Safety Pins: Meaningful or useless?

I heard via social media about the people wearing safety pins as a sign of solidarity for those who feel like a Trump presidency will be bad for them. It is supposed to say that this person is a safe person for people of color, members of the LGBT community, Muslims, Mexicans, and anyone else who feels threatened by Trump and his supporters.

At first I thought, hey that's a neat idea, but then I read this article. Dear White People, Your Safety Pins are Embarassing It got me thinking, is it actually a good thing to do?

The article basically states that the safety pins are not about helping the people who feel marginalized but are actually about attempting to assuage white guilt. They are to helping those groups what clicking "like" on Facebook is to actually accomplishing anything.

One point the author makes is that it's very easy to say that you're a safe person to be around but an entirely different thing to actually be a safe person to be around. Does Trump honestly think that he's dangerous? How many people who are wearing them voted for Trump? How many people wearing them aren't actually safe but only think that they are?

I'm not sure if I agree with the author yet or not. What are your thoughts?

Haven't read it, seems to do little more than to create further divide in the states...

I agree with the article you posted - though I probably wouldn't be as harsh, ha ha!

I think that, like so many social justice movements, it's a largely meaningless gesture. A kind gesture, but an essentially useless one to make a person feel like they're helping without actually doing anything. It just continues to create "us vs them" mentality. People are becoming more divisive: creating movements, organizing protests and "resistances."

A lot of what I've seen lately is people perpetuating fear rather than working to dispel it. Which is confusing because fear-mongering is exactly how Trump ran his campaign.

It reminds me of changing your photo on facebook to support a cause , its a visible sign that you support it i guess , as long as they dont beat up the ones that dont wear one it cannot do any harm i guess..:huh:

To me as a member of the LGBTQ+ community its the same as wearing an ally button. Yes it shows that youre there but until you actually stand up and do something for one of us I personally dont think it means anything. I honestly believe that everyone should be entitled to what they believe is best for themselves unless that crosses the line of anothers constitutional rights. Once it gets to that point is when the government should step in. Sad to say that it seems like America whether under Trump or Clinton is being divided and moving away fro the original virtues and ideals it was created on.

i didnt play along with the conservatives stupid american flag pins back in the W reign because i believed that i did "support the troops" by not wanting to send them over to get killed in a B.S. war that i thought was really about haliburton (and others) profit margins, and im not going to play along with this nonsense either

i have always considered myself a liberal, but the left has been hijacked by crazy people and i wont cooperate; in fact i am way more afraid of the left now than i am of the right AND I AM A LEFTY

to me the safety pin thing is just ego - to feel like a defender of justice without doing or risking anything: its shallow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zMvTDYllkU

OB1Shinobi wrote: i didnt play along with the conservatives stupid american flag pins back in the W reign because i believed that i did "support the troops" by not wanting to send them over to get killed in a B.S. war that i thought was really about haliburton (and others) profit margins, and im not going to play along with this nonsense either

i have always considered myself a liberal, but the left has been hijacked by crazy people and i wont cooperate; in fact i am way more afraid of the left now than i am of the right AND I AM A LEFTY

to me the safety pin thing is just ego - to feel like a defender of justice without doing or risking anything: its shallow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zMvTDYllkU

Crazies are on both sides Shin...

I changed mine to the rebel logo with the safety pin, and yes I am willing to stand up for the person in real life, and for me it's not divisive. I've got family that voted for Trump. Much as I dislike that fact, they had their reasons. I spent the day with my aunt yesterday, and when she wrapped her arms around me, I'd never felt more safe and at home. She voted for Trump and I would stand up to someone trying to hurt her just as I would for those I agree with. For me it's a message, I don't care who you are, what you believe, if you are at risk I will stand with you. The one exception is if you are acting toward the person in hate. I will not defend hate of any kind toward anyone.

I am unfond of general blanket statements, especially when it comes to race and the like.

My viewpoint of the safety pins is similar to wearing a shirt or anything along those lines of showing support for a particular idea, as well as draw notice to something. Not too long ago, pink ribbons were in the same slot of "you're being embarrassing" but are something which identifies you as having a strong opinion or showing support for those undergoing the struggle of breast cancer.

I don't believe in "allies," I believe in people with similar ideas. I don't suddenly stop supporting people because of a trade agreement over clay, alliances do that. As a veteran, it's something that makes me feel welcome when I see a lot of military positive shirts, it tells me that people near me support the military. On the flip side, I've been near people who have very anti-military shirts which tells me to be wary about talking about my service, something which I am proud of and helped define who I am. It's a visual sign.

A pin is a pin, but in this case people are assigning a new meaning to it. It's different from a "like" in that it's a visible sign of "I'm willing to show my support." Might it be a show for some to cover this "white guilt" thing, possibly, but that's not really our job to tell them how to feel. Everyone shows their emotions and support in different ways. Might it amount to nothing? Aye, it certainly probably will, but it doesn't mean people can't wear their feelings and opinions on their sleeve.

Long story short: Some people hate it, some people like it, don't attach race to it, find the positive. If you feel it has meaning to you to do it, do it, show your support, be vocal about your support for your beliefs, just be intelligent about it.

Zenchi wrote: Crazies are on both sides Shin...

well no argument there lol definitely crazies on all sides; it was the right wing crazies that initially drove me to the left

i "came of age" politically during the W administration

i identified as liberal because i believe in equality and equal opportunity, i believe in being well educated and intellectually honest, and i believe in having the self control to be OK with the fact that people are different, and respecting those differences without trying to control or silence people

what im seeing now is that the left (either always has been and i just didnt see it, or) has become completely intolerant of opposing views, to the point of manipulating the law to restrict speech and exchange of ideas, and is allowing the intellectually underdeveloped to set the agenda for the whole party

such as the crazy radicals who insist such absurd things as that biological sex is a myth, or that all white people are complicit in the oppression of all non whites all straight people are complicit in the oppression of all gay people, all regularly gendered people are complicit in the oppression of transgendered people, and all men are complicit in the oppression of all women - basically, that you are either an opporessed minority, OR you are an oppressor, AND THATS IT, thats all any of us are

its pure marxist bullsh8 and fantasy

i not only reject it for my own world view but i also say that anyone who promotes these stereotypes is not only wrong (which of course you have every right to be) but is also pushing ideas that will ultimately make things worse for everyone

and i think its important that those who agrees with me, most especially liberals who agree with me, be willing to say as much in public, else we are going to lose our party over to loonies who will wreck us

i know that most people mean well with the safety pins, and if you really feel its important then fine, wear the pin, show your solidarity, i respect the sentiment of wanting people to know that they arent alone

but please be careful not to construct a view of america that assumes all trump supporters are racist, misogynist, homphobic and transphobic, because many people voted for trump for reasons that dont have anythign to do with hating on any marginalized groups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o77lkCpySB4