I don’t want to stray into XKCD territory, but it does seem like people in general tend to be less…conscientious about such things than I. However, I’m oblivious about plenty of things myself that others are more aware of, so I guess it’s just how different priorities work.
fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Yeah, I am very oblivious to many civil rights issues for instance. I guess it’s probably safe to assume I’m that kind of person to somebody out there, isn’t it?
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 days ago
Yeah, I instantly felt Myself feel judgy when you said you’re oblivious to civil rights issues. If you wanna learn about them, I’d be happy to answer questions or just tell a story.
Here’s one story. Australia doesn’t technically have marriage equality. We have gay marriage, but that’s not what I’m talking about. See, if you’re on a disability pension, and you live with a partner, you get less money. They assume your partner will cover for you. So lots of disabled people can’t afford to get married.
fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
I do have a couple questions. How should I categorize and structure civil rights issues in my head, is it just by demographic? Where does intersectionality fit into that? Are there easily accessible websites I can look at regularly that will kind of just keep me aware of things that are happening?
I am immersed in groups that are focused on consumer rights and privacy, but I would need somewhere to ease me into civil rights until I have a lot of the baseline knowledge in my head already. Most of the civil rights issues im clued in on are just issues that people who I know personally, and people they know, have to deal with, as well as things I come across on the internet naturally.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 days ago
I learned a lot of what I know about the current state of things from Lemmy. Reading ordinary news will get you that knowledge, but you have to read between the lines. Let’s do an example.
If we go to boingboing.net (My favourite news site) we see the headline Roblox will now have AI politely rewrite your trash talk. That seems like a cute silly story about games, but let’s use our brains to look for edge cases. AI is bad with nuance, so what happens if a 12 year old uses Roblox to tell their friends they’ve been feeling suicidal? This AI might cut off their access to peer support. That’s going to negatively impact groups that suffer youth suicidality, like queer youth. That angle isn’t explored on the page, you have to go to the comments on a place like Lemmy or use your noodle to find it.
I learned how to critically think about the news in school. In high school English and social science they made us read the news and critically analyse it like that.