Ignorance: Sometimes A Choice In the Age of Information

In response to Skyla - full post here

It's quite a shame really when people try to 'advocate' for things they do not really know about. In general, I do not think that ignorance is a choice, and therefore, I do not think that it is punishable (in the loosest sense of the word). However, I think that there is a kind of ignorance that characterizes many people in our contemporary society. I suppose we could call it intentional ignorance.

In the age of information, knowledge, in "first-world" at least, is available on the internet at many peoples' fingertips throughout various points of the day. If a person is going to support a cause, they should, using the internet, learn as much as they can about whatever they are supporting.

Many people, for instance, use the acronym LGBT but don't know for what the T stands, yet they do not look it up. Many people also say that they support the T of LGBT, but they still don't know what it stands for. Even people who do know for what it stands sometimes do not know what it is, or how to actually support them without causing harm or spreading misinformation.

Again, in an age of technology, sometimes ignorance is a choice.

Fighting For the Word

In response to Avery - full post here

"Ism"s, as you pointed out, can sometimes change in meaning, or at least connotation. I think some people neglect to realize this and therefore end up identifying with terms that are perhaps out-dated. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can cause large amounts of confusion.

For example, A person who identifies with Catholicism under the accepted definition and connotation of the 1200s would be very different from a person who identifies with Catholicism in the 2000s. I imagine this same thing is what you are talking about with regards to feminism. There are probably many people who would gladly identify (perhaps with an intersection to other genders' rights) with the original connotation of feminism, but due to keeping up with the various definitions of feminism have decided to avoid the label entirely, with the hope of avoiding being perceived as a radical feminist, and not causing the women's rights movement harm. Additionally there are people who due to lack of knowledge about the new connotation related to radical feminists, still adopt the label of feminism.

This, I think, leads to an interesting battle for the use of a word; it is difficult to win back a word once it has been tainted with negativity. Though I suppose it work the opposite way too; it may be equally as difficult to regain a negative connotation once the word has been tainted with positiveness, as seen with the word queer.

And it is difficult, of course, to give up on the word and search for a new one, because the new word would need to regain followers and so on - it's like starting a new movement.