What kind of space am I making here?

Any time I come across an imbroglio/wank etc on the internet part of my reaction is to think "Could that be me?"(*). Since I tend to run a mile from conflict (if someone criticises me I tend to either apologise or "agree to disagree") a lot of the time the answer is "Maybe to begin with, but it wouldn't spiral out of control like that".

But something I am in danger of doing is staying silent when I should confront people, and by my silence implicitly supporting their actions. I've been thinking about the latest explosion with this whole Elizabeth Bear thing and comparing what she did to what I might do in such a situation (I don't have such a large friendslist, and I don't think anyone has ever posted anything critical about me that my friends might takes offense at, so I can't say for sure) But I have a headache and I'm not really up to it.

Luckily On safe space and responsibility is a post which says a lot of what I wanted to, so I shall link to it instead :)

I do mean to have a serious ponder about the downsides and of being "nice" and how responsible I am for the consequences of my own non-confrontationality especially as the moderator of the comments on this lj, but not today, I think. And now for a change, saying what I actually think was the last time I tried pondering it.

(*)though the post ven ve voke up, ve had zese wodies makes the very good point that it's pretty insulting to people being racially attacked to see this educational effect as the primary effect of racism imbroglios without acknowledging the pain they cause

Two unrelated videos and another thing

One of those things which I've been linked to intermittently and finally gone "Oh, wait, this is cool!": http://www.illdoctrine.com/ the video blog of Jay Smooth, a very cool slightly nerdy hip-hop artist who talks about all sorts of things in a really engaging, intelligent, entertaining way.

..and is also very cute *cough*

As someone with a small soft spot for hip-hop I don't like the way hip-hop culture tends to be portrayed, part of me feels rather uncomfortable with the way that say Nerdcore sets itself up in false dichotomy with "real" hip-hop artists who are assumed to never be nerdy etc themselves. (Which is not to say that's all there is to nerdcore etc, just that I get that vibe sometimes)

And now for something completely different: Really cool viral ad for watchmen in the form of a 1970s tv broadcast, via sonictail. You know even if this movie totally sucks, it will be worth it for stuff like this and the vid material. (I've been an Alan Moore fan long enough to set very low standards for a "good" adaptation)

Finally, as someone with (relatively minor) accessibility issues I was also a bit uncomfortable about all the people crowing about Dick Cheney being in a wheelchair. I wasn't sure I could be bothered posting about it and lo! Deconstructing Cheney's De-Inaugural Wheelchair does it for me. Life is good.

(1st and 3rd links via sparkymonster who's lj I randomly clicked to from somewhere totally unrelated)