Safety Pins: Meaningful or useless?

First of all:

Some internet thing wrote: and white people — only white people — put him there.

Calm your farm there bloggers (and everyone else, while you're at it) - I'm as white as the driven snow, and I don't believe I'm even allowed to vote in, what country was it? Some american place? One of the ones that's not Canada?

That's not "white guilt assuaging" that's "stop lumping in every damn white person (I believe they prefer "Honkey" or "Cracka") into your shitposts"

Secondly: People getting the short end of the stick is fairly worldwide - I don't see a huge correlation between "Supporting X" and "Anti/Pro POTUS(Elect)"

Fun Fact: The author of the Huffington Post article on this subject refers to himself as a "Bloviator" turns out that means:
Bloviation is a style of empty, pompous political speech particularly associated with Ohio due to the term's popularization by United States President Warren G. Harding, who, himself a master of the technique, described it as "the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warrants, and saying nothing".

So despite sooking about them, pins are good for him, he gets an article, a paycheck, out of sooking about nothing for clickbait.


I was a bit amazed at how easy it was to find articles on this - The whole top page of a google search for "safety pins" - I guess I'm lucky I wasn't just looking for information on how to fasten diapers or adopt a punk rock aesthetic....

The dailydot (another in the top 10) quotes 4chan for reasons why it's a problem.
4chan? How can your business be online "journalism", and you're willing to consider intentionally inflammatory comments from 4chan a resource to quote? (Safety Pins co-opted by white supremists....)

So, despite the internet traffic, I'm not persuaded this is even a real thing, on account of the awful quality of the sites discussing it.



Now, onto my "White brothers" or whatever - Most SJW actions are embarrassing, (although you might call it "low hanging fruit" to pull some of them apart).

There are lots of pins out there. Someone could study the part of the brain that likes online-social-equality-battles, and buttons, and find that area is enlarged in certain people.

I don't think they are harmful as such, though I do agree they achieve four-fifths of FA.

Up there with all the other pins and buttons to support stuff.

I do feel that plain safety pins are hell on the lazy side though. How about an actual button supporting something? (Still pointless, but at least it shows the bare minimum of effort on your part)
If you're good, you can even buy them from some noble whatever your "marginalized group" of preference is person and give yourself extra pats on the back for supporting them financially.....

Smileys are unusable, but rest assured I'm rolling my eyes.

I think the answer to your question, Goken, can really go either way.

I submit that anyone considering wearing it should search their intentions for doing so, and ensure that what you're doing is truly meant to support an issue you feeling strongly about. Like some of the previous posts alluded to, people often change online avatars, wear pins, and don other badges with themselves at the center of the cosmic equation. They want to be seen (either by others or their own sense of personal narrative) as supportive of a cause or believing in a certain thing. I certainly don't discount the importance of awareness, even if a certain segment of society ONLY raises awareness - but the ISSUE should be at the heart of the matter, not self-image.

It is certainly possible to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. I think that there are many ways to help in this particular scenario - if you are interested in supporting the sentiment behind the pin, what other ways could a person make a difference that might be equally effective in a discreet way?

I certainly don't want to dissuade anyone from supporting a cause in perhaps the only way they can - just give a thought to your true intention before you do.

Does it serve the cause, or the ego?

I will be bluntly honest here. As a gay man myself I find these pins to be silly at best and condescending at worst. Are you saying differing political agendas can somehow make me feel unsafe? Are you saying that you promise not to attack me? If it's the first then I'm sorry but the person who says that must think very little of my emotional and mental strength. If it's the latter I will say that most people won't attack you so its a sign for nothing. Further, I will say that someone that is truly dangerous would wear those pins and use them as a cover to get close. My situational awareness and failing that the glock on my hip is what keeps me safe, not some silly gesture.

Now I know the gesture is one made and good faith but come on how much coddling do we need in this world? We are weakening people by making it so they never had to face disagreement and adversity. If things at thisTemple from time to time didn't make me feel uncomfortable would I ever grow as a Jedi?

I have to say that I like the safety pin idea... And when I heard of it, GUILT had nothing to do with my support or political ideation.

