Comment by Glyptodon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Glyptodon | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I don't know, if a huge amount of people misunderstand or now define something in the same way, does it really matter how nuanced the original intent of the terms was? What I see in public conversations and the media pretty much distills cultural appropriation down to "Did some non-white non-cis group do something first or value it first? Then white/cis people shouldn't do it or express thoughts about it." Maybe there's marginally more nuance shown here and there, but I don't usually see it. At best there's an attempt to hold individuals accountable for what are large scale dynamics within a social graph that expresses the segregation and biases within our culture and society.

I don't think the problem is so much a problem with all politically charged ideas. It seems like there's something specific about ideas with a sort of left-ish academic origin that makes them almost intentionally designed to be distorted or misunderstood by people who aren't deeply a part of the group already. I sometimes think they might even be intended to provoke that kind of reaction and misunderstanding as a form of validation.

I don't think politically charged idea are the issue at all! I just think the way people end up using them waters down the original concepts, then people use it incorrectly/creates a new concept that is divorced from its original meaning. Where it also allows bad actors to use them for authoritarian or selfish means to further their agenda whether it's a politician or someone trying to boost their ego

>distills cultural appropriation down to "Did some non-white non-cis group do something first or value it first? Then white/cis people shouldn't do it or express thoughts about it."

That's my ultimate problem is that news and media regardless of their biases are financially motivated to water down those concepts. Mostly because they can't survive otherwise, it's more about the entertaining version of the news/topic and not the accurate probably boring complicated hard to digest content.

> I don't think politically charged idea are the issue at all! I just think the way people end up using them waters down the original concepts, then people use it incorrectly/creates a new concept that is divorced from its original meaning

See, this just goes to prove that leftish Twitter slacktivists engage in cultural appropriation, too.

I don't think that is technically culture appropriation, but yes they also participate in regardless. I don't disagree that the self-proclaimed activists usually are doing more harm than good when it comes to the causes they're fighting for.

Like body positivity movement often leaves men behind, where just because it isn't as often tied to their value in society like women doesn't mean they should be shamed or feel shame for aspects of their body they can't change. Where looping back to the watered-down version of the main concept, where they are using it as an excuse to stay an unhealthy level of obese. When the goal was more about you shouldn't have to battle a deep shame for being obese as well as the extremely hard habit changes to get out of obesity. Where it should only be optionally brought on yourself it helps you move forward

> I don't think the problem is so much a problem with all politically charged ideas. It seems like there's something specific about ideas with a sort of left-ish academic origin that makes them almost intentionally designed to be distorted or misunderstood by people who aren't deeply a part of the group already. I sometimes think they might even be intended to provoke that kind of reaction and misunderstanding as a form of validation.

Another way of looking at this is that these ideas have little-to-no intellectual content (just some mumbling about "power structures"). They are pure resentment given an intellectual gloss. When the ideas come in contact with the real world, away from academia, that quickly becomes clear.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com