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Political vs. Personal intersections.
Apr. 22nd, 2010 08:37 amDear people who complain about having to put up with other people's "political speech",
Sometimes it's not political, it's personal.
And, in the spirit of that, I'm going to use an example of my own:
( Cut for talk of abortion, and skeezy abuse issues. )
And yeah, I can't help but take situations like that personally, because they're directly calling on my experiences. And when I take them personally, it doesn't revolve around feelings of guilt or self-hatred but feelings of being silenced. Nor is my talking about my experiences necessarily political speech, even if the only way you feel affected by them is through politics.
And see, I'm lucky in that the axis on which I have to deal with this is something that reflects a choice that I made. Before going through it, I could try to account for what I might have to deal with afterwards. Not everyone has that option.
In general, I'm just really tired of people who try and turn the experiences of others into political statements. Or conversely, people who dismiss discussions of other's experiences as being icky political speech that just needs to stay away from them.
And if this whole rant sounds obvious and oversimplistic, it's because this is one of those "OMG this is so obvious, so why do so many people JUST NOT GET it" dealies for me.
Sometimes it's not political, it's personal.
And, in the spirit of that, I'm going to use an example of my own:
( Cut for talk of abortion, and skeezy abuse issues. )
And yeah, I can't help but take situations like that personally, because they're directly calling on my experiences. And when I take them personally, it doesn't revolve around feelings of guilt or self-hatred but feelings of being silenced. Nor is my talking about my experiences necessarily political speech, even if the only way you feel affected by them is through politics.
And see, I'm lucky in that the axis on which I have to deal with this is something that reflects a choice that I made. Before going through it, I could try to account for what I might have to deal with afterwards. Not everyone has that option.
In general, I'm just really tired of people who try and turn the experiences of others into political statements. Or conversely, people who dismiss discussions of other's experiences as being icky political speech that just needs to stay away from them.
And if this whole rant sounds obvious and oversimplistic, it's because this is one of those "OMG this is so obvious, so why do so many people JUST NOT GET it" dealies for me.
