of the good, after all.
Here she goes again…algorithms
But we aren’t good with generalizations anymore because if we don’t caveat every single minute possibility, it’s a feeding frenzy online. You can’t say the most neutral thing in the world like, “my favourite colour is red,” without someone screaming in the comments, “WHY DO YOU HATE BLUE!?” Then it goes viral and you are the baddie-de-jour. It’s the lowest common denominator of human interaction that allows zero grace for humans acting human.
Because the algorithms favour pile-ons, we get served up a lot of this viral content, which we react to, thus furthering the reach and influence of it. In turn, we have trained ourselves to be overly-cautious with our language so that we don’t anger – and we get rewarded by – complete strangers on the internet. So at the risk of inciting rage in others, our very basic, general post about liking the colour red now becomes, “I love all of the other colours but my preference is red – not that it’s better or worse than the other colours – it is just what, I personally, prefer.” I think also that goalposts are constantly shifting online not because it leads to bringing more people to your side but because once people become acclimated to certain rules in the in-group, the only way to peel away from the pack is to take more outlier behaviours and try and normalize them with new viral content. This new standard gets shared widely and those folks go viral and get more followers. This creates a new outsider group of people who aren’t terminally online & who didn’t know about the new thing. Voila: new people to pile onto! Rinse, repeat.
I am sure if you lean left you read the above paragraph as a condemnation of the left but also if you lean right, you’ve read that as a condemnation of the right. That’s how insidious this system is and why bad actors often chaotically post extreme content from both ends of the political spectrum: it works. It also pushes us further away from each other.
Interestingly, bots have latched onto this & a lot of creators are discovering if they do videos on, say, Russia/Ukraine, the whataboutism pile-ons start in the comments, “Forget Russia! What about Gaza? Isreal is the real monster here!” But people can care about multiple things so I dunno what to tell ya, bots. But I think it is telling that foreign interference agencies have discovered that we are motivated to change our opinions and methods of communication based on the bullying in comment sections, so why not step into that vacuum and create some fake drama? At the very least it will stir in some doubt (much like if you click your red ruby slippers three times and constantly post, “Ukraine invaded Russia” on Truth social, eventually some people will believe it).
Step back.
Assume that people are trying their best.
Ask yourself, “is this a positive and productive post/comment I am making?”
Be clear with what your intended goal is in posting/commenting.
Give grace. We’re all at different stages of our journey.[2]
[1] there is usually only one disabled stall in a public bathroom and you should always leave it for disabled folks, if you can. If there is a line up, please allow people who need the accessible stall (or in the case of someone who needs to change a baby because often the station is in there) be next in line for it. If you are able-bodied you usually have the choice of many, and we only have the one. Also, some people require urgent access to a bathroom due to the nature of their disabilities.
[2] There was a time when I was a chronically online edgelord but I have really cleaned up my act since the pandemic. It’s ok to change, even if it is only marginally better, that’s still better. There is a post probably in here about how most progressive men often find me exhausting due to sexism but they will claim it is because I am too opinionated/abrasive. Ironically, it’s never the men in that social group who are considered obnoxious even though they often spout similar commentary (or in some cases, repeat/steal what I have said to much kudos).
