5 ms·

>degenerate activism What is degenerate activism?

th0ma5 6y ago
That's a kind of far right virtue signalling as far as I can tell. In my opinion, it is wild projection, but it seems to try to label any progressive ideal as regression.
- outime 6y ago
  I'm not OP but I think you're reading between the lines. I feel OP though - I'd donate to a cause if my money doesn't go towards political alignments of any kind. I'm tired of NGOs or similar entities taking stances over stuff I didn't ask for. I just want them to do one thing, who gave you permission to use my donation to do a completely different thing, even if well intentioned?
  - CarelessExpert 6y ago
    > I'd donate to a cause if my money doesn't go towards political alignments of any kind. That's... well, naive, I guess? Every single NGO picks an issue, and that issue has a political angle to it. Not only do I think it's unreasonable to expect an NGO to be apolitical, I think it's flat out impossible. I would ask you: Do you really want NGOs to be apolitical? Or do you want them to share your political alignment, and in that way be non-controversial?
    - outime 6y ago
      There are NGOs that don't take public stances, you just have to look out for them (depends on your country as well I guess?). It's fine if you want to accept everyone is corrupt and will have hidden causes ("that's naive") but I don't and other people share this. >Or do you want them to share your political alignment, and in that way be non-controversial? Please stop these kind of assumptions - it just feels childish. I don't want political stances of any kind from an organization that's getting my money to make a specific thing better. If I was to donate to MDN to make docs better, I don't want stances on far-right or far-left. I want my money to be used to produce better documentation, period.
      - bccdee 6y ago
        > I don't want political stances of any kind from an organization that's getting my money to make a specific thing better. Your notion of what "better" means is in and of itself a political stance.
        outime 6y ago
        No, not really. If I want to donate to achieve a specific technical goal (e.g. documentation about something completely apolitical) and nothing else that's not a political stance.
        bccdee 6y ago
        The choice to prioritize a charity which writes documentation over charities which address political issues is itself political. I'll admit that's a bit slippery of me. A charity that writes technical documentation is about as apolitical as it gets. But my point is that every decision we make about how we should allocate resources in our society is political, because that's what politics is about. Expecting charities not to have political stances is silly, because the fundamental proposal every charity makes -- "let's all get together and spend money on X" -- is in and of itself political.
      - CarelessExpert 6y ago
        > Please stop these kind of assumptions - it just feels childish. It was a genuine question, not an assumption. I was just challenging the way you were positioning your opinion. I thought my comment was phrased in a way that was polite and direct. I don't see how that warranted an insult. I won't address the rest of your comment as I think bccdee did a fine job of saying what I would've said.
        outime 6y ago
        >I thought my comment was phrased in a way that was polite and direct. Well, I said I wouldn't want a NGO to use my money to take any stance unrelated to their original apolitical goal and your follow-up questions is along the lines of "oh so would you be ok if they aligned with your political stance?". Don't say thay's a genuine question because it's not, it just feels like a bait.
  - th0ma5 6y ago
    I think you make something of point. I feel a lot of conservative causes are a kind of degeneration of morals to an imaginary ideal supposedly of the past but that never really existed. I don't eat at Chik Fil A because of their degenerate views of people, for instance.
  - tehwebguy 6y ago
    the entire concept of Firefox is exactly a political stance...
    - outime 6y ago
      It's a good example. I'm happy to donate to Mozilla for the goal of an open web, nothing else. And since I don't agree with everything else that they do and sell as within their mission I simply stopped donating long time ago.
- ytNumbers 6y ago
  That phrase might refer to any kind of activism that degenerates into mob violence.
  - th0ma5 6y ago
    Point taken, I had forgotten how the US police unions started rioting and attacking the very people they were meant to protect. I think entitlement can play a role, but I think degenerate as a word is rather heavy handed like calling police pigs or something.
danbolt 6y ago
This kind of stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEY9lmCZbIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEY9lmCZbIc

That's a kind of far right virtue signalling as far as I can tell. In my opinion, it is wild projection, but it seems to try to label any progressive ideal as regression.

outime 6y ago
I'm not OP but I think you're reading between the lines. I feel OP though - I'd donate to a cause if my money doesn't go towards political alignments of any kind. I'm tired of NGOs or similar entities taking stances over stuff I didn't ask for. I just want them to do one thing, who gave you permission to use my donation to do a completely different thing, even if well intentioned?
- CarelessExpert 6y ago
  > I'd donate to a cause if my money doesn't go towards political alignments of any kind. That's... well, naive, I guess? Every single NGO picks an issue, and that issue has a political angle to it. Not only do I think it's unreasonable to expect an NGO to be apolitical, I think it's flat out impossible. I would ask you: Do you really want NGOs to be apolitical? Or do you want them to share your political alignment, and in that way be non-controversial?
  - outime 6y ago
    There are NGOs that don't take public stances, you just have to look out for them (depends on your country as well I guess?). It's fine if you want to accept everyone is corrupt and will have hidden causes ("that's naive") but I don't and other people share this. >Or do you want them to share your political alignment, and in that way be non-controversial? Please stop these kind of assumptions - it just feels childish. I don't want political stances of any kind from an organization that's getting my money to make a specific thing better. If I was to donate to MDN to make docs better, I don't want stances on far-right or far-left. I want my money to be used to produce better documentation, period.
    - bccdee 6y ago
      > I don't want political stances of any kind from an organization that's getting my money to make a specific thing better. Your notion of what "better" means is in and of itself a political stance.
      - outime 6y ago
        No, not really. If I want to donate to achieve a specific technical goal (e.g. documentation about something completely apolitical) and nothing else that's not a political stance.
        bccdee 6y ago
        The choice to prioritize a charity which writes documentation over charities which address political issues is itself political. I'll admit that's a bit slippery of me. A charity that writes technical documentation is about as apolitical as it gets. But my point is that every decision we make about how we should allocate resources in our society is political, because that's what politics is about. Expecting charities not to have political stances is silly, because the fundamental proposal every charity makes -- "let's all get together and spend money on X" -- is in and of itself political.
    - CarelessExpert 6y ago
      > Please stop these kind of assumptions - it just feels childish. It was a genuine question, not an assumption. I was just challenging the way you were positioning your opinion. I thought my comment was phrased in a way that was polite and direct. I don't see how that warranted an insult. I won't address the rest of your comment as I think bccdee did a fine job of saying what I would've said.
      - outime 6y ago
        >I thought my comment was phrased in a way that was polite and direct. Well, I said I wouldn't want a NGO to use my money to take any stance unrelated to their original apolitical goal and your follow-up questions is along the lines of "oh so would you be ok if they aligned with your political stance?". Don't say thay's a genuine question because it's not, it just feels like a bait.
- th0ma5 6y ago
  I think you make something of point. I feel a lot of conservative causes are a kind of degeneration of morals to an imaginary ideal supposedly of the past but that never really existed. I don't eat at Chik Fil A because of their degenerate views of people, for instance.
- tehwebguy 6y ago
  the entire concept of Firefox is exactly a political stance...
  - outime 6y ago
    It's a good example. I'm happy to donate to Mozilla for the goal of an open web, nothing else. And since I don't agree with everything else that they do and sell as within their mission I simply stopped donating long time ago.
ytNumbers 6y ago
That phrase might refer to any kind of activism that degenerates into mob violence.
- th0ma5 6y ago
  Point taken, I had forgotten how the US police unions started rioting and attacking the very people they were meant to protect. I think entitlement can play a role, but I think degenerate as a word is rather heavy handed like calling police pigs or something.

danbolt 6y ago

This kind of stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEY9lmCZbIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEY9lmCZbIc