Heaven in Hard Times

In no particular order.

• Freedom of speech does not, nor did it ever, mean freedom from the consequences of speech. Nor does it, or did it, mean one can say anything anytime anywhere.


• Anger is not the worst thing in the world. Anger alone does not invalidate anyone's point, nor does lack of anger validate anyone's. If someone is wrong, they're wrong, no matter how much you like or dislike their emotions.


• Ignorance is not an excuse - but it can be a good explanation. Ignorance will not be eradicated by belittling and silencing the ignorant; in many cases that makes it worse. The only way to eradicate ignorance is education.
  
  • You can't educate the adamantly unwilling; it's not a fault if you choose not to try.
  
  
  • No matter how ignorant you are, no individual owes you an education.


• Intention does not negate action, nor does it do away with the consequences. There's a difference between shooting someone in cold blood and shooting someone in self-defense, but at the end of the day someone still got shot.


• There is a difference between doing and being - someone who is racist might not always do racist things, and someone who does something racist is not necessarily a racist. An accusation of one is not an accusation of the other.


• Acting misogynist might make some boys like you, but they won't respect you - and every self-respecting person even marginally aware of gender inequality issues won't be able to stand you.


• In the same vein, faked misanthropic bullshit for the sake of looking badass (aka being ~*~edgy~*~) might make other idiots with no respect lol with you, but the rest of the world will be lol-ing at you.


• The fastest way to correct an inequality, assuming finite resources, is to take some from one side of the scale and add them to another. If you've always been used to four weights on your side, losing one might seem unfair - but if there are only six weights, it needs to go to the side with two to create balance. There's a vast difference between removing weights to correct an imbalance, and removing them to create an imbalance.


• Protecting a marginalized group from further marginalization is not the same as discriminating against the now-unprotected group.


• There's a difference between viewing women (or any marginalized group) as weak, and recognizing when other people talk or act as if women are weak. Recognition of an unfavorable situation does not condone or create the situation.


• Critique of your work is not the same as critique of your person; if you can't understand the difference, the biggest favor you will ever do for yourself is to avoid sharing your work.


• You can't dictate how other people respond to your ideas or the way you communicate them; nor can you ever say with absolute certainty how someone is feeling.


• Fiction =/= reality; writing =/= acting; thought =/= behavior. If you can't tell the difference between what I think and how I act, the problem is your own inability to separate fantasy from reality.


• You may be the most important person in your own universe, and that's not a bad thing, but expecting to be the most important person in everyone else's universe is just douchey.


• Words mean things. Words also have connotations that aren't necessarily in line with the meaning you intended. Failure to consider this is common. Constant refusal to even be aware of this is just as common, but infinitely stupider.

Without fail, anytime I attempt to discuss -isms outside my usual sphere of sane, intelligent people, I'm reminded why that's a mistake.

http://chime.livejournal.com/147619.html?thread=809379#t809379

Fighting sexism is what makes me weak. Ohhhhhhh. See, 'cause I would've said refusing to challenge that which would paint me as lesser based on my sex is a weaker course than fighting it. But hey what do I know.

I posted this list in my last comment to laura_holt_pi, but I like it so much I'm posting it here, too: Think Women Have Achieved Equality? Think Again.

I'm generally not in the habit of reposting locked community posts, but some ignorance is too great to leave unshared.

A couple days ago, ujay posted in suckitupdyke to say, essentially, her humble opinion is it's the fault of those more...flamboyant...members of the gay community that the community as a whole isn't more accepted in mainstream America.

Right. And it's those damn ghetto-dwellers that cause racism, amirite?

I posted about it here in sf_drama (the off-topic sister comm for stupid_free where we're allowed to snark locked posts)...since then it's only gotten worse.

Or better, if your love of morons overrides your desire to retain any faith in humanity.

Relevant bit of SIUD's userinfo: "There are a lot of kind, well-meaning, always-positive and supportive lesbian communities on LJ. This is not one of them. We are here to tell you point-blank exactly what we think of your problem and exactly what we think you need to do about it."

So she basically went tromping into a gang of bitchy dykes...to tell us we're the problem.

Here's the source, with expanded comments, of page one and page two.

I post this for two reasons: one, for the facepalming hilarity of the OP; two, because the people who take the time to attempt to educate her in the comments do a brilliant job, and turn it into a really good examination of why this mindset is fundamentally flawed.

In all these bandom terminology arguments, I keep seeing accusations that the people arguing for the more general use of the term are being hostile.

