Where Online Social Liberalism Lost The Script � The Dish:
On matters of substance, I agree with almost everything that the
social liberals on Tumblr and Twitter and blogs and websites believe. I
believe that racism is embedded in many of our institutions. I believe
that sexual violence is common and that we have a culture of misogyny. I
believe that privilege is real. I believe all of that. And I understand
and respect the need to express rage, which is a legitimate political
emotion. But I also believe that there’s no possible way to fix these
problems without bringing more people into the coalition. I would like
for people who are committed to arguing about social justice online to
work on building a culture that is unrelenting in its criticisms of
injustice, but that leaves more room for education. People have to be
free to make mistakes, even ones that we find offensive. If we turn away
from everyone that says or believes something dumb, we will find
ourselves lecturing to an empty room. Surely there are ways to preserve
righteous anger while being more circumspect about who is targeted by
that anger. And I strongly believe that we can, and must, remind the
world that social justice is about being happy, being equal, and being
free.