I have just found that speaking for me in ways that are intended to be compelling for someone else is a better way to get them to consider what I am saying than telling them I want them to change their mind.
Now, sometimes, this is too fussy and roundabout. If someone is acting in a fucked up manner, my urge to straight-up ask for what I need trumps my urge to use personal narratives and in-group language to seduce and cajole someone into seeing where I am coming from, and I just say, "When you X it makes me feel Y because I tell myself Z so I need this other thing instead."
I just think this is particularly important for skeptics who are on some level saying, "By saying I am here, I am saying I think someone else is wrong about something" in a way that other activists are not. Not only is it a dick move for skeptics to just sort of unleash on people whenever they mention an empirically insupportable thing they believe (like homeopathy), that really doesn't work as a persuasive tactic.
I just have found that people have responded better to my activism when it doesn't quite register in their brains as activism, and instead registers as another human talking about herself.
I guess it could blur the lines a bit when some people really are just talking about themselves and not intending to use it as Happy Learning Storytime for anyone else. But I am not sure how to avoid that. =/
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chiming
no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 06:26 pm (UTC)From:I have just found that speaking for me in ways that are intended to be compelling for someone else is a better way to get them to consider what I am saying than telling them I want them to change their mind.
Now, sometimes, this is too fussy and roundabout. If someone is acting in a fucked up manner, my urge to straight-up ask for what I need trumps my urge to use personal narratives and in-group language to seduce and cajole someone into seeing where I am coming from, and I just say, "When you X it makes me feel Y because I tell myself Z so I need this other thing instead."
I just think this is particularly important for skeptics who are on some level saying, "By saying I am here, I am saying I think someone else is wrong about something" in a way that other activists are not. Not only is it a dick move for skeptics to just sort of unleash on people whenever they mention an empirically insupportable thing they believe (like homeopathy), that really doesn't work as a persuasive tactic.
I just have found that people have responded better to my activism when it doesn't quite register in their brains as activism, and instead registers as another human talking about herself.
I guess it could blur the lines a bit when some people really are just talking about themselves and not intending to use it as Happy Learning Storytime for anyone else. But I am not sure how to avoid that. =/