Derailing for Dummies

Oh, my dear friend Irish, you have delivered the tonic I've needed for some time now:


Derailing for Dummies is like a grand tour of the unfun moments of the past few years. I should have known that none of this is new and none of this has to do with this particular cause.


"a fool-proof method of derailing every challenging conversation you may get into"

DERAIL USING ANGER
  • You're Being Hostile
  • You've Lost Your Temper So I Don't Have To Listen To You Anymore
  • You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry
DERAIL USING RETALIATION
  • Your Experience Is Not Representative Of Everyone
  • You Have An Agenda
  • Unless You Can Prove Your Experience Is Widespread I Won't Believe It
  • You Have A False Consciousness
  • But It's True!
  • Don't You Have More Important Issues To Think About
  • You're Just Suffering Privilege Envy
  • Well I Know Another Person From Your Group Who Disagrees!
  • You're Not Being A Team Player
DERAIL USING PERSONAL ATTACKS
  • You're As Bad As They Are
  • You Just Enjoy Being Offended
  • Being Offended Is Great For You
  • I Don't Think You're As Marginalised As You Claim
  • But You're Different To The Others
DERAIL USING INTELLECTUALISM
  • You’re Not Being Intellectual Enough/You’re Being Overly Intellectual
  • You're Interrogating From The Wrong Perspective
  • You're Arguing With Opinions Not Fact
And may I add: Derail by the Friends You Keep, Derail by lack of loyalty, Derail claiming financial interest, Derail by claiming deeper knowledge, Derail by Claiming Others Agree With Me and are Talking About You, Derail Using Insinuation of Hurting Friends, we could go on...

How naive I've been! I need to study this stuff!

Comments

  1. Not fair - I was just about to blog that!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clever minds blog alike! Did I beat you to Bryan's piece too?

    ReplyDelete
  3. How about, Derail by making a passive aggressive comment which is obviously about one person in particular, then claiming innocence and suggesting that person must be guilty because they are protesting when you didn't mention their name? It's a long one, but a common one!

    Also, derail because you have a persecution complex, which is quite similar to "you just enjoy being offended".

    And privilege envy? That phrase sounds like it really needs to be attached to a racist, sexist or homophobic remark!

    Why people can't just communicate without playing games I don't know. You seem to be very good at doing that Laura, I have learnt a lot from your style of discussing difficult topics with people who are not altogether welcoming of the ideas.

    ReplyDelete

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