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

[kaough-daimaoh.livejournal.com]

You're my hero Fickle.

I'm not the only one.. I find that meme to just be absurd. In fact I pretty much hate all memes. Especially ones that subtly coerce you into doing them, by using the whole "Prove you care or it means you don't!" motiff.

Great entry.

[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.

[mlleelizabeth.livejournal.com]

That meme reminds me of the glurgey emails I receive from time to time that end with something approximating "you are a meanie poopie head who hates children and puppies if you don't forward this to you entire addressbook" at the end. I ignore those emails, and I ignored the meme. \

sending off an e-mail to Congress or your Senators is a lot more productive

heh ... Not in Texas, it isn't! Unless, of course, you are send off an email supporting extremist right-wing causes. But you're right that in many states it can make a difference. As a result, I tend to contribute to out-of-state campaigns that have a chance of actually doing something.

[sakata.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU!
That meme was annoying me too. I spotted it last night in one friend's post, ignored it for the sheer banality of it. Today I've seen it in no less than half of my active flist.
So yeah, WTF.

Double agreement on that asinine teen pot-smoking statistic sig too. Though that crops up more on DA than here.

[xinda.livejournal.com]

Being a meme whore, I'm surprised I haven't even seen this one. Unless I miss it, I won't post it if it says you "have to or you don't agree" sort of thing. Same thing with the, "Post this X amount of times for X to (not) happen." I used to - many years ago. Now? No. Do I have a problem with people posting it? Not really. Do I think there's more to be done? Yeah, like you said.

Also, you're not the only one NOT on your flist who agrees. Someone on my FLIST didn't say WHAT meme it was, but did say they weren't going to post a meme on "gay rights" when everyone on her flist should already know her stance on how she feels.

As far as this meme goes? Doesn't make sense - I agree with what you say and what you linked to.

"We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on livejournal." Really. Who is "we"? If it was some sort of poll in ONE location or something - at least it'd make some sort of sense of who "we" are. I don't see someone going to each and every entry trying to collect some sort of statistics on something that can't even be used. Really. Some people do not post certain things - whether they agree or not, for example. Others miss things. The point of this meme doesn't really make sense @_@

/end ramble.

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

Okay now that I think about it, it's silly.

However, I am easily guilt tripped, and my eyes sort of glazed over after the quote, which I like.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

harukami has a really nice dissection of the meme too. I just... ignored it. XD ♥

Here's what I say

[raistmimi.livejournal.com]

98% of teens have tried pot and alcohol. Put this in your profile if you like waffles.