By this standard, if authoritarians start using “fabricated” to slander opponent claims, we should drop the term.
If they accuse dissidents of “lies”, we should stop talking about their lies. This strategy of constant retreat will just end up with self-censorship, and no gain.https://twitter.com/accessnow/status/1049995044860690432 …
Warning about it isn't the issue. This constant ceding ground is basically a symptom of how weak dissidents are against authoritarians, and how little most NGOs understand the politics of their own space.
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i think the weakness is valid – but not specific to an NGO space (or media). + these have been far stronger than 'NGO warnings' – for me, the media (and i work in the media too) failed to consider the impact of not changing its lazy hyperbolic language, and now it bites us all.
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The obvious issue is that these concepts are contested on political ground. Of coruse! Meanwhile, NGO space argues over terminology, as if there's a path out. I *constantly* hear calls to drop the term "fake news" as if that will solve anything. Politics isn't a classroom.
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and... it's symptomatic of much broader failures. where in the world is *any* approach, in any field, successfully standing up against authoritarians? our strategies trusted some notion of universal human empathy or spirit of democracy, and we were wrong.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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you can't, for example, call an EU commission and policy recommendations, an "NGO" warning others... but the recommendations were perhaps not taken seriously (how would you enforce them anyway?)
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I'm talking more about the political space in which these concepts are fought over and contested.
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