Links and some ranting

[sqbr]

Hacking at Education: TED, Technology Entrepreneurship, Uncollege, and the Hole in the Wall The anti-social libertarian intellectual emptiness underlying a lot of TED-esque ideas.

On political and value neutral Everything with any message at all has a political subtext.

Why I don't like the dragon argument Points out that "if you can have dragons why can't you have POC" has some unfortunate implications that work against it.

words against communication and Also you get things like... The way worrying about appropriation/stepping on disabled people's toes can stop some people from realising they are disabled themselves. (Not that able bodied people shouldn't worry, just that it's complicated!)

Refusing to have the “What You Did” conversation "1 The ‘what you did’ conversation implies the ‘what you are’ conversation. 2 The ’what you are’ conversation is uncivil and silencing. 3 Therefore, it’s uncivil and silencing to discuss ‘what you did.’"

Frustrations of being a black gamer playing BIOSHOCK INFINITE

Sweatshops still make your clothes

Meet the 28-Year-Old Grad Student Who Just Shook the Global Austerity Movement

Vilification and 'just having a laugh' About the racist jokes in my old Uni's satirical newspaper

Righteous Wroth Rarely Is OMG a criticism of excessive social justice where the group making the criticisms (in this case, women) are the victims of the oppression ostensibly being attacked with too much zeal (eg sexism) I have Thoughts about the very complicated way mental illness (which often creates an inability to behave in the way society demands) interacts with the somewhat narrow sets of behaviours expected of a Good Ally/Activist but am not quite up to articulating them.

$300 for Julia Gillard's NDIS scheme? Please, my wheelchair costs $22,000 Apparently some Australians are ok paying taxes and levies for roads and schools but draw the line at helping disabled people.

And from the hahaha what department...

Report warns of 'unburnable carbon scenario' OH NO PEOPLE MIGHT STOP USING PETROL AND DAMAGE THE ECONOMY. SURELY THIS IS THE WORST CRISIS HUMANITY WILL EVER FACE.

All Our Little Lives Justifies "#followateen" (where 20 and 30 somethings secretly follow and snark on the twitter feed of a random teenager) by saying (a) "Twitter is inherently voyeuristic" (not the way I use it! Is it actually normal to follow random regular people you don't know without telling them? I thought most people followed celebrities and friends) and (b) "Adulthood is about closing down, about keeping things to yourself, building defenses, maintaining dignity, putting a polite face over impolite reactions. Adolescence lacks these filters." NO IT DOESN'T. TEENAGERS ARE THE MOST SELF CONSCIOUS BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE. Sure, a lot of them post random boring crap: SO DO MANY ADULTS. THE SORT YOU AVOID FOLLOWING ON TWITTER BECAUSE THEY ARE DULL.

But logic flaws aside, this trend really bothers me. If you want to follow some other random adult, go ahead, I guess. I'll think it's a bit weird but I have my own weird interests. If you want to learn more about the POVs of teenagers because you think they have Special Insights, go ahead. But adults mocking teenagers? And treating them like pets they have no responsibility to even though they know the teenagers in question would probably be horrified? Is super creepy and ethically untenable. Adults have HUGE power over teenagers, and we have a responsibility not to abuse it. It horribly trivilaises the very real and painful experience of being a teenager so that adults can feel smug about how superior they are. It's one step up from going around shopping centres mocking little kids for believing in Santa, and about as mature.

I'm not immune to the joy of mocking people (I often wish I was, but I am what I am) But as with all painful humour the trick is to punch up (or at least sideways), not down. If you want to post updates about a silly, fluffy young thing with no real worries TALK ABOUT YOUR CAT.

And if you want to get to know teenagers, start a tumblr! Go to an anime convention! Join a uni scifi club! Become a tutor! Maybe even volunteer at a kid focused museum or whatever if you have the time. Of course then you won't be able to sit at a distance snarking and may have to actually TALK TO THEM and treat them like ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS. Which may spoil the appeal, I suppose.

I had some more here about age and stuff but it got so long I may make a separate post.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Looks like the NDIS will go through, hooray! It's very frustrating to have to watch people on the TAC and Workcover have their medications fully covered while people with identical conditions struggle to pay for everything themselves. Not that the TAC and Workcover are perfect, but they're a vast improvement over "sorry, deal with it yourself."

[sqbr]

Right! I'm not the NDIS will actually affect me much personally but I'm still glad of it.

[jesse_the_k]

Wow! That was as crunchy as a bag of Barbara's Cheese Curls (mmmm). I'll be right back to comment in six weeks. Thanks.

[sqbr]

Hee. Yeah, I kept forgetting to post the links so the list just kept growing.

[carmarthen]

"Adulthood is about closing down, about keeping things to yourself, building defenses, maintaining dignity, putting a polite face over impolite reactions. Adolescence lacks these filters."

*fails at adulthood forever*

[sqbr]

Yeah me too.

[tree]

oh, god, don't read the comments on stella young's article (unless you already have). i got to the one that says something like "you can buy a car for less than $22k, maybe you don't need all the bells and whistles" before i had to stop myself from hurling my laptop across the room.

#followatween -- this is a real thing? and they say people who write fanfic should get lives. that's disturbing.

[sqbr]

*head desk* Yeah I hadn't even looked at the comments. I've gotten pretty good at forgetting they exist :)