• alapseofsanity
    +12

    Sometimes I do wonder if these kind of extremist attitudes in society are just a phase or something I should be worried about.

    When I see this kind of stuff happen I always try to remind myself, "hey, these people are just a very vocal minority. They aren't representative of anyone else." But then I see friends get sucked into it and I watch people go through public shamings and then I just wonder if this is all leading somewhere bad.

    I mean, can't we read a story about a woman-on-male rape that turns into a false rape accusation and be able to say, "yeah this is bad," without making it a contest? Can't I think all kinds of rape are bad?

    • Kysol
      +7

      Rape / Domestic Violence is bad, end of story. It doesn't matter what gender the perpetrator was, it shouldn't be accepted or ignored in our society. I just don't see how they could justify it as a tabloid article. It's a serious subject, and it happens and shouldn't be covered up.

      • picklefingers
        +8

        The problem I see with a lot of these things is that everybody tries to make it fit their groups narrative, even if they side with the other groups on the issue. If there is a female on male rape, you see womans groups trying to bring the focus back to male on female while mens groups complaining that not enough female on male rape is talked about. The same goes for the other way. For a male on female rape, mens groups will try to bring the focus on the lack of coverage on female on male rapes and womens groups will focus on the mens groups focus rather than the actual rape.

        The problem is that nobody is objectively analyzing. "Rapes are bad." "How can we stop rapes". Instead, it becomes a proxy to start another gender debate.

    • Artorius
      +6

      The "very vocal minority" is one that destroys lives. I know two men in my small circle of acquaintances, whose lives were virtually destroyed by false rape claims. Both shown to be demonstrably false, but their lives (and in one case, his marriage), was shattered.

      Young men are now turning away from college and certain professions, such as teaching, because of the risk of participation. That is wrong.

    • Moderator
      +3

      I've started to worry about it a little. Granted, most of the extremism I see is online, but there's so much of it and I see that it's really becoming dangerous. Unfortunately, I think it will only continue to escalate until some very bad things happen. These people are almost mental; so sure of themselves, so angry, so rigid. They're satisfying something inside them, but it's completely juvenile the way they're going about it. Normally people can catch themselves when they're into something bad, but in the context of social justice everything they do and feel seems justified, and any opposition will seem evil. It really makes me sad.

      Good new is that you're right, most people are fine. People like that have deep-rooted issues to begin with. If anything, their extremism just makes it easier to spot the crazies.

      • White
        +6

        Unfortunately very bad things are already happening under the guise of "social justice". I've seen many instances of people's lives being ruined simply because they were accused of something that didn't happen. Too many self-proclaimed "Social Justice Warriors" don't see people as people but as categories.

        • alapseofsanity
          +3

          Yeah that's kind of why I'm scared. Moderator is right in the sense that these are people with very deep-seeded issues lashing out, but it's the real-world consequences of their actions that scare me.

          I recently read So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, and the stories of some of the people in there scared me so much I went through my entire facebook history and deleted anything that could be skewed as remotely questionable. Hell, there was a lot of stuff in there that was blatantly questionable because I have a very dark sense of humor. That's sorta why I feel scared. Seeing my friends get drawn into it just makes me paranoid, like someone is going to lash out one day and I'll be next.

          Or maybe I'm just way too fucking anxious. That could be possible as well.

        • Moderator (edited 8 years ago)
          +3
          @alapseofsanity -

          I can relate. I tread more carefully in social situations than I used to. I'll gladly talk to someone about these issues, but if I get even a whiff of Tumblr-type extremism I simpsonsgif the heck out of there. Frankly, a lot of it is just regular human stupidity, but it's taken a dangerous form. Counter-movements are counter-productive, so I can only hope someone on their side rises up to lead them back to the plot.

      • i208khonsu
        +4

        If you give idiots a platform to speak, people will advertise what stupid people say. It's not only a vocal minority, it's that gossip is human nature. It's not fun to gossip about people's reasonable opinions, it's fun to gossip about stupid people. This is just a side effect of mass adoption of Internet access. You just have to trust that the average person is a reasonable enough to come to a sensible conclusion.