The identity of OP is unimportant because Iāve seen this sentiment all over the place. But when I saw this post I just felt compelled to talk about this mentality.
Most likely this same logic is not applied to, say, politicians. Letās put aside the fact that there is (unfortunately) no concrete delineation between a person who is merely a āprivate citizenā and a person who might be in the āpublic interest.ā Thatās the kind of distinction that everyone has to subjectively make for themselves.
The ānobody can criticize anyone for any reasonā outlook is a childish, hyper-individualistic outlook that contributes to Missing Stair type social dynamics.
Have you ever been in a house that had something just egregiously wrong with it? Something massively unsafe and uncomfortable and against code, but everyone in the house had been there a long time and was used to it? "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, there's a missing step on the unlit staircase with no railings. But it's okay because we all just remember to jump over it."
Some people are like that missing stair.
When I posted about a rapist in a community I belonged to, although I gave almost no details about the guy except "he's a rapist," I immediately got several emails from other members of that community saying "oh, you must mean X." Everyone knew who he was! Tons of people, including several in the leadership, instantly knew who I meant. The reaction wasn't "there's a rapist among us!?!" but "oh hey, I bet you're talking about our local rapist." Several of them expressed regret that I hadn't been warned about him beforehand, because they tried to discreetly tell new people about this guy. Others talked about how they tried to make sure there was someone keeping an eye on him at parties, because he was fine so long as someone remembered to assign him a Rape Babysitter.
(Please go on to read the whole āMissing Stairā blog post. It reflects some experiences Iāve had as well!)
I understand that rape accusations and ācallout postsā can be used as vectors of harassment. It can also be really annoying for some rando who youāve never talked to to send you a callout post for some other rando youāve never talked to. Iāve seen a lot of that on tumblr especially in the late 2010ās. But there has to be some kind of reasonable position on this issue for people who actually want to live in community with other people instead of completely eschewing any kind of responsibility for the community youāre in. And at the same time itās unsustainable to foster a culture of hypervigilance and paranoia.
You have to use your critical thinking skills, no matter what. There is no easy one-size-fits-all principle you can adopt.
I canāt help but feel like the current hyper-individualistic social climate is also partly due to the failure of the #MeToo movement to change the cultural paradigm, which I do feel it had the potential to. But moreover I think that a hyper-individualistic culture is at least partly a product of the capitalist mode of production. We are atomized from each other, even as we attempt to reach out (sometimes digitally).
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