Read on Twitter
Why quote tweet someone instead of just replying? Is there EVER a valid reason to quote tweet someone if you a critiquing what they are saying?
I want to take a minute to address this, because it comes up a lot, and it's worth taking a minute to clarify some thoughts on this.
I want to take a minute to address this, because it comes up a lot, and it's worth taking a minute to clarify some thoughts on this.
If you've follow me for awhile, you may have noticed that a lot of my threads have a more anonymized lead in saying something like "I've been hearing X" or "Stop saying X."
But sometimes I DO make the choice to quote tweet something specifically. Why?
But sometimes I DO make the choice to quote tweet something specifically. Why?
First, because one of the biggest barriers I've found to getting people on board with working against harm experienced by a specific minority identity (like disabled ppl for example,) is getting them to agree that the harm even EXISTS in the first place.
Time and time again ppl from various marginalized groups will say "this is an issue we need to address" and the responses will be some version "I've never actually seen anyone say/do that" or "That sounds like a really fringe thing, almost nobody really believes/does/says that."
It's exhausting enough trying to convince people to do something about harm that doesn't affect them personally. It's even MORE exhausting when you have to expend your limited time, energy, and resources proving to them the problem even exists in the first place.
Second, please consider that while it may SOUND reasonable to ask that we always engage someone one on one rather than addressing it publicly, consider what that means for marginalized identities that face the same harms over and over and over and over again.
While you may be looking at that isolated incident & think "this isn't really asking much," when placed in the context of systemic issues you are asking ppl to potentially allow the harm to continue repeating & only correct each individual person AFTER they've personally done it
That's saying that marginalized people have a responsibility to endure repeated harm in the name of giving people the "benefit of the doubt" or in the name of protecting them from the potential embarrassment of being used to teach other people why something isn't ok.
So while I understand why ppl look at their specific incident & say "why couldn't you have just approached me privately" for the person on the other side of this equation it's not actually possible to divorce those isolated incidences from their larger systemic context & patterns
In general we ALL need to learn how to let go of the expectation that our mistakes are entitled to privacy, and learn to embrace our mistakes being used to prevent others from making the same missteps.
ESPECIALLY when doing so can prevent someone from experiencing further harm.
ESPECIALLY when doing so can prevent someone from experiencing further harm.
So while I don't disagree that we need to be thoughtful and intentional about the ways we do/don't use the quote tweet (& I agree that there ARE ways quote tweet is used abusively,) I disagree with this whole idea that every critique should be delivered privately & individually.
If we're willing to let something we said be retweeted in order to amplify its public reach, we should be willing to accept if it's quote tweeted in legitimate (not talking about bad faith/abuse) critique as well. Either it's meant to be interacted with publicly, or it's not.
But the whole agreement = public and critique = meant only for private thing is a dangerous paradigm indeed.
One I'm just not comfortable supporting.
One I'm just not comfortable supporting.