The current political situation has evoked something from our populace that has nothing to do with politics, but rather with a human issue of hate and permissiveness for hate actions. People are rightly entitled to their views and opinions, but are not always entitled to their actions. I grew up in a particularly intolerant part of the southern U.S. and moved as an adult because I couldn't stand the hate, fear and exclusion around me. As such I've always known that there was this current running through our society. I did not, however, think that it was so profoundly supported by so many people. The actions and attitudes of the man who has been elected to our highest political office has given permission for a way of behaving that, I believe, had been slowly being overturned by a more enlightened generation. It's not Trump's politics that bother me so much, it's the general hate and exclusion that he fosters. I wear a pin, NOT BECAUSE I FEEL GUILTY, but because I feel that it's important for others to know that they are not alone in their intolerance for hate actions. My pin says more than, "You're safe with me, even though you're different (which is still bigoted),"it says, "I stand against those who hate as a behavior."

The permitted actions of our society seventy years ago were rightly overturned by new humanistic thoughts in the 1960's. The new laws that were enacted over the next few years restricted segregation, bias and harassment based on race, sex, creed, income, religion, political view and, more recently, sexual orientation. The laws don't restrict you from hating, but they do dictate what we have decided are humanly unacceptable ways of behaving towards each other in our society. We have seen a seventy-year regression in our societal behavior because of how one man has been permitted to behave. He has a right to hate as an opinion, but no one has a right to hate as an action.

Hate if you must, but not at the expense of your own humanity.

I'm a little peeved about the fact that the author decided that Trump's election is the fault of white people. There were plenty of marginalized folks who decided to vote for him, so it most certainly cannot be the sole responsibility of my skin color. The article is yet another way to make people hate themselves for how they were born. Though I recognize my privilege, I can't for the life of me think of what's so good about putting myself down just to make someone else feel good about themselves. It would be better to bring the privilege of marginalized folks up to par with the majority. It's the reason that I agree with the idea of Black Lives Matter, but not the tactics involved in bringing others down. It's more about bringing more recognition of the reality that black people endure, rather than putting others down. I'm intolerant of divisiveness. I'm deeply against racism, or any other superiority mentalities.

I agree with the spirit of the article, but not every idea presented within it. No, Trump isn't my fault; I voted against him. No, I don't feel bad or guilty of anything I didn't do. I'm of the opinion that preferring one's own "kind" is deeply engrained in our DNA; something attributed to surviving as a tribe and being weary of "outsiders". But, as our social barriers have been and are still being evolved (for the better, I hope), it's difficult not to want to be comfortable. I think there's a time for comfort and a time for action. I think it's time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Otherwise, we'll be spinning our wheels for the foreseeable future. Not making traction with progress is a detriment to our society, as a whole.

I agree with you, Luthien. And, interestingly, didn't Hillary actually win by popular vote and Trump only won because of how the electorate chose to vote? Please correct me if I'm wrong... I do wish we could change our electoral system.

She did win the popular vote. The electoral college voted how the people they represent voted. They do have the choice of voting opposite to how they're representing, but will only incur a fine for it. To those who would leave their country because of a leader change, I have no sympathy for. If one is not willing to fight for what they believe in, yet they spew on and on, ad nauseam, about how wrong something is, there's no reason for anybody to take them seriously.

First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to this. These sorts of things are always of interest to me because I want to show support for many things but I want to do so in a meaningful way.

I have come to the conclusion that, for me personally, I find the wearing of the pins to be a useless gesture. I love the sentiment behind it but the application is somewhat lacking. If you wear one and are sincere then that is great. Be supportive, show that you care, be awesome, just don't think that you've actually accomplished much of anything. Sorry.

I am more and more annoyed at social media activists and similar things. Great, you changed your picture, you hit like, you joined a group that chats online while you all sit in your respective safe homes. So many people, many of them (prepare for generalization) younger people, have become convinced that they can say that they've furthered a cause and done some good from actions that amount to nothing. That's not to say that awareness is bad. These causes need to be known about and people need to talk about it and share it with the world, but awareness alone means nothing if there's no action.

Support Black Lives Matter? I can almost guarantee that there's rallies near you, go join them. Support your local police force? Most local police have foundations, charities, and events throughout the year that you can donate to or go to to show support. Most 5K/10K/15K/marathon type events benefit a charity of some kind, go run one of those. Support a good cause and get healthier in the process. Two birds, one stone.

No money? Lots of organizations only want your time. No time? You're reading this aren't you? Get up and move.

This is not meant to put anyone down or say that you're not doing enough. I'm not even necessarily talking about the people here. I know plenty of people here who do so much to actually further their causes. For many people their job is to further those causes. What I'm saying is that we all need to be aware of what our actual impact is on things and make sure that we're walking the walk if we plan to talk the talk.