@boisterousbard @antares @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi

I came with the first wave of Twitterers back in May.

My feeling was that the groups over-represented here compared to Twitter were continental europeans, and nerds, autists etc. All of these speak "common English" as 2. language.

To us, "overkindness" is a way to get past cultural assumptions.

½

@boisterousbard @antares @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi

To native speakers with a irl-community (that is to say: not nerds/autists) the rules of interaction have always worked "for" them.

In an international setting (and studies show) this results in non-natives doing nonshared invisible work to compensate, while being looked down as outsiders.

Example: Natives seldom list their general location, languages, or education; often using the fields as jokes.

2/2

@iju @boisterousbard @antares @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Also the gender field. I'm not necessarily against or upset by it, but using the gender field to claim that you have no pronouns or that you identify as an attack helicopter doesn't imply any sort of desire to be respectful towards the groups who really benefit from them (which is pretty much anyone who isn't a cismale).

@Raccoon @iju @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

I'm just not buying into the stupid labels game. Especially when a-holes try to label others without their permission. Enough is enough.

Tolerance and support is one thing I do. Being used as a tool is one thing I don't do.

@QueenPhilippa @Raccoon @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

Personally I feel that any conversation past small talk about weather should involve knowing something about their background.

@iju @Raccoon @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

Let people explain their own pronouns...but stay out of defining other's pronouns for them!

Horrible form to tell a person what cubbyhole YOU think they fit into!

@QueenPhilippa @Raccoon @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

I was speaking of background, as in when and where someone was raised (and the general knowledge it implies), not of gender.

I don't have gender on my own profile as I feel it's an anglo-american concept and I'm not comfortable with applying it on myself. (But I wish to honour people who see it as part of their identity.)

@Raccoon @iju @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

I couldn't care less about the silly season people go into. I said what I said.

@QueenPhilippa @Raccoon @boisterousbard @antares @BlackAzizAnansi

You're entitled to your opinion, but let me say that what that opinion of yours is doesn't really come well across, at the moment.

@Raccoon I'm assuming that this is directed at my pronouns field.

I do have a regular set of pronouns that I use IRL, and a real name as well, but I have found that my interactions on social media are much better if I keep details like race, gender, ethnicity, etc private.

On the Other Site I simply didn't list pronouns, but found that on Mastodon choosing not to do so lead to a certain set of assumptions about how I would treat LGBTQ+ people so I found a way to acknowledge and support the sharing of pronouns while keeping mine anonymous.

I completely understand those who don't want to interact with anonymous accounts, but I don't think that can be said of one using the handle Rockstar Racoon.

@antares Actually, no, I didn't look at your profile.

I was responding to @iju saying that non-marginalized people tend to be the ones who use their fields as jokes. People who aren't used to having their pronouns misgendered don't really appreciate that field, hence why some people have defaulted to they/them (and sometimes she/her) for strangers on the internet, just to not assume male.

On the "Other Site", my current pronouns are "Masto/Don".

@miscelena @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi
“Mastodon users are pleased with the cultural norms of not rocking the boat, backed up by, as I noted in my other response, German speech laws that make virtually any discussion of ethnicity/color/race verboten.”—Miscelena

I don’t know enough Mastodon users to generalize. But what German laws? What evidence that they make such discussion impossible?

@miscelena @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi I am very interested in learning about those laws forbidding discussing ethnicity, color, and race. I have never heard of those, which is exasperating, as I am a German living in Germany, having discussed those three topics all my life.
Care to elaborate? Have I broken the law? Which one?

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi

Perhaps you can comment on what the German government considers racism? It is absolutely a much broader range of thoughts and words than are illegal in the US.

This article notes that "He boasted of fining a well-known painter in the community the equivalent of roughly $10,000 for sharing insults about Turkish immigrants."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/germany-internet-speech-arrest.html

@miscelena @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi I'm less interested in what any current government thinks. Governments come and go, laws stay. I was asking about the laws you claimed would forbid discussions of ethnicity, color, and race. I am confused how you pointing out an article about *hate speech* would be considered answer to this?
Do you consider hate speech the same as discussions?

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Hmm. I don't consider an insulting remark about Turkish immigrants to qualify as "hate speech." Simple rudeness isn't a threat and shouldn't be illegal? As a result, I'm extremely unclear on where your govt draws the line.

@miscelena @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi But rudeness isn't "virtually any discussion", so I still don't see how the latter is " virtually verboten".

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Ha! Maybe not in Germany, but conversations here turn rude very quickly when debate occurs. It is ready to be labeled rude, if you believe in what you say and say it with feeling. Conviction of beliefs is often perceived as rude by those who disagree with you, have you not noticed this?

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Also, while no, of course I do not consider hate speech the same as discussion, I have seen plenty of right-wing folks object to "anti-white" comments as "hate speech", and those same bigots regularly label the suggestion that slavery's effects are still impacting Black families today as "racist" ideas "against white people". (I find the idea that anyone could be "racist against white people" ludicrous; does your government?)

@miscelena @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Our laws governing free speech exist to protect minorities and prevent the kind of fascism we've gone through.

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Your minorities.... are all white?

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi Honestly didn't know this. Is the bigotry so rampant that you actually still have to protect white people from other white people?! (I'm LOL) It's been more than a few decades since you (supposedly) eliminated the white supremacists, so I'm going to say if this is as far as you've gotten in welcoming diverse communities, it sounds like it's... not really working?

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi I mean, if this is incorrect, please advise where I might find accurate statistics? This is a fact, not an opinion. Looks like Black people make up less than 1% of Germany. I honestly had no idea. I mean it's been decades and decades; I honestly assumed it was similar to England or France again by now.

@sbi @antares @boisterousbard @QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi How very American of you to post a false dichotomy and then nope out. Seems kinda... rude? LOL