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halfway_prince wrote

This example I think illustrates the potential issue with the woke-policing of language especially when it comes to indigenous people. /u/ulettuceLeafer is using language-policing to critique a meme that is facilitating dialogue on how some indigenous agriculture practices are being appropriated and erased by western environmentalists.

I think the actual impact of this (intention aside) is to divert the conversation's focus and make it more difficult to engage with critiques of cultural appropriation and erasure.

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lettuceLeafer OP wrote

Am I language policing? I never told or asked kinashavo to change the meme. I just questioned the assumptions in the meme makers head that determined what word choices they make.

I think the actual impact of this (intention aside) is to divert the conversation's focus and make it more difficult to engage with critiques of cultural appropriation and erasure.

I literally said that grouping all indigenous people under the term indigenous is useful when talking about oppression. But us stereotyping when using the term to talk about what one cultural group does and making the assumption that all of them do similar things.

Using the term indigenous to talk about cultural erasure is useful but isn't good to use it to do cultural erasure.

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halfway_prince wrote (edited )

Ehhhh I think i was just trying to say that from my perspective the flow of this conversation illustrated something potentially detrimental: the diversion from the actual issue of indigenous erasure which was put forward by Kinshavo's meme toward a discussion of what word choice "we anarchists" should use, which functionally subsumed the previous conversation.

Look i don't think you shouldn't have brought this topic up, nor do i think that you were caused any great harm or were aggressively policing language. I think it's valuable to have these conversations and i respect your opinion greatly. I'm just offering my perspective which is a frustration with an over-emphasis on the left's (or post-left lol) ever-changing rules of language choice which often dominates the conversation and makes it easy to virtue signal without actually doing anything about the problem at hand.

edit: whoops ya just re-read and i definitely said you were language-policing in my original comment. sorry i think that was too strong an assertion!

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lettuceLeafer OP wrote

Yeah I agree with everything u said.

Tho as I'm still used to the more progressive anti racist politics I lead more towards the lib over police just to be safe. So I really do appreciate critique of when the line is and when it's gone too far. Bc I'm not really sure where the line is exactly.

I know saying the n word is too far and apologizing for being white is too far too but I'm not sure where the in-between is that.

I think we are overall on the same page tho. If u do have advice in what a better line is regarding this issue I would appreciate the discussion or more critique in the future.

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halfway_prince wrote

i'm sure we'll keep chatting, sharing feelings, and learning from one another in the future ¯\_ (ツ) _/¯

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