Students Vs. Mexicans: Cultural Appropriation

I know that you’re trying to levy a criticism about parroting talking points, but I’m not sure who is qualified to determineis independent thought. The post of his you are quoting isn’t a thought humanity has never seen, but neither does it look like it came from an Alex Jones mad lib. The right has a different viewpoint, but they have minds and must have this perspective for a reason.

 

I found it interesting that the very next post after you wrote this was someone’s ad hominem attack on @studegator.

 

Not really. It was "an attack" of the poster's content and not the poster as a person.

 

I think this is aimed at me so let me respond. There may have been an argument in the video. I did not watch the video. My point was that there was no argument of the poster. The poster did not show any independent thought.

There may well be independent thought in the video. I have a bias against watching videos in general no matter where they come from. Even friends that are philosophically aligned that send me videos get frustrated that I don't watch them. I prefer to read.

But I have great difficulty crediting someone with independent thought when all they do is post someone else's thoughts. I'm not talking about synthesizing other people's reasoning to support discrete points or traveling off of an argument in video or story to add value or perceived value. I'm talking about just wholesale posting of someone else's prepackaged provocations.

That's all I've seen that poster do, and then claim victimization that s/he is being attacked for self valorizing independent thought. It reminds me of the Life of Brian scene.

I don't feel any internal obligation to respond to arguments that are not even those of the person asserting them. If they have not even added some thought about what they thought was significant about the linked piece, I don't see the value in responding. And I'm certainly not going to put much energy into trying to deconstruct a constructed provocation.

 

I don’t find most cultural appropriation complaints to be that serious but also not sure how common they really are. There is a wide gulf between blackface and cooking tacos and I feel like I can usually tell when it’s meant to be mocking or insulting.