Polite Paradise

First of all, there is a difference between “calling out” someone for their remarks on social media and calling their employer to highlight what you’ve seen and interpreted with the goal of hurting the person financially.

What I was responding to above, and I’m not sure if Lynn2000 was responding to me, or just adding her thoughts, was “when is it ok to contact someone’s employers when you see something you deem to be (hate speech? Inappropriate? Wrongthink? An opinion that goes against the opinion of the many?) on social media.

If the question is “when is it ok to call out or challenge something that someone posted on social media?” Then my answer would be every single time. 
It is beyond absurd that a editor of a scientific journal would behave in the way that Lynn described, not only that a person of science should think this way, but that they thought they would get away with saying what they said without challenge, and also, that they were unaware of the “unsubscribe” option.

And clearly, since Lynn has read quotes from the email, this person has been called out. There’s no need to call a persons employer, when there is an army of people on social media with lots of different opinions ready to both nicely debate a point, or pick up the tar barrell and bags of feathers.  Totally different from directly contacting their employer.

What I would do, I only have Twitter, is first research the legitimacy of this even happening, while keeping an open mind that it may very well have.  But it is suspect and just so silly that I would do quite a bit of research before directly challenging the person. But I think it’s ok in the meantime to say how absurd it is for a man of science to first, have this view about homosexuals and second, have never seen a ballet.  No man who is a homophobe would be attending the ballet in the first place!
I love the ballet, it’s beautiful! But to be fair it’s a ball fest! No man that afraid of other men’s parts could sit through the whole thing. So how did this email exchange happen in thie first place?

Anyway, yes, call people out on social media, post emails if it doesn’t have a confidential clause, but don’t directly call someone’s boss to report them.

I’m not trying to be funny when I mention the Hitler Youth League.  It was both an actual active scouts type thing to produce strong citizens (or what the Brown shirts would consider strong citizens) and a way to “re-educate the youth of Germany”. Meaning they would tell these kids what was Right, what was True, and taught them to report on their friends, neighbours and parents.

The first thing a fascist state does is stop people’s abilities to express opposition.  Those who do are punished. And it starts slowly, the first thing being that they are punished financially. There jobs are taken from them, they cannot run business, they cannot make a living.

It’s what Germany first did to the Jews (and others) and I think it is wrong no matter what your ideology is. Those who think the National Socialist Party of Germany was wrong to do what they did, because it was based in hysteria (let’s not get into to the gender origins of that word right now) and hate, but think that it’s ok for those to do the same to others because they believe their ideology is based in reason and love, need to do much more research.

As John Stewart Mill said (paraphrase)” If all in society were agreed on the truth and beauty and value of one proposition, except for one person, all except one person, it would be most important for that one heretic to be heard, because we would all benefit from his one outrageous or even appalling view.”

You can imagine that if the German regime  had allowed free speech, many working class people who had lost their jobs, struggled to feed their hungry children and believed what everyone was allowed to say, that the Jews had plotted this situation for their own hateful gain, would hear different views. Would hear them often. Could engage in conversations, could think of things they hadn’t otherwise thought of, could consider that maybe what they thought they knew to be true, was not entirely true.

When Michael Brown was shot by police, the world heard he was unarmed, innocent, his back facing the police officer and he had his hands up when the officer fired.
Witnesses that saw otherwise were afraid to speak up because they honestly were afraid of being both physically attacked and socially or politically attacked. It went against the narrative that the people who told the lie wanted the world to hear.
When it finally came out, it changed the lives of so many black people. Michael Brown had just committed a violent robbery, was facing the officer and grabbing for the officers gun when he was shot.
So many black people thought, we were lied too, and maybe this whole thing is a lie. Maybe when I walk down the street and someone glares they’ve been doing that with everyone of every colour. Maybe I’m not a perpetual victim.  And these people spoke out.
And those who don’t like what these people are thinking call them racist, uncle toms and other much worse words, and go around scream and deplatforming those who oppose their opinions.
So you have one group of blacks (American, Canadian and British)that think they are at all times victims of a systemic racist system and the non-blacks the that side with them.
And you have the blacks (in the West) who believe that the world has reached a point where, while they may at times face a few more hurdles than others, the system is as fair as it can be and there is nothing they can’t surmount.

So who is right? Well neither.  I’ve done the research and both can be proven to be true.  So why would anyone think that it’s ok to call someone’s employer and say, you know what? Coleman (a black man) thinks that Black Lives Matter is a horrible, dangerous organization. He said so on his twitter account. Therefore, he’s racist. Therefore your organization shouldn’t employ him anymore.

And how do you handle religion? Who is the one who can tell the rest of us what is ok and what is not and what is protected by holy matters? Because it is, without a doubt, in the Quran, and the Old Testament, states that homosexuality is a sin. We have tried to separate religion and state, for these types of reasons. The majority agree that homosexuals are entitled to all the same human right as everyone else. There are Jews, for example, who think that homosexuality is a sin and will openly say so.  Is that to be punished by taking away their livelihood because of wrongthink? What if those same Jews believe that god is the one who will be the judge of what happens, so while they believe it to be a sin, they are happy that homosexuals have the same rights as all other humans and treat them with respect and kindness because they don’t see themselves to be the judge of other, but they do believe what is in the doctrine.  Is this a person to be reported because they are sharing their doctrine, that you deem to be hate, on social media?

What about the ex-Muslim women all over Twitter that have been stating that hijab culture is **** culture.  Women who have grown up being told that if they are harassed, molested or ****, it will have been their own fault, that they weren’t properly covered? Are they not allowed a voice? Do you get to decide that are wrong?

What about the Muslim women who feel like they are judged for their hijab and voice thei love for it and their religious choice. Do they get a voice? Do you get to judge if they should be heard?

And finally, so bloody what if some feminists feel like their womenhood is taken away when all women who say they are women are women?  I personally don’t care about that at all, I’m perfectly happy to accept you’re a woman if you say you’re a woman despite you biological make up.
But I see women who disagree getting kicked out of pubs, thrown out of organizations and yes, wiseacrebrewery, fires because aloof a politely worded opposition to this view.

Probably no one has read this far but I’ll state it again it is a dangerous and harmful and hateful thing to try to ruin a persons livlihood for having thoughts you don’t agree with or find horrible.

But call them out everytime, question them, debate them, make sure you question yourself, make sure you have a reason to know what you know.  Do research, prove yourself. Don’t shut down the other.

There are some truths in things we find to be deplorable.