When another party tells you that you are not allowed to have an opinion on X the very first issue that pops up is what power/authority does that other party have to decide which opinions you are allowed to have and which not?
Is it similarly true, if another party tells me that the very first issue that pops up under certain circumstances is X, that the very first issue that pops up is what power/authority does that other party have to decide what the very first issue is and isn’t?
This seems to me a silly way to treat ordinary discourse.
When you tell me that X is the very first issue to pop up, I take that to mean you’re more interested in discussing X than anything else. If someone tells me I shouldn’t have an opinion about X, I take that to mean they’re not interested in hearing about my opinion. Yes, in both cases they are expressing themselves as though their personal preferences were facts about the world, but I just treat that as a fairly basic rhetorical maneuver to establish their conversation status.
I take that to mean you’re more interested in discussing X than anything else
Generally speaking, no, it doesn’t mean that I’m more interested in X. What it means is that the answer to X will influence and affect discussions of Y and Z so we might as well start with X because we’ll end up there anyway.
If someone tells me I shouldn’t have an opinion about X, I take that to mean they’re not interested in hearing about my opinion.
I take that differently—I understand that as containing a moral judgment as to which opinions are acceptable/allowed and which are not. After all in this case you can have an opinion as long as it is the correct “social justice” one. Any color as long as it’s black.
So it sounds like on your account, if I were to rail against you for deciding that we’re going to talk about X now and that I’m not allowed to talk about Y and Z, I would be missing the point, because what’s really going on has nothing to do with who is deciding what and who has the power.
Rather, you’re just pointing out that, since the answer to X will influence and affect discussions of Y and Z, there is a conversational failure mode we can avoid by talking about X first. On your account, you aren’t expressing a moral judgment about what topics are acceptable/allowed, you’re just saying that some topics will cause the conversation to proceed more usefully (by addressing the fundamental issues first) and others will cause it to proceed less usefully.
Yes?
By contrast, on your account, the “social justice” warriors who say that, for example, men aren’t entitled to an opinion about the prevalence of sexism against women in our culture, aren’t making any such claim. There is no model of conversational dynamics they operate from such that such expressions of opinion can be expected to cause a conversation to proceed less usefully. In that case it really is about who is deciding what and who has the power.
there is a conversational failure mode we can avoid by talking about X first
Not so much even a failure mode, as an observation that the optimal path is X → Y → Z and if you start anywhere else you’ll have to come back to X soon, anyway.
some topics will cause the conversation to proceed more usefully (by addressing the fundamental issues first) and others will cause it to proceed less usefully.
Yes.
such expressions of opinion can be expected to cause a conversation to proceed less usefully.
More than that, CYP generally aims at putting a full stop to a particular branch of a conversation. It’s like “This here is a Sacred Truth, all you can do is accept it, and we will tolerate no doubts about it”.
In that case it really is about who is deciding what and who has the power.
Claims to power, yes, not necessarily the actual power.
I don’t agree with your position generally, but I certainly agree that there exist individuals who have the kind of “This here is a Sacred Truth, all you can do is accept it, and we will tolerate no doubts about it” attitude towards what we’ve been calling “social justice”, and there exist many communities where such individuals exert disproportionate power.
Is it similarly true, if another party tells me that the very first issue that pops up under certain circumstances is X, that the very first issue that pops up is what power/authority does that other party have to decide what the very first issue is and isn’t?
This seems to me a silly way to treat ordinary discourse.
When you tell me that X is the very first issue to pop up, I take that to mean you’re more interested in discussing X than anything else. If someone tells me I shouldn’t have an opinion about X, I take that to mean they’re not interested in hearing about my opinion. Yes, in both cases they are expressing themselves as though their personal preferences were facts about the world, but I just treat that as a fairly basic rhetorical maneuver to establish their conversation status.
Generally speaking, no, it doesn’t mean that I’m more interested in X. What it means is that the answer to X will influence and affect discussions of Y and Z so we might as well start with X because we’ll end up there anyway.
I take that differently—I understand that as containing a moral judgment as to which opinions are acceptable/allowed and which are not. After all in this case you can have an opinion as long as it is the correct “social justice” one. Any color as long as it’s black.
So it sounds like on your account, if I were to rail against you for deciding that we’re going to talk about X now and that I’m not allowed to talk about Y and Z, I would be missing the point, because what’s really going on has nothing to do with who is deciding what and who has the power.
Rather, you’re just pointing out that, since the answer to X will influence and affect discussions of Y and Z, there is a conversational failure mode we can avoid by talking about X first. On your account, you aren’t expressing a moral judgment about what topics are acceptable/allowed, you’re just saying that some topics will cause the conversation to proceed more usefully (by addressing the fundamental issues first) and others will cause it to proceed less usefully.
Yes?
By contrast, on your account, the “social justice” warriors who say that, for example, men aren’t entitled to an opinion about the prevalence of sexism against women in our culture, aren’t making any such claim. There is no model of conversational dynamics they operate from such that such expressions of opinion can be expected to cause a conversation to proceed less usefully. In that case it really is about who is deciding what and who has the power.
So the two aren’t comparable.
Yes?
Not so much even a failure mode, as an observation that the optimal path is X → Y → Z and if you start anywhere else you’ll have to come back to X soon, anyway.
Yes.
More than that, CYP generally aims at putting a full stop to a particular branch of a conversation. It’s like “This here is a Sacred Truth, all you can do is accept it, and we will tolerate no doubts about it”.
Claims to power, yes, not necessarily the actual power.
Yes.
OK; thanks for clarifying.
I don’t agree with your position generally, but I certainly agree that there exist individuals who have the kind of “This here is a Sacred Truth, all you can do is accept it, and we will tolerate no doubts about it” attitude towards what we’ve been calling “social justice”, and there exist many communities where such individuals exert disproportionate power.