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Too often, I feel that when articles and the like discuss different human experiences, it is designed too much as being for an outsider looking in at something

Too often, I feel that when articles and the like discuss different human experiences, it is designed too much as being for an outsider looking in at something alien. People are different, but I wish there were more care to present the center of the discussion, as being part of an "us" rather than something distinctly "other". Studying psychology and meeting other people in the field really turned me off to this kind of thinking--how they would view people with some condition as some sort of oddity, some "thing" to be observed.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
I'm open about some of the "bad" and potentially stigmatizing details about my life in part to give push back against that tendency. I did well in school. I have no criminal record. I'm a decent person and not a drug addict, etc. And bad things happened to me anyway. One of them was homelessness and I like to think that talking a lot on HN, where lots of developers and the like hang, about the importance of my cheap tablet and how crucial it was to make my life work while I was homeless helped foster positive changes. I can't prove that, of course, but it seems a not unreasonable inference. If only I could find a way to more generally change the focus from big feels and pity and finger pointing to practical details like "Yes, but how do I legally earn a few bucks now while homeless (or whatever)? And how do I stay sane and healthy while trying to fix my problems and get my life back?" Whining on HN about "I'm on a tablet and can't do X, dagnabbit" used to be a thing I did a lot and then a lot of those issues disappeared. And I wish the world did a better job more generally of hearing "I need a solution for these various practical details -- today, without first having to fix some other problem, like getting back into housing. I need to be able to do X whether I'm housed or not (as one example)." Often, focusing on othering people boils down to justifying creating problems for them unnecessarily on top of their actual problems. I hate it.

DoreenMichele 6y ago

I'm open about some of the "bad" and potentially stigmatizing details about my life in part to give push back against that tendency. I did well in school. I have no criminal record. I'm a decent person and not a drug addict, etc. And bad things happened to me anyway. One of them was homelessness and I like to think that talking a lot on HN, where lots of developers and the like hang, about the importance of my cheap tablet and how crucial it was to make my life work while I was homeless helped foster positive changes. I can't prove that, of course, but it seems a not unreasonable inference. If only I could find a way to more generally change the focus from big feels and pity and finger pointing to practical details like "Yes, but how do I legally earn a few bucks now while homeless (or whatever)? And how do I stay sane and healthy while trying to fix my problems and get my life back?" Whining on HN about "I'm on a tablet and can't do X, dagnabbit" used to be a thing I did a lot and then a lot of those issues disappeared. And I wish the world did a better job more generally of hearing "I need a solution for these various practical details -- today, without first having to fix some other problem, like getting back into housing. I need to be able to do X whether I'm housed or not (as one example)." Often, focusing on othering people boils down to justifying creating problems for them unnecessarily on top of their actual problems. I hate it.