One of the biggest takeaways from my philosophy degree is that every seemingly perfect ideological paradigm is going to have at least one circumstance where it leads to totally whack conclusions. I thought it was weird that it was still like a weird controversial statement 1

to say that like maybe we're supposed to have an ethical toolkit of sorts, and put down one tool when it's not useful and pick up another. Like how Kant's categorical imperative (don't do anything that wouldn't be appropriate for everyone to do in this circumstance every time) /2

is a really useful question to ask when you're faced with a decision with serious ethical weight: is what you want to do the right thing REALLY or are you making an exception of yourself because it's happening to you and not someone else, and that makes it FEEL special? /3

what would you tell some other person to do in the same situation? what do you wish was the norm when people were faced with this problem? what would the consequences of that norm be, as far as you can estimate? we're hard wired to think we're special and we're just not. /4

that question cuts through all of our own bullshit in an often painful, ego-bruising way. but it also leads to some really fucked up places! would the situation actually be BETTER if you did the morally pure thing? would that maximize happiness and good in the world? /5

sometimes it's actually better to take the moral low ground because it genuinely leads to a happier outcome! Kant, for example, thought you should never lie ever. But what if a murderous fascist is at your door and a persecuted person is hidden in your house? do you lie? YES /6

we're having a conversation about """"CANCEL CULTURE"""" rn and while I hate that terminology (bc everyone attaches their own meaning to the terms based on how they learned them, so we can all be having a conversation using the same words and be interpreting it different) /7

what I keep coming back to is that I think it's just silly to assume we can learn some ethical tenet like it's a skateboard trick and then assume it's going to provide consistent returns in every scenario. you can use a hammer on a screw but it's gonna fuck up yr drywall /8

I genuinely think it's appropriate to intervene in situations where abusive people are perpetuating conscious, intentional, abuse. I do! I think it's bonkers to apply those same tenets to every single instance of perceived abuse and harm. I think abusers will abuse due process /9

I think abusers will also abuse accountability language, get addicted to the fake community and sense of purpose that springs up around Fighting Bad Guys, chase the relief of getting to satisfy their own sense of justice (at the expense of making anything better), /10

and weaponize whatever they can to corner any capital or avenue to capital they can in an ever-dwindling pool of resources. I think people who are not particularly confident or smart will contribute to harm in both directions, especially if they are too afraid to speak /11

honestly about what they actually believe (even if it's Wrong anywhere on the spectrum of Ignorant to Just Dumb to Actively Fucked and Harmful). I think we are making it very hard for people to have honest conversations because can can't stop oscillating wildly between /12

frantically validating every single fucked up or stupid or dysfunctional or just fuckin weird thought or feeling or opinion of everyone we like or feel sorry for or are afraid of and virulently hissing and spitting at the minor missteps of everyone we don't. /13

It is pathetic and it is sad. I am embarrassed on all of our behalf, all the time. I literally could not care less if like some ding dong who 100% confirmed only dates women half his age and psychologically tortures them loses his job. To think we have to apply those same /14

principles to every whisper of every vague accusation levelled at every single person is nuts. And it's intellectually dishonest, and naive, and irresponsible, and not what adults in relation to one another do./15

One last thing: one time, when I started noticing that wielding my identity categories like they were some kind of weapon I could use to get what I wanted, I went too far. Another Indigenous women clocked me immediately, read me for filth, and told me I was acting like a fool /16

to my face. I was defensive and grumpy about it for a long time. It fundamentally changed the way I relate to myself, and the obligations and responsibilities I have to my community and ancestors. The process of re-working my brain after that was long /17

but I have come to understand it as one of the most profound acts of love and community care that anyone has ever respected me enough to subject me to. It also made me very aware of the way that other marginalized people use their identities to manipulate the outcomes /18

of spaces made up of a majority of well-meaning people who are in their oppressor class. I understand why this happens, I think, and I won't get into it. But it's fucked! It's counter-revolutionary, divisive, emotionally immature, and irresponsible. Know who you are, what you /19

think, how you feel, and what your integrity is. Be open to change and new information, but as my mom used to say "don't get so open-minded your brain falls out." Anyway. If you're reading this, thanks. I need a popsicle. Happy Buck Moon, y'all. /20