That's What They Want

This may be a little bit of a shorter post this week as I try to rev up for the beginning of the school year, but there was something I wanted to write about before I went on vacation that I have been percolating about for the last few weeks. 

I saw a few folks posting on LinkedIn about how they were going to leave LinkedIn because of new policies around safety and what is seen as hate speech on the platform. And of course as a queer disabled person I think all platforms must have policies that protect marginalized and multi-marginalized folk. However, it deeply occurred to me that this is exactly what they want by enacting changes to policy. 

So what do I mean by this, I mean they bring in policies on social media platforms to get the folk whose morals and values would be the most loud or resistant to the big tech solutionism and neo-liberal capitalism that the platform is supporting to leave. These changes cause folk to voluntarily deplatform themselves and take themselves away exactly from where the conversations about socio-political or socio-cultural change are happening or could happen.

They did this with Twitter where all left to the toxic positivity of Bluesky to then have a very well curated spa space where nothing bad ever happens and nothing that requires hard conversations is spoken about. And sadly that is exactly what they want and many very easily leave. This is what is going to happen with the provincial government here and other corporations pushing the 5 days a week back in the office mandate. A mandate that is extremely problematic for disabled folk who need flexibility in their work schedule, or folk who are care givers and need that flexibility to support others. They want folk to voluntarily quit their jobs because the schedule no longer works with their other life responsibilities and body-mind lived experiences. It is an easy way to cut salary costs, when they all know they do not have enough real estate to actually safely have folk back in the office the way it was pre-pandemic. (This is where I also remind you that we are still living in syndemic times). 

So enacting policies that are harmful to marginalized folk is a real choice to help move and remove voices of dissent out of the conversation. I experienced this a few months ago when I joined a meeting of a group where the way the facilitator opened the space with (this may not be exactly verbatim but close) "I have the choice to not to engage with your arguments if I do not want to." This to me read very much like what I hear is happening on Bluesky (which I am not on because I was actually threatened with violence and harm if I joined so again this is taking this choice to remove voices of dissent to another level) that no hard conversations will be happening in this group, only echo chamber sameness that is always white male heteroprivilege coded. So of course I chose not to return to subsequent meetings of this group because I know nothing I would be interested in will be discussed there and that is not a good use of my time.

Capitalism does these policy and exclusion choices at scale in businesses and institutions every day. They want your silence. They want the loud voices to take moral stands that will take their loud voices away so they can continue to do corruption and unethical practices outside the view of folk who would say things or call them on unethical practices. They will bounce us, you, me, others, from platform to platform with these policies and decisions until we have no real community space left and are isolated from the people and ideas that matter. This is how no change ever happens; it is a real calculated strategy. 

The resistance way is to stay and be louder. And this resistance way is of course exhausting and they know it which is why folk leave. So I do completely understand why some folk want to leave some platforms, some work spaces, some community spaces, because the ethics and morals there do not mesh with your personal ethics and morals. But the more I think about it, the more I see it for what it is, and how that is exactly what they want. The answer is to keep reminding folk we are here, we deserve rights, and that we see what you are doing and we are keeping receipts daily. These are important things I believe to keep in mind as we approach a new school year where a lot of choices are being made for us and not with us. And hopefully this will also be something to discuss with students because they also see daily how places and spaces exclude through choice and policy. It is a type of curatorial regulation supporting more of the same that we will sadly see more and not less of in a time of forceful and neo-liberal supported elimination of difference.