One of the dumbest political divides I see today, is when people think you have to pick one of:
- acknowledging power imbalances and the asymmetrical pressures they put on different individuals
- acknowledging your own power and sovereignty irrespective of your social position
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If you do only the first, you will consistently abuse power when you are in a local maximum where you have greater agency than others.
If you do only the second, you will consistently victim blame and question the motives of activists regardless of contextual appropriateness.
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I suspect these are universal social pressures that are just playing out more visibly in our current political climate.
That doesn't make them any less boring, naive and irresponsible, though.
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