Senate Safety pins, FaceBook profile pictures, and whatnot

A friend of mine (you know who you are) posted the following article to FB, and thereby made many people angry:

Dear White People, Your Safety Pins Are Embarrassing

I agreed with the article wholeheartedly, although I agree that the tone is perhaps unnecessarily incendiary. I really have no patience for cheap, easy, public declarations of sentiment that sort of vaguely address problems without doing anything to fix them. And I hate Minions memes, too. Nyarrrr!

This is what I posted in the FB thread:

I feel similarly about changing FB profile pictures to reflect the tragedy de jour. I honestly don't see what those accomplish. If you have 75 FB friends, none of whom are French, and you are not a famous person in France whose page people will search for, what good does it do to change your profile picture to an image of the French flag when terrorists attack? I suppose there's some value in the idea that such things can just make you feel better, but honestly, when someone else's country has just been bombed, or when someone is fearfully waiting for ICE agents to knock at the door, you are not the one who needs to be made to feel better. It takes no money and very little time to sign petitions on the ACLU or Amnesty International websites. It may even take fewer clicks than you'd need to change your profile picture. So try the petitions instead.

The one area where I can see a symbolic public display having real merit is when someone wants to memorialize the dead. Wearing poppies, black armbands, or flags on Memorial Day keeps the dead fresh in our memories, which is all we can do for them.

If you want to help breathing people, then please, please, skip the FaceBookery and do something practical.

 

What are you talking about? Safety pins? I feel utterly lost.

 

It's like the safety dance, but even lamer.

 

I know right? I wish there was an article linked in the OP.

Oh, wait.

 

The article discusses whatever this phenomenon is as if everyone is thoroughly familiar with it. In fact, I've never so much as heard it discussed until just this moment, let alone seen someone actually doing it.

 

Safety pins? Is this some punk rock thing all over again?

 

I think your response there is the correct one - point out that it's not a substitute for action, but also suggest positive steps they can take. Some people like visual solidarity, whatever, they just need to be made aware it's not enough.

Particularly when, as this thread is demonstrating, the meaning is a bit obscure.

 

It's a meme that's spreading through social media. The idea came from Brexit remainers in the UK. They started wearing safety pins as a way to let people of marginalized groups know that they were there to help them if necessary.

Only it's very hard to see a safety pin attached to someone's shirt. And totally random people can have all sorts of reasons to be wearing safety pins attached to their clothes, so it's not a reliable symbol. Like maybe their "Hello My Name Is" badge fell off or something.

 

IF someone had a dress shirt with a highly visible safety pin on it, my primary conclusion would be that they are an idiot.

 

So... you elected to be Typical Wocky and not do any research before commenting?

 

I stuck a safety pin into my eye last Tuesday evening. Does that count?

 

DG, you have found the perfect solution. Who can fail to notice a screaming guy with blood running from his eyesocket? Next time I see someone like that, I'll know for sure that I'm safe with them.

 

Do you know, I was thinking yesterday, the common proverb doesn't really make sense. If an entire nation was really composed of blind people, the power structure would likely also be set up to favor blind people, or at least some privileged subset of them. A person with partially preserved eyesight would likely be ostracized or at least exoticized. While I can see the state making use of his or her talents, I really don't think it's plausible that he would be allowed to displace the local elites, or that cultural values would even have been formed in such a way that his abilities would allow him to.

 

Saramago's Essay on Blindness (also known as just Blindness in the USA because "essay" is a dirty word) is the book you are looking for.

 

I generally agree with the article, and just prefer blaming Wocky and Vivec for most things, but I am also hearing that Arab-American activists are sahying it's helping their communities with solidarity, etc. so I'm not sure necessarily it's the worst thing in the world?

I mean, yes, it is literally the smallest thing you can do short of nothing... and if that's your end goal (i.e. just wearing a safety pin), that's probably useless. But if it's just one part of your overall sense of doing useful things then it's probably okay.

Not sure if I'm making sense since my brain is still fried from jet-lag. Also I'm in India where there's no money (like, literally at the moment), so this is what I expect it to be like in the US when Trump replaces all of the currency with his face.

 

Isn't this thread Ouroboros?

 

Diogenes would think the safety pin and changing FB profile to a shade of a flag to show "solidarity" a joke worth doing to mock the cause.

 

We should wear giant novelty safety pins.

 

Also, white women who take safety pins, wrap thread around it, and sell them for $4 should be flogged.

 

I get the sentiment. It sucks that people are afraid and I see the appeal of some kind of message to say 'hey, no need to be afraid of me' but - yeah - I don't think it's doing anyone any good.

Except this guy who looks pretty snazzy.

 

Shouldn't this go in "the stupidest thing in your Facebook" thread?