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Chyrsis said: Soooo, Glenn, are you saying that being intolerant of antisemitism, for example, is being a power-tripper?
Alex's Grandma said: Obviously, that's exactly what he's saying.
Chrysis said: Hmm, Let's allow Glenn, speak for himself, AG. I am certain he is more than capable of it.
Glenn says: Well, no, I didn't say that being intolerant of anti-semitism is synonymous with being a power-tripper. In fact, being intolerant of anti-semitism is to my mind a Very Good Thing Indeed, whatever form that anti-semitism might take. I do think the idea of calling a Temple zero-tolerance policy or similar a 'power surge' is fairly funny, though, in light of my-not-exactly-serious question about Mordant's 'Massive Power Issues', and if you think it through it's a joke against me rather than anybody else.
An aside: I think that it's possible in certain very specific circumstances for people with sound politics and sound hearts to become a little too into the buzz of righteousness that identifying and condemning seemingly prejudicial attitudes gives them. Furthermore, in a context in which such acts of identifying and condemning are also rewarded with social cache, this might just lead to them being carried out when they are not really warranted. Now, such circumstances / contexts are very, very rare, but they do now and then crop up, and I think it's perhaps useful for people of sound politics and hearts to interrogate themselves as to exactly why they have chosen to identify / condemn something as a prejudice, when there are other available and credible readings. Like any other ability, the ability to critically deconstruct a given statement for evidence of prejudice is in certain extremely rare situations a social (and, yes, even a power) advantage, and one that is open to misapplication and even abuse. While I'd of course prefer a world in which, say, the swaggering anti-misogynist was a more familiar figure than the swaggering misogynist, swaggering is never a good look - especially, I'd argue, for anybody who aspires to the ranks of the sensitive or the thoughtful.
I'll end with the hopes that a) the above won't be misinterpreted as an iteration of 'PC Gone Mad!', b) the above won't be misinterpreted as a pop at any individual on the board, and c) the above won't be misinterpreted as an attempt to throw the baby out with the bathwater. |
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