I have earned my disillusionment.

[fickle]

So, I'd say that a fair share of you have already seen the following meme, right?

We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on livejournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks.

How many of you read that and went 'BWUAH'? Because seriously, what's the point of that meme? Who is this unnamed we? The FBI? The HRC? Aliens monitoring us from space somewhere?

Also, secondly, who believes in gay rights? Gay Rights isn't a religion. It's not the Tooth Fairy, it's not Santa Claus.

So why make a meme that basically says, "If you believe in fairies, clap your hands!"?

Honestly, it's like that really stupid statistic that says 98% of teens have tried pot and to repost that in your journal if you're part of the two percent that haven't. For one thing, just thinking about that one for a little would make it pretty clear that's not true and a little basic research would disprove it.

And yet I keep seeing that in people's signatures.

ARGH. Way to give teens an undeserved bad name, everyone.

I wasn't sure if I was just being too critical about the Gay Rights meme, then thankfully ceresi also posted about it, as well as linking to other people that had pointed out the flaws in the Gay Rights meme like the self-righteousness, the us versus them mentality, and the coerciveness.

Personally, I believe in human rights, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or anything else used to divide humans into groups. I believe in taking useful action, and I believe that just posting a meme won't change anything.

I also believe that this is currently the most worrying topic in the political hot zone.

I mean, the right to obtain evidence through torture? Not showing them the evidence against them? No limits on how long people can be held? That's more important to me than some mythical person who's supposedly going through all of el-jay and seeing who's reposting a paragraph and who isn't.

And if you really want to support a cause specific to one group, try supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. Trust me, sending off an e-mail to Congress or your Senators is a lot more productive than just reposting something in your livejournal -- for one thing, people with actual power are more likely to see the former, since I rather doubt that most political figures go around surfing el-jay on their breaks.

Edit: You want to do something real for Gay Rights? Here. A nice little collection of links to work with. Enjoy.

Comments

[actualize.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised people found it so serious, actually. Like, took it so seriously. It's a meme, not a petition or anything with weight. Maybe I shoulda cut that out when I respoted it, but I did it for fun.

'Sides, it's preaching to the choir even if it was serious.

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

It's a really poorly-phrased meme that doesn't do anything and has a holier-than-thou mentality. Preaching to the choir, maybe, but it sounds more like talking down to the congregation from where I'm standing.

And when that comes up several times on your flist from people whom you respect and know genuinely care about human rights, then it's insanely frustrating because you think better of them than to believe that they'd fall for something like that, and then you post your opinion of the meme.

So, not so much an issue of whether you cut it or not, and just about people needing to be less gullible/sheep-like, I'd say.

[actualize.livejournal.com]

XD I saw it as about the same as dropping like waving to someone I don't know or smiling or something really reflexive and a 'nice gesture' but with no weight. I guess it proves my stupidity in that sentence alone |D but I am totally surprised at the backlash with it.

:( I am so Pavlov'd.

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

:( I am so Pavlov'd.

Indeed you are :P *petpet* Think first then post next time?

[actualize.livejournal.com]

But then I wouldn't be able to start spectacular wank about myself :( life would be so much less entertaining if I learned to censor myself. Also, I might end up making posts that go something like this:

muffin muffin orange orange spaghetti on the plane of the house inside of the pea pod muffin muffin BANANA.

:( tragedy.

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

But this is hardly about you. XD I've got that damn meme in at least four of my flist posts, all posts by well-intentioned people who just didn't think before automatically doing as they were told. Which is seriously worrying because people don't ask enough question if they'll just do as they're told without wondering why or checking the facts.

I wouldn't call it self-censoring, because it's not like you're being forbidden to post about gay rights, or supporting gay rights or whatever you like. You can still have an opinion and express it however you like.

It's just the simple statement that this meme in particular is an incredibly poorly-written and pointless piece of 'yay gay rights we are so cool'. It doesn't accomplish anything except to make people feel smug that they posted it because hey, look, they're such a cool, liberal person for supporting gay rights and that makes them cooler than everyone else who didn't post it.

[actualize.livejournal.com]

:( the new meme in my journal is all about being cool.

Nah, I see the point. But I guess that I've had just about as many >O responses towards the meme as repostings of it on my flist. So I am surprised.

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

*nods* Saw. XD

And I've had a few O_o responses but mostly repostings, but then I thought to get on Fandom Wank and check it out and whaddya know, apparently a lot of people in el-jay are unhappy with that meme. Including the girl who analysed it line-by-line (http://gehayi.livejournal.com/224448.html?style=mine). Nice to know that other people are thinking about it instead of just knee-jerk reposting because it looks like a good cause.

[actualize.livejournal.com]

Ahhh F_W. WOE. I should work harder to look cool, because apparently I fail at being liberal and cool and being not-liberal and cool. It's a horrible state, my coolness x3.

...wow. it made it to F_W. I am so out of the loop XD

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

It's okay. Cool isn't everything. XD Personally, I'd rather be hot.

And I checked F_W on a hunch after a lot of people commented here saying that they also disliked the meme since anything that gets a lot of attention from more than one side tends to end up on FW.