In the sense that all discussions of gender, race, sex etc are inherently contentious to some degree. Everyone has an opinion about gender because they are one. Not everyone has an opinion about data structures in Haskell.
Compare this to the three most viewed category of post. Politics is self-explanatory. Race and gender are a type of politics even more controversial and outrage-inducing than regular politics. And that “regret” all the way on the right is my “things i will regret writing” tag, for posts that I know are going to start huge fights and probably get me in lots of trouble. They’re usually race and gender as well, but digging deep into the really really controversial race and gender related issues.
Twitter is if not the worst, than easily among the worst, “discussion” platforms for any nuanced topic. Sometimes, ya know, 140 chars just doesn’t cut it.
The tsk-tsking is pretty tiring, and comes across as a “Well, you had this coming!”. It adds nothing to the conversation beyond a sort of sanctimonious tone, even if you don’t mean it that way. Sorry, but the BIGGEST issue is the racists, and the platform of choice is waaaaay down the list. I’m already being targeted for insults elsewhere because of comments I made in this thread. People are allowed to make short, humorous quips about stuff to make a point. Not everything has to be in-depth, comprehensive “discussions”.
Edit: This comes off as a lot harsher than I intended, which wasn’t my intent, and I don’t think you had any bad intent either. What I’m trying to say is, nothing in this article is actually effected by the use of twitter as a medium, and messages are ALLOWED to be short, humorous, and not deep discussions. Expecting all discussions like this to be via deep, long, thought-out essays and never letting off steam or making jokes or just trying to make a point without wanting to hear back from people is a rude thing to do.
facepalm totally forgot about GTA: San Andreas, but seriously there are not a lot of games that involve a playable main character that is Black, especially one that isn’t a gang member and/or in prison (or on their way to prison). it’s kind of sad really.
Don’t worry, he’ll be back with a new sock puppet (and even if he doesn’t create a new account, you can be sure that he came back and is seething at your hilarious animated responses)
Doing (a), regularly, is one of the most useful things you can do to help with (b). For example, one reason investors don’t care about diverse hiring is the false impression that white-male-gunmen is all the market wants.
Expecting all discussions about the incredibly nuanced topic of race in games to make a point in 140 characters – on a platform where it is also literally impossible to follow two of these multiple 140 character “conversations” at a time, much less 50 or 100 – is a rude thing to do.
OK, maybe not rude, but just… destined to fail. As if someone said “We shall build a glorious airplane, shining and true … out of these cinder blocks!”
One extreme is bad. So is the other. I’m proposing something, y’know, in the middle. Where you can type whole paragraphs!
Except nobody is saying discussions should ONLY be on twitter? Literally nobody. Instead, you’re finger-wagging “How dare you guys talk about race in a way I don’t like”. You’re not proposing something in the middle. You’re insisting people only talk in ways you like, while chastising them for talking in ways they’re prefer.
I’m proposing that the discussion would be much less likely to be a trainwreck if it was not on Twitter, but a tool that actually allowed… wait for it… discussion.
Believe me, I’ve tried discussing topics like this (that is, complex, nuanced and potentially contentous topics) on Twitter. Every time it made the situation worse. Every.Single.Time. So now I don’t.
The mechanics of the tool actually matter, and the 140 character limitation, along with the complete lack of meaningful threading when 2+ people are talking, make Twitter disastrous for constructive discussion.
When it comes to complex, nuanced, contentious topics being “discussed”, I’m in the Anything But Bush Twitter camp.
I just feel like the last 5 times I tried doing that on Twitter, the results were so bad that I hated myself, I hated the topic, and everyone involved hated each other even more than when we started, all deeper entrenched in their former positions.
Which is kinda the exact opposite of the result you would want?
140 chars chat style is great for some things. This… not so much.
I’m here to remind you [Storify][1] exist for this: Problem solved.
Besides the hashtag exist so that people can have conversations about diversities in entertainment and media; what they asked is for people (especially Big Corporations) to stop catering SOLELY to the middle class white males (or what’s left of them). The problem involve the whole “certain demographic” mindset that many corporations have.
[1]: https://storify.com/
I find I have good discussions on Twitter, but it requires an understanding of the medium. Obviously, you can’t have a complete argument in 140 characters, but it’s enough for a clearly expressed thought of one sentence, or a short comment with a link to another source. Chain these together, and you can have a fairly robust discussion. The best writers on Twitter are those who have rediscovered the power of the sentence.
There’s a lot to criticize on Twitter, but I often get the feeling that a lot of the finger-wagging comes from people who are uncomfortable with the fact that now, when you address a large audience, each member of that audience can respond directly.
Linking to a more complete argument or statement is about all you can do on Twitter. It is a good strategy. Of course then the person will reply to you three times in 140 chars each, asking for three clarifications on points raised in the linked article… basically, any attempt to have more than a single follow up and response will end in tears on all sides.
The best thing you can do is link off Twitter, and carry the necessary discussion off Twitter as well. The good news is that a lot of topics are not contentious and not particularly nuanced and work fine on Twitter. But for those that are, hoo boy you will be in a world of hurt if you try to “discuss” that on Twitter. Like trying to drive a semi truck down a foot path.
Tolkien mentions that the elephant-riding humans on the side of Sauron were “swarthy”. which is an old-fashioned way of saying they weren’t white, or not as white as his protagonists (Italians and Jews were often described as “swarthy” in 19th century literature as well).
