When hyperbole is offensive
Oct. 14th, 2009 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessHyperbole is a common tool, I use and abuse it myself. It can be extremely effective - it can also be extremely silly (Godwin‘s anyone?).
But, hyperbole can be extremely offensive.
When you use hyperbole to compare relatively trivial acts to things that are grossly offensive or horrific or vastly awful then you are disrespecting, devaluing and diminishing the terrible things that have happened. It is offensive and grossly inappropriate to use such terrible times and events as a rhetorical tool. And it is grossly offensive to compare whatever petty concern is hurting your precious fee-fees with very real, very terrible trauma.
And we see it a lot. During Lamda fail there was no small number of desperately upset people comparing the awards to Pink Triangles and racial Segregation. It was one of the main reasons I was roused to dive into that battle.
In WoW communities I see people compare having their account hacked to domestic violence or being raped.
Such exaggeration is not only silly, but it disrespects real victims. When you compare a game to rape, you are disrespecting and devaluing rape victims. When you compare an award to segregation, you are devaluing and diminishing the evil of segregation, the impact it has and the impact it is still having. When you compare just about anything to the holocaust you need slapping repeatedly until some senses are beaten into your thick skull.
More, it is often a sign of extreme privilege and prejudice. It is a sign of being extremely glutted on white privilege that you would presume to appropriate the evil of segregation for your own self-serving ends. It is a sign of arrogant disregard, selfishness and even misogyny that people would trivialise a rape victim’s experience in order to garner sympathy over their game. There is, to me, a very clear hand of prejudice in that people are willing to diminish these horrors so completely for their own use.
And now we have a very good example of this. <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/tourism/ci_13552589”>LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks has compared gay anger towards the Church of Latter Day Saints to the treatment of blacks during the civil rights movement.</a> Yeah. Um. Wow. No. Really. No. As the article says, people are not impressed by the comparison. number of LDS members lynched by GBLT people? That would be none. Churches blown up? Why, that would be none too. Really, this comment is so full of fail I am almost in awe. It fails for its blatant homophobia and attempted silence of gay people. It fails for its deception and attempt to cast the victims as aggressors. It fails because of the utter racism and white privilege involved in daring to appropriate not just not suffering and victimisation inflicted on black people at that time, but also for appropriating the courage and the hard work of the civil rights activists that kept on fighting. And it fails because the people of the LDS church - the people, not the leaders or the organisation - do not deserve a homophobic, racist arsehole like this to speak for them.
But, hyperbole can be extremely offensive.
When you use hyperbole to compare relatively trivial acts to things that are grossly offensive or horrific or vastly awful then you are disrespecting, devaluing and diminishing the terrible things that have happened. It is offensive and grossly inappropriate to use such terrible times and events as a rhetorical tool. And it is grossly offensive to compare whatever petty concern is hurting your precious fee-fees with very real, very terrible trauma.
And we see it a lot. During Lamda fail there was no small number of desperately upset people comparing the awards to Pink Triangles and racial Segregation. It was one of the main reasons I was roused to dive into that battle.
In WoW communities I see people compare having their account hacked to domestic violence or being raped.
Such exaggeration is not only silly, but it disrespects real victims. When you compare a game to rape, you are disrespecting and devaluing rape victims. When you compare an award to segregation, you are devaluing and diminishing the evil of segregation, the impact it has and the impact it is still having. When you compare just about anything to the holocaust you need slapping repeatedly until some senses are beaten into your thick skull.
More, it is often a sign of extreme privilege and prejudice. It is a sign of being extremely glutted on white privilege that you would presume to appropriate the evil of segregation for your own self-serving ends. It is a sign of arrogant disregard, selfishness and even misogyny that people would trivialise a rape victim’s experience in order to garner sympathy over their game. There is, to me, a very clear hand of prejudice in that people are willing to diminish these horrors so completely for their own use.
And now we have a very good example of this. <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/tourism/ci_13552589”>LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks has compared gay anger towards the Church of Latter Day Saints to the treatment of blacks during the civil rights movement.</a> Yeah. Um. Wow. No. Really. No. As the article says, people are not impressed by the comparison. number of LDS members lynched by GBLT people? That would be none. Churches blown up? Why, that would be none too. Really, this comment is so full of fail I am almost in awe. It fails for its blatant homophobia and attempted silence of gay people. It fails for its deception and attempt to cast the victims as aggressors. It fails because of the utter racism and white privilege involved in daring to appropriate not just not suffering and victimisation inflicted on black people at that time, but also for appropriating the courage and the hard work of the civil rights activists that kept on fighting. And it fails because the people of the LDS church - the people, not the leaders or the organisation - do not deserve a homophobic, racist arsehole like this to speak for them.