when I was in college, a part of our university's graduation requirements had a community service component that they called service learning. one of my service learning classes involved work at a local homerless community center, helping people write resumes and cleaning bathrooms. our instructor told us to expect to see the bathrooms trashed a lot - like you will clean the bathroom and immediately someone will wreck it.
and it's not because they disrespect your work or don't value having access to clean bathrooms or whatever, but because of control. when you feel like you have no control over your life or your environment, your brain is going to want to assert control however it can. which results in thrashed bathrooms. it's control exercised over one small part of your environment that you still have the power to affect.
i see kids on tumblr using the language of social justice as cudgels on people who actually do care about and listen to them. or holding the creators within their own communities to an impossibly high standard that they never apply to mainstream media properties.
i just see thrashed bathrooms. 'These are the people my voice actually reach,' they rationalize, 'so these are the people I'll hurt'. but the guiding principles of social justice are aimed at correcting and dismantling systems. stop using them to dismantle people.
annual repost of Trashed Bathrooms
