From 4d628212bf98ddd65ddd1c00b1170dfe4c9dacd0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Katharina Fey Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:14:33 +0000 Subject: Expanding the section about label discourse --- content/blog/xxx_labels.md | 28 ++++++++++++++++------------ 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/blog/xxx_labels.md b/content/blog/xxx_labels.md index eeea9d5..d19253b 100644 --- a/content/blog/xxx_labels.md +++ b/content/blog/xxx_labels.md @@ -48,11 +48,15 @@ understand why I am an anarchist and what that means. **And that's the fucking job of labels!** We can't have the same 5 conversations over and over again and we can't rely on the trust that -people around us are always gonna be on our side. We shouldn't get -distracted with pointless label bikeshedding (whether it be anarchy, -libertarian socialist, libertarian communist), these are all kind of -similar enough to be able to have a productive conversation without -having to re-define first principles. +people around us are always gonna be on our side. We should have +conversations from time to time about what these labels mean to us, +especially when it becomes clear that there's miscommunication. + +But also, just because we're having a conversation about labels, +doesn't mean we need to start bikeshedding their definitions and scope +(whether it be anarchy, libertarian socialist, libertarian +communists - these are all kind of similar enough to work with). Their +context is still there to be used. That doesn't mean that I am okay with any vaguely leftist label. I have, over the last year or so, become more sceptical of communism, @@ -64,13 +68,13 @@ maybe I don't _want_ to have this conversation in certain situations so why would I have to engage with tankies when I don't want to? Most of the time the people who say "I don't care about labels, I -wanna do poltics", then never do any politics for reasons of not -having a platform or language to engage with similarly minded people -about strategy. That's because political action depends on the people -doing it having some understanding of the work they're doing, how it -relates to others and themselves. There's a reason why minority groups -rely on labels (such as people in the LGBTQ community), and they serve -an important role in our discourse. +wanna do poltics", never do any politics due to lack of a platform or +language to engage with similarly minded people about strategy. +That's because political action depends on the people doing it having +some understanding of the work they're doing, how it relates to others +and themselves. There's a reason why minority groups rely on labels +(such as people in the LGBTQ community), and they serve an important +role in our discourse. This is not to say that we should try to make the onboarding easier and use less jargon language when dealing with outsiders. Making -- cgit v1.2.3