I think this is the problem that 'original sin' fixed. It seems that everyone believes they themselves are good. And thus, they know what's good. But, I doubt that any of us are good. And I don't think good objectively exists, in any case.
Political activism is important. Stand up for what you believe in. But political activism does not mix with an inclusive, warm, welcoming hobby community. If you feel so strongly about your political beliefs that you can't let them rest even in your knitting club, then for the sake of the knitting club you're going to either have to turn it into a political knitting club or watch it fall apart. Maybe that's a sacrifice in pursuit of a greater cause.
I disagree. Just about anything else is more important and productive than political activism. Almost all political activism (in America at least) is either pointless group therapy (e.g. Women's March), astroturfing (e.g. the "election fortifiers") or actually destructive and thus evil (choose your own "mostly peaceful protestors").
Activists have a tendency to indulge a totalizing vision of their activism. Many of the most hard-core activists would see a request to tone down their activism as akin to being asked to remove their limbs. Activism has become the core identity of some of these people.
And if activists' goals are actually achieved, activists usually have trouble letting go of their crusades, and so invent new ones or just become pure grifters. I can see no other explanation for why the most progressive institutions in America, universities for instance, are among those most frequently labeled as bigoted, racist, white supremacist or otherwise "problematic."
Yes, highly contrarian take, but if we ended all political activism tomorrow, we'd be better off.
Dropping words like "evil" for any destructive activity is itself absurdly absolutist.
I mean, I do believe that politics should be extracted from parts of society so we can go back to some kind of harmony, much like we don't eat food or exercise or meditate 24/7. Politics and political consideration, however important, are exhausting and we can't go on thinking about it all day every day.
I agree with your conclusion that politics is about convincing others. That takes more patience than many people seem to have, who are eager to tell the "non-woke" how wrong and bad they are if they don't immediately accept the new gospel.
America's political activists today seem to have zero skin in the game. It mostly seems like a status and power game more than an attempt to fix something. After all, if the problem was fixed, what would these activists organizations do day-to-day? Why would anyone donate to them?
Yawn.
>I can see no other explanation for why the most progressive institutions in America, universities for instance, are among those most frequently labeled as bigoted, racist, white supremacist or otherwise "problematic."
It's weird how you're pretending to make a statement about political activism in general, while only casting aspersions on progressive and leftist activism, using popular right-wing pejoratives ("mostly peaceful protestors") and even "election fortifiers" which is I believe a QAnon meme.
>Yes, highly contrarian take, but if we ended all political activism tomorrow, we'd be better off.
It isn't at all. Pretending to be apolitical while shitting on the left is so common it's practically banal around here.
> using popular right-wing pejoratives ("mostly peaceful protestors")[...]
The 06 January Capitol protestors were mostly peaceful, too. I chose an open-ended phrase open ended for a reason, notwithstanding the fact that many committed leftists I speak to seem unaware that riot police and tear gas were used against Capitol protestors just like the urban rioters last summer.[1]
Besides, the right is entirely disorganized and has essentially no activism to speak of. When the Buffalo guy was arrested, there was no bail fund to go get him out. He's rotting in a jail cell to this day.
It's a plain fact, regardless of position on the political spectrum, that the Right today is basically a joke.
> [...]and even "election fortifiers" which is I believe a QAnon meme.
Your belief is incorrect. I kindly ask you to retract your defamatory statement.
"Fortifying" was used in a Time Magazine article entitled "The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election"[2]:
> That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.
> It isn't at all. Pretending to be apolitical while shitting on the left is so common it's practically banal around here.
I'm not sure where I pretended to be apolitical. I'm merely non-ideological, and thus reject political activism (of the contemporary American type).
And the idea that HN is some right-wing troll farm is laughably funny. If only you could see the downvotes.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trump-supporters-storm-...
One of the commands the various Critical Therories have is to find ‘X’ in everything and expose it. Don’t ask if ‘X’ happened but rather find how ‘X’ happened. ‘X’ can mean racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, etc. And often these terms, like racism, have been redefined to mean something different than what most people think.
So, you can’t just have a nice hobby community according to these therories. You absolutely must unmask the “problematics” in them or else you are perpetuating systemic racism or the patriarchy, or whatever. Any denial that ‘X’ was somehow present is further proof it did happen. Denial is further evidence of guilt. If you don’t join in on the pile-on then you will be cast out and accused of ‘X’ as well and at best have to find new friends and at worst having your livelihood destroyed. So there’s a lot of incentive to “do better”.
The disagreement is over whether it's a good thing (break a few eggs, make a better-society-overall omelette) or a bad thing (anyone can get canceled at any time, everyone divided).
This is true regardless of one's personal political affiliation.
I know at least a few people who think (not without justification) that American political conservatives generally want them and everyone like them dead and/or in some state of second-class citizenship.
On the flipside, I know a handful of conservatives who believe fervently that left-leaning political policy is going to destroy their and their families' livelihoods, leaving their children without the future that they've worked hard to build.
I don't see how anyone could be comfortable in a knitting club alongside someone who they see as a literal existential threat.
The corollary is that it's not realistic to expect hobby knitters to solve a set of radioactively toxic political problems. Not even locally.
Would your hypothetical knitting club allow all patterns? That's a political position. If not, would it allow a pattern with the word "VEGAN" baked into it? Yes or no, that's a political position too.
There's no flow through that paragraph that doesn't end in making a political choice. You can't avoid politics, you can only pretend to.
Not everyone has the luxury of being able to carry out their lives regardless of what happens in politics.
It's relatively easy to pass as any gender, age, race or whatever you want to. Yes, it will be more difficult if you call your account Transwomxn or request that people use xe/xir to refer to you, but if you're SarahKnitting, everybody will just assume you're Sarah and into knitting and will use she. At that point, it might be the right call by the community to not accomodate those that want to focus their membership on their political identity so they can provide a friendly community about knitting for the SarahKnittings of the internet.