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one last thing before I go back to grading…
one thing I’ve seen a lot of this year is people (rightly) talking about how the internet is a bad place. and it IS toxic and I *do* think it has changed our culture in some inherently evil ways, but 1/
one thing I’ve seen a lot of this year is people (rightly) talking about how the internet is a bad place. and it IS toxic and I *do* think it has changed our culture in some inherently evil ways, but 1/
every day I get the privilege of being a part of the @XPlaintheXmen fan community built by @NotLasers. Jay has spoken in a few places about using the digital realm as a social justice tool (alongside @Elana_Brooklyn & others!) and the platform Jay has built inspires me daily. 2/
the X-Plain Discord is a place where we (as moderators and community members) get to do the brave (and scary, sometimes) work of figuring out how to build safe and inclusive communities with heart. 3/
every day, I get to watch people have conversations about learning and unlearning. I get to see young queer and trans kids witnessing older queer and trans people live and survive. I get to talk with all sorts of people about all sorts of things. 4/
and one of the coolest things, I think, has been watching people (myself included) commit to others. commit to learning in public. commit to owning when they make mistakes, commit to listening, commit to allyship. 5/
what we do in the X-Plain Discord has informed what I do in my organizing, in my friendships, in my *classroom* 6/
earlier this year, I saw a film premier at the Montana film festival that was supposed to be about how young white men are indoctorined into white supremacy — it wasn’t a great film and the conversation I had with the writer after the film made it worse. 7/
this writer saw people who make relationships online as “isolated.” and everything I know about the internet — which has been gathered over 14 years of Being Online — says otherwise. 8/
and nowhere is this MORE true than on the X-Plain discord. there’s the basic level of “people from all different walks of life talk to each other in open, compassionate ways,” yeah, but there’s also something bigger happening there 9/
people plan meet ups, people send each other care packages, people lend and give folks money to make it to the end of the week. in February, Sam and I picked up the lovely @montivagantal after they broke their ankle at their dorm. THIS IS COMMUNITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY. 10/
the X-Plain Discord *is* my model for what the internet can be, but it’s also my model for what *the world* can be, post-internet, post-iphone, post-social media. it is the intergration of the digital realm and the physical in its greatest form. all the love. 11/11
