How does one keep a mind quiet when the world screams? Everything is a movement, a cause, a vigilance against unnamed enemies lurking under every rock, crevice, and hole. Injustice, measured in volume, begs to be set aright. Even if something must be done, whatever anyone does is never enough.
No matter how hard I try to turn down the volume, the screaming comes up. Everyone demands their pound of flesh and then shrugs when only a cadaver remains. Dying for the cause is always a virtue best found in others.
I know that sometimes what I write will add to the chorus of screams. It’s why I censor myself. It’s why I don’t write as much as I used to. I’m not looking for more shouting.
I’m looking to give people the space they need to breathe.
How does one do that while maintaining one’s boundaries?
This question plagues me because I’ve never felt strong in them. Most of my life has been responding to people tearing them down, destroying them, making sure they never remain as proof against assault. I’ve always been told and made to feel that I must always consider others before the self.
Not every cause is a crusade, as much as one might seem. I have to remind myself of this. Others might be able to do this naturally, but I will have to force myself to remember.
Amusing Nonsense 
1: Don’t join “facebook”.
2: Don’t join “twitter”.
The world seems a lot calmer that way.
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My plan now is to mostly keep to myself unless I think I can make a decent enough argument that if someone lands on a page looking for information they might be convinced by what I said.
An argument for argument’s sake, I now avoid like the plague.
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After mulling it over a bit, I’ve decided to weigh in again on Ark’s post. I asked Tildeb for a link to a news article regarding a case he mentioned. I also linked to some facts and an article to try to steer the overall conversation in a positive direction.
I hope it helps your efforts there.
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Questioning the information he puts out definitely helps because none of it stands up to scrutiny. Unfortunately by perpetuating those myths, even if we counter them, he’s still causing damage. The trans person who reads what he says will still feel belittled and falsely accused. Then there are the people who think where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It’s an exhausting battle 🙂
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Being trans, trans rights for me is a crusade. I am writing a lot atm, my JK Rowling article got over a thousand views on its first day, other articles get a lot less but help me hone my arguments. It’s a crusade for the phobes, too: they want to exclude all trans women from women’s spaces, and some of them devote all their time to campaigning and writing on that.
On Black Lives Matter, I support the cause but don’t say much at all, really. I want to move from guilt and embarrassment to action.
On trans rights, I want allies. They make me feel slightly better. They can be irritating, asking what the right language is now, but really the basic point is clear: trans women are no threat. Treating trans women as women, socially, makes society more free and tolerant, and subverts gender stereotypes, achieving results feminists claim to want. Collective punishment for all trans people for the worst wrongs of a few of us is wrong, and I wish that did not need to be said.
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Part of the reason I wrote this is because of comments I read on a post covering Rowling’s latest misadventure. The discussion was disheartening. People are willing to put effort into lacking compassion for others, and I don’t know what to do when that happens.
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If I adopted every cause brought to my attention I found worthy … even if just to think about them, I would have no time to do anything else. I pick and choose very carefully who I shop with and who I donate money to, even so I feel guilty when I skip over worthy causes. The “requests” for support are very good at guilt mongering.
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