Oh for God’s sake.
Gather ‘round, children, because it’s time for a talk.
So I’ve been seeing a lot of negative posts lately about the so-called “SJWs” on tumblr - the term for the extremists who take their advocacy way too far
As someone who is a passionate advocate myself, even I agree that there are some blogs on this website that take it way too far. (And in doing so, they make their causes look bad.)
Many people are complaining that tumblr is turning people into these “SJWs” and that these extremists are all this blue website’s fault.
But here’s the thing…
Have you ever been on a college campus? Because let me tell you, there are a bunch of extremist people in the advocacy groups on my campus - people who want to fight for a good cause but do so in the wrong way.
The so-called “SJWs” aren’t just a “tumblr” thing.
And they didn’t just start popping up in the past year or so.
There have been people all throughout history who were fighting for what they believed to be a good cause but ended up taking it to the extreme.
So why is there such a large group of them on tumblr?
Because unlike most other social media websites, tumblr allows you to actually communicate with random strangers all around the world. 252 million to be precise. (Don’t think about that number too much; you’ll have an existential crisis like I did.) But the point is that most social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter have the option for you to talk to strangers around the world but everything is in your control. You get to choose who you’re friends with and/or follow. So, it’s safe to say that those websites act as a bubble - it’s just you and the ones that you see worthy enough to befriend/follow.
But tumblr’s a bit different. Because even though you have control over who you follow, you don’t have control over who your followers follow. Because of this, there’s actually a really cool community that’s formed. I won’t get into the specifics but if somebody wants to look at the dynamics of this website, it’s pretty fascinating. But anyway, back to the community analogy. That’s just it - it’s a community. Filled with all sorts of different people with all sorts of personalities and all sorts of opinions.
This means that you’re going to see groups that you’ve never witnessed before - including extremist groups.
But I can assure you that these groups have always existed, and will always exist, regardless of this big, blue, addicing, website.
Seriously if you don’t think that history is filled with a bunch of radical people who push their advocacy too far then man do I have a great story about a little thing called The French Revolution (specifically The Reign of Terror!)