And generally I take it with "I haven't noticed it, but maybe I'm just not seeing it when it's on my side."

Perhaps I'll start responding with accusations of butthurt.

fatshionista has been pissing me off a lot lately.

( In which I babble about size discrimination, weight loss, and the dumbassery of 'safe space' )

Let's be harsh. Let's grade papers with angry red pens and let's tell people they're being stupid and let's bring up that horrible discriminatory idea of weight loss sometimes. Let's grow thicker skins...bring on the cats and their claws, we can handle 'em.

Alright, boys and girls, I'm gonna play a little game called "channel the rage into something productive.

I was talking to kelpierocks about the GRAAR, and got to thinking about how I wrote Rocket, Yeah specifically to show how mush can still be in character. I'm not sure how well it succeeded (in being mushy, not in being IC, I'm fairly secure in that, lol), but that was the point.

And I thought, well maybe it'd be a neat idea to write up a short little piece like that for all the Jovi guys, try and bring across what I see as IC mush for each of them.

( First, what I consider IC: )

Anyway. So I wanted to write something that kind of showed all that in a little vignette or whatever for each of them. Thinking about it more, I've already done that with all of them - Rocket, Yeah and Last Cigarette to some extent for JBJ, Novocaine and a few scenes in Rescuer for Richie, any Tico/Nicko I've written, and pretty much any slash with David, lol.

But Kelpie, in her annoying pestering bunny-flinging way ( :D ), got me wanting to write a David/Markus mush bunny. I think we were specifically talking about how if you read a lot of fic about person X you can probably fudge writing them, if you give enough of a shit, and I mentioned Bruce and Markus who I've written with zero research outside fic (which also led to the LOLtacular idea of Bruce/Jon mush, because OMG so wrong [they could wear lockets with a lock of the other's chest pelt inside, awwww]). And I was saying that I could actually see David/Markus mush, because my David is so open and sweet and unabashed when it comes to mush.

So I wrote it. And I didn't like the first effort at all - I overdid my David. A lot. And it was cute and silly, but completely missed the point I was going for.

And here it is:

( Overly Mushy David/Markus )

It's oozy and drippy and far too shmoopy. And what really stuck out for me is I ignored a big part of my David: He's a smart guy, aware that he can't be all snuggly and lovey in public, and he knows how to react to whoever I've got him paired with - ie "I love you, Richie" is not something he'll ever say because he knows Richie has his issues.

There are three ways I could've reacted, upon rereading and realizing I'd fucked David up:

1. Shrug and post it anyway. Not like one bad piece will ruin anything, and this is just for fun and so even if there was anything to ruin, who cares?

2. Fix it. Look at where I failed, figure out if I can patch it up, do so.

There is, of course, always the option to trash, but I'll only trash a piece if I try to fix it and just plain can't. Even then, it's more likely to end up in the "scour for potential good bits" folder than the trash.

For me the obvious choice was 2: what better way to make a point about writing in character than showing how one author treats characterization issues?

( And I did that by... )

The whole thing, now:

( Fixxored )

Still a bit sweet for my tastes - I think, were I planning on working this into something I intended to post somewhere, I'd cut out the first part entirely and just allude to Markus' appreciation of David's openness.

But while I'm aware it's not my best representation of how David does mush, I still managed to take something that to me was entirely unpostable and tweak it into character, simply because I know and care about my characters.

More importantly, I care about my work enough to examine it for issues and to fix those issues. And that care, really, is generally what separates quality from drek.

ONCE, just once, I'd like to read a new Jovi fic by someone who isn't me, or who isn't someone I had to coerce and beg and pleade and push, that doesn't suck. It'd be fun to see new Jovi releases on RockFic without that cold sense of dread in the pit of my stomach.

COME ON, Fandom. Even if you refuse to LOOK at David and Tico, there is so much dysfunctional awesome with Jon/Richie WHY MUST YOU WRITE THEM SHMOOPY AND HAPPY.

If JBJ called Richie "baby" in public, thus accidentally outing him, Richie would STUFF HIM FULL OF BROKEN BEER BOTTLES. Of which he has a good supply because he is a FUCKED-UP ALCOHOLIC HETERO-TO-THE-END DOUCHEBAG stop writing him so well-fucking-adjusted!

*incoherent with rage*

Guy in the row in front of me in the computer lab:

"I just don't get what the first amendment has to do with journalism."

ohsweetJesus