Read on Twitter
In the last 2 days I've learned that Twitter isn't for shade 
. It's for interpreting people in the least charitable way so that you can prove how virtuous you are by being hostile AF to the "bad guys" (who are actually members of your community trying to have a discussion)
. It's for interpreting people in the least charitable way so that you can prove how virtuous you are by being hostile AF to the "bad guys" (who are actually members of your community trying to have a discussion)
The worst possible interpretations of others are bad. The aftermath: The blocking, the subtweeting, the sanctimony, the acting like this is abuse rather than conflict is just horrible. This is bad praxis. The community is weaker for it. I hope y'all got the 'likes' you wanted tho
There are probably a couple of dozen opinions of mine that would get me cancelled by this community. A few that I know of. Probably many more that I have no idea are "problematic" in someone's eyes. But here, "problematic" means you're trash - might as well be Donald Trump.
...or simply "interpreted to be problematic" if we're being honest...
I know not to talk about those things. It's alienating AF to be a genuinely compassionate person, a leftist, someone who is of and stands with the marginalized... yet I have to 
in order to not get cancelled in a supposedly revolutionary, radically inclusive community.
in order to not get cancelled in a supposedly revolutionary, radically inclusive community.
And, this is coming from someone who is on the "good" side of things. Imagine how alienating this must be for people have the "bad" politics or are still ignorant of the latest woke words or takes. There's a fuckton of those people in this community, too. They know to be silent.
No one is having a conversation with them. No one in this (online) community is going to convince a single one of them to not be racist, or transphobic, or problematic, or whatever because we all know you can't talk about anything without someone getting derby cancelled.
Hell, you come on here and tongue in cheek post that Twitter is for shade (because you don't use it much and every time your attention is called to it, it's some shady tweets) and you end up getting dogpiled and you delete your tweet. Twitter is for fucking dogpiling people 
...oh, and for subtweeting about them, spreading a misinterpretation of their words, and getting 
's for saying today's bad people are bad - and by extension I'm good... 1 = 1
...
's for saying today's bad people are bad - and by extension I'm good... 1 = 1...
This is the community...and it's not good. I'm still flabbergasted that we canceled Vagine Regime and replaced it without a robust discussion about why. I know why we didn't discuss it. We can't handle it. It's dangerous to talk about it. WTF is wrong with us that it's like this?
Last year at the BOTAS afterparty I wore a VR hoodie and someone told me "it's brave" to wear it. I didn't fully appreciate what that meant until I had discussions with many different people about their (reasonable IMHO) opinions of it which they didn't dare say publicly.
Y'all think this community is so progressive or so woke or whatever synonym for politically "good" you want to use. I think you're just the loud ones. You haven't enticed the others into solidarity, you've policed them into silence. You are our cops. Our problems aren't solved.
If you want to be a radically inclusive community through-and-through, those of you who think you're the most woke, the arbiters of good and bad - you're gonna need to change and try something else. Maybe start with not approaching all of this like you're perfect. You aren't.
Lastly, to be clear: I don't absolve myself of needless sanctimony. I don't claim endless patience, grace, or ability to convince others. DerbyTwitter isn't unique in this dynamic. Derby isn't unique. We live in a society. But we can do better.
