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I'm curious as to why you believe microaggression is being misused here. Immature dongle jokes are related to sexual and racial violence. In terms of sexual vio

I'm curious as to why you believe microaggression is being misused here. Immature dongle jokes are related to sexual and racial violence. In terms of sexual violence in tech, Courtney Stanton did a good piece on buzzfeed about the context of sexualized violence and aggression that forms the backgroup of why a penis joke is not appropriate at a tech conference: http://www.buzzfeed.com/courtneystanton/a-woman-walks-into-a-tech-conference http://www.buzzfeed.com/courtneystanton/a-woman-walks-into-a... > ultimately with the seeming intent of redefining the entire event to absolve one party of their responsibility to act with maturity and responsibility, I do not seek to absolve anyone of anything. However, Adria Richards despondently appropriately in the pycon situation. She was under no obligation to be nice to the gentlemen making the jokes and being nice could have had the opposite effect and made them more belligerent. Taking it to pycon staff was the right thing to do. Again, while you may think it rude, she is under no obligation to meet a niceness standard when someone is violating conference rules. > solely in furtherance of a culturally damaging, distracting, and virulent ideology. I don't know what ideology you are referring to here. If you are referring to feminism based on Adria Richard's own statements on her blog, you are quite mistaken about feminism as damaging, distracting, or virulent. Otherwise, I'd like to know what exactly you mean. > Olivia Wilde also received some similarly horrid threats after insulting Justin Bieber on Twitter, but I can only hope and assume that you won't be attempting to tie that event to sexism in technology, and instead recognize that it reflects a real, but very different problem. All sexism is related, there is no need to tie sexism in tech to it because sexism in tech is already a part of the broader sexism of western society. However, I don't really know anything about this twitter exchange nor do I really know anything about Wilde and Bieber (nor do I care to really).

pifflesnort 14y ago
> I'm curious as to why you believe microaggression is being misused here You're using it to create a false equivalence between immature jokes and sexual/racial violence, and having done that, are using racial/sexual violence as an appeal to emotion and morality. Having done that, you're using that appeal to rationalize Adria's disproportionate response and overstate the severity of the offense, manufacturing a reality in which the conclusion of any rational observer is foregone; Adria is the victim of sexism backed by sexual and racial violence, rather than the reality: she overheard an immature and minimally offensive joke. In this context, 'microaggression' gives you the rhetorical tool you need to tie together minor offenses into a broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression from which you can use emotional appeals to justify almost any response, no matter how disproportionate to the original offense. Adria chose to evoke public mob justice by shaming individuals for behaviors that she herself engaged in, while giving the individuals in question no equivalent platform to defend themselves. This was wrong, and was done in the name of an ideology that uses rhetorical tricks such as your 'microaggressions' to justify such disproportionate behavior.
- king_jester 14y ago
  > You're using it to create a false equivalence between immature jokes and sexual/racial violence I've provided some context for why there is a link (not equality) between the two. Why is this a false equivalence or link? > and having done that, are using racial/sexual violence as an appeal to emotion and morality. I don't really think I understand this either. Microaggressions and the broader fabric of sexism are linked. Racial and sexual violence are not defensible even from a logical basis in a social context, no appeal to emotion needed. Am I missing something about this? > Having done that, you're using that appeal to rationalize Adria's disproportionate response and overstate the severity of the offense I don't believe I have overstated the severity of the offense. I am not advocating anything other than what happened, in that pycon pull the gentlemen aside and that Richards was free to blog about the incident. What makes Adria's response disproportionate? > manufacturing a reality in which the conclusion of any rational observer is foregone I believe I am being quite rational. > Adria is the victim of sexism backed by sexual and racial violence, rather than the reality: she overheard an immature and minimally offensive joke. These are not mutually exclusive. Even if you feel the pycon incident is minor, Adria lives in a society of sexism and racism that target women and people of color and some of that sexism and racism have surfaced throughout the various stories and reactions about this incident. > In this context, 'microaggression' gives you the rhetorical tool you need to tie together minor offenses into a broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression This is exactly what I am getting at with microaggressions, they are tied to the broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression. These kinds of aggressions have been studied and do have real effects on people and perpetuate the broader sexism, racism, etc. in society. > from which you can use emotional appeals to justify almost any response, no matter how disproportionate to the original offense. This is not true, I do not advocate any response to this incident. I do believe that reporting the incident to the staff and blogging about it are completely within reason for any individual. > Adria chose to evoke public mob justice by shaming individuals for behaviors that she herself engaged in, while giving the individuals in question no equivalent platform to defend themselves. Twitter and blogging are totally available to the gentlemen in question. Public shaming is not mob justice. > This was wrong, and was done in the name of an ideology that uses rhetorical tricks such as your 'microaggressions' to justify such disproportionate behavior. Again, I have no idea what ideology you are referring to. Microaggressions are not made up, have scientific rigor, and are actively studied (your quotes imply you don't believe it is a real thing). Allowing someone to speak up in a public space like Twitter about someone's poor behavior is not some grand scheme to justify unfair treatment of others.

