Heidi Li FeldmanA word about my decision not to use content warnings when I post about Kamala Harris and U.S. politics and law more generally: It is something I have given thought to, not a cavalier lapse. It seems to me the norms about CWs are in flux. I appreciate that not everybody is interested in these topics and that.... 1/
....not using CWs for U.S. politics and law related posts can seem, may even be, rather provincial of me. But, I believe democracy and rule of law in the U.S. are facing an existential crisis. Many of my posts are part of an effort to protect what democracy and rule of law we have and to rebuild and build to new heights. .... 2/
... Especially when fundraising for Kamala Harris, I feel we can't afford any friction in getting the word out, not even the small rub of having to go through a CW.
I hope things in the U.S. won't always be so dire. If and when we ever return to reasonable political, legal, and policy disagreements in a secular, pluralist, constitutional democracy, I may well add CWs to posts. ... 3/
I'm not prepared to debate the decision I have made. I am being careful not to use tags that put all my politics and law posts into the "explore stream". If you are specifically uninterested in the Mastodon community fundraising effort for Harris for President, I respectfully suggest you filter "Mastodon for Harris" and #MastodonForHarris." 4/4
Matt Blaze@heidilifeldman I find this idea, apparently common here, that a poster is required to anticipate and facilitate filtering for anything anyone anywhere might possibly find uninteresting, to be really weird.
Luna Lactea@mattblaze @heidilifeldman Just don't use euphemisms, it makes you difficult to understand & difficult to hide your posts about distressing topics. It's not about people finding something uninteresting, no one asks a gamer to put content warnings on Minecraft. Some people do not want to be constantly reminded of how their country is trying to kill them & they want a break. It is not an attack on anyone to ask "please put a content warning on your politics so that I am warned about it & can decide if I'm ready to engage with it or not".
@jackemled @heidilifeldman if you don’t understand my posts, how can you possibly find them distressing?
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman Distressing when intelligible & about a distressing topic. Sorry, I was not clear.
@jackemled @heidilifeldman I try not to post distressing or disturbing content (or if I reasonably anticipate that it would be, I warn about it). But no one can possibly anticipate what every individual might find disturbing, and there’s a point at which asking them to do so becomes effectively supressive of their ability to express themselves. I study elections for a living. It’s unreasonable to ask me to hide my comments on this subject simply because a few people would rather not see them.
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman You're not hiding anything, you're putting a warning at the top of it. No one is silencing you about whatever. My ability to express myself has been increased by using content warnings because now I don't need to worry about upsetting people with some things since I can warn them about it.