Either I "know my place" very well and have internalized my boundaries to the point I don't notice myself staying within them...
OR I have better ways to fight when I want to than words...
OR... I don't have much to fight about, and am too selfish to fight for anyone else...
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Like most people, it's probably some mix of all 3, alloyed with a healthy dose of just pragmatism of the don't-make-jokes-at-a-funeral variety... reasonable consideration for others.
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In case it isn't obvious, I'm agnostic on this whole matter -- having opinions about the morality of tone policing or place policing is like having opinions about the existence of weapons.
Weapons exist. Conflict is real. Get good at using the appropriate ones when needed.
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I'm also agnostic about US gun culture tbh. I think it's really regressive and dumb in a religious way, and have no interest in getting literate in the use of guns, but don't have strong feelings about wanting it gone so long as I can stay safe myself. I can live with it.
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American English does have a bit of the explicit sort of place-policing idiom to it, like "you come into MY house and... blah blah blah" but it's a fairly weaksauce version, usable in fewer places. In America it's almost more polite to just shoot people instead of grandstanding.
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Interesting sidebar is on spaces that used to be private but are now subject to public dynamics via screenshot wars etc. For whatever reason, I've always operated in private as though whatever I say could potentially be made public in the future. Since long before culture war.
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This is quite likely a personality preference on my part. Very INTP -- do all your actual thinking in your head, anything you actually say, regardless of context, is something of a performance (what we Myers-Briggs nerds call the Ti-Ne mode).
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ie I might have a very different take if I had a different personality, of the sort that thinks best out loud, and in some cases out loud and in conflict mode (ESFJs?). In a way, being sanguine about this shit is a "free strategic option" for me. It costs me nothing to be immune.
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Good question. I think the issue being contested is that the group privileged in public spaces has changed. Now the public is *most* accessible to those to whom it was *least* accessible in the past. The access hierarchy isn't gone. It's flipped polarity.
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Replying to
ty! I'm still a bit confused. so are elites taking away public spaces b/c it no longer benefits them? and what is an example of a public space? e.g. idk if I would consider my twitter a public space. my followers and I generally agree w/ each other, but I know what I can't say
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It's fuzzy... and changing. No short answer I'm afraid. I had a newsletter issue about it (paywalled I'm afraid :D)
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