pifflesnort 14y ago

> I'm curious as to why you believe microaggression is being misused here You're using it to create a false equivalence between immature jokes and sexual/racial violence, and having done that, are using racial/sexual violence as an appeal to emotion and morality. Having done that, you're using that appeal to rationalize Adria's disproportionate response and overstate the severity of the offense, manufacturing a reality in which the conclusion of any rational observer is foregone; Adria is the victim of sexism backed by sexual and racial violence, rather than the reality: she overheard an immature and minimally offensive joke. In this context, 'microaggression' gives you the rhetorical tool you need to tie together minor offenses into a broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression from which you can use emotional appeals to justify almost any response, no matter how disproportionate to the original offense. Adria chose to evoke public mob justice by shaming individuals for behaviors that she herself engaged in, while giving the individuals in question no equivalent platform to defend themselves. This was wrong, and was done in the name of an ideology that uses rhetorical tricks such as your 'microaggressions' to justify such disproportionate behavior.

king_jester 14y ago
> You're using it to create a false equivalence between immature jokes and sexual/racial violence I've provided some context for why there is a link (not equality) between the two. Why is this a false equivalence or link? > and having done that, are using racial/sexual violence as an appeal to emotion and morality. I don't really think I understand this either. Microaggressions and the broader fabric of sexism are linked. Racial and sexual violence are not defensible even from a logical basis in a social context, no appeal to emotion needed. Am I missing something about this? > Having done that, you're using that appeal to rationalize Adria's disproportionate response and overstate the severity of the offense I don't believe I have overstated the severity of the offense. I am not advocating anything other than what happened, in that pycon pull the gentlemen aside and that Richards was free to blog about the incident. What makes Adria's response disproportionate? > manufacturing a reality in which the conclusion of any rational observer is foregone I believe I am being quite rational. > Adria is the victim of sexism backed by sexual and racial violence, rather than the reality: she overheard an immature and minimally offensive joke. These are not mutually exclusive. Even if you feel the pycon incident is minor, Adria lives in a society of sexism and racism that target women and people of color and some of that sexism and racism have surfaced throughout the various stories and reactions about this incident. > In this context, 'microaggression' gives you the rhetorical tool you need to tie together minor offenses into a broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression This is exactly what I am getting at with microaggressions, they are tied to the broader tapestry of systemic violence and oppression. These kinds of aggressions have been studied and do have real effects on people and perpetuate the broader sexism, racism, etc. in society. > from which you can use emotional appeals to justify almost any response, no matter how disproportionate to the original offense. This is not true, I do not advocate any response to this incident. I do believe that reporting the incident to the staff and blogging about it are completely within reason for any individual. > Adria chose to evoke public mob justice by shaming individuals for behaviors that she herself engaged in, while giving the individuals in question no equivalent platform to defend themselves. Twitter and blogging are totally available to the gentlemen in question. Public shaming is not mob justice. > This was wrong, and was done in the name of an ideology that uses rhetorical tricks such as your 'microaggressions' to justify such disproportionate behavior. Again, I have no idea what ideology you are referring to. Microaggressions are not made up, have scientific rigor, and are actively studied (your quotes imply you don't believe it is a real thing). Allowing someone to speak up in a public space like Twitter about someone's poor behavior is not some grand scheme to justify unfair treatment of others.