S8E01: How to Do Social Justice This Election Season Without Being a Jackass: An Introduction

We are less than two months away from the 2024 Election. This Election season is a bit different, because rather than voting for separate political parties, we're voting for two systems: democracy and autocracy (specifically, a Christian Nationalist theocracy).

Autocratic governments tend to rely on disinformation, propaganda, repression of voter rights, and fear-mongering in order to develop their power. The 2024 Republican Party is no different. A lot has been written about how the public can ethically respond, and quite frankly, there aren't a lot of great answers for the next 6 months, other than voting en masse. 

We know responses that make it worse. Name-calling and blaming, while potentially cathartic, only entrench the polarization. Communicating around social identity ("White people do ____." Women think ____.") reinforces the stereotypes that progressivism attempts to reject.

From now until Election Day, we will be releasing a series called "How to Do Social Justice Without Being a Jackass." We'll talk with our guests about how to hold our anger and fear without responding in dehumanizing ways. In our introduction episode, we talk about:

• EMPish Spaces & Being a Jackass (13:00): Julia notes, “To put it bluntly, folks from Evangelical, Mormon, and Pentecostal communities, or EMPish folks, can be jackasses when it comes to communicating and upholding the values of purity culture. There's obviously overt, misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic messages often expressed directly from the pulpit or from Christian publishing houses. That can translate into some abhorrent behavior on social media. I think a lot of people are sick of it.”

• Deconstruction as a Political Process (15:00): Jeremiah highlights, “Deconstruction, especially from EMPish communities is inherently a political process.  My guess is that in two months, most of you will likely be voting for Kamala Harris in the election. Not necessarily because you agree with her strategies or policies, maybe you do, maybe you don't. But because you've walked away from communities that enact the same policies of Project 2025.”

• Persuasion & Pointlessness (17:00): Jeremiah notes, “Trying to convince someone that they're wrong only entrenches their position, especially when that someone is fully convinced that they are right, as EMPish Republicans often do, as they've convinced themselves that Trump is sent from God to deliver a troubled American nation out of exile.”

• Responding to Hate (20:00): Julia says, “We can talk about misogyny, but responding to misogyny with, I'm now unfriending all my friends who are misogynists that I didn't know were misogynists, is not a great way to actually respond to misogyny. Because even if they are harmful, dangerous people, dehumanizing is actually maybe only going to fuel their dangerous fire.”

• Accessibility (25:00): Jeremiah discusses, “Our country has a pretty sordid history of removing accessibility and affordability to these basic things, be that through the reduction of taxes, which reduces government services to provide quality education and safe infrastructure, gerrymandering and other strategies to reduce voting power, or straight up discrimination that bars groups of people from receiving services and entryways to success.” 

• Relational Health (27:00): Jeremiah defines, “Relational health is a process of developing sustainable, healthy forms of collaboration with other important people that allows small groups of people to meet common shared goals, such as sexual flourishing, emotional connection, or financial support. Relational health focuses specifically on how two or more people interact with each other to solve problems and meet their goals.” 

• Jackass Distinctions (29:00): Julia says, “I'm considering how individuation is often an act of protest, which is vital. However, protest is an act of separation rather than collaboration. You and I are experts in communication and as experts in communication, we always prefer collaboration over separation. However, in the face of oppression, protest and separation, is often the only option. We'd like to distinguish Jackass-dom, which is communicating in dehumanizing ways from the important work of political protest and separation, which is necessary to preserve human rights.”

• “Jackass-dom” Continued (31:00): Julia adds: “As relationship experts, we would love differentiation to be the dominant practice within political advocacy. That's not always the case. What we're facing in our country is not just an unwillingness of one party to acknowledge the role that the history of discrimination plays in our country, but their active recreation of discriminatory practices. Which sometimes means individuation is the only option rather than a differentiated approach.”

• Power & Shame (34:00): Jeremiah details, “I think that's actually one of the primary ways that liberals end up being social justice jackasses.Connected to that, there's a vocabulary that liberals have developed that has linked power with shame. The more privilege you have, the more untrustworthy of an individual you are. Change takes an AA approach. The first step is admitting that you have a problem or that your privilege is a problem.”

• Behavior v. Values (36:00): Julia draws the connection, “Behavior focuses on what a person or relationship decides to do. Value focuses on what a person or relationship chooses to do. I think liberals can do the same thing, except rather than talking about behaviors, they talk about identities. And a huge caveat, Identities are really, really important. We're not suggesting that we don't talk about it. The work of social justice in many ways requires it, but we can't end the conversation there.”

• Reposting & Unfollowing Without Context (40:00): Julia discusses, “For starters, it pits two people or groups against each other, the Christian and the non Christian, the racist and the anti racist. Or, to go back to the example that I gave earlier in the episode, the misogynist and the anti misogynist. Look at me, I am unfriending all those people who are misogynist.  How does that help anyone or anything and I actually mean that like with curiosity, I don't know how that helps anyone or anything except further reinforcing that you are virtue signaling to your echo chamber that you are a good social justice warrior that you are on the right side of history.” 

• “I’m Better Than You!” (44:00): Jeremiah notes, “Jackass-dom also includes virtue signaling and the creation of a moral hierarchy. I am a better human, or you are less evolved than me because you have these specific beliefs.”

• Relationship 101 (46:00): Jeremiah discusses one of today’s relationship 101’s: “The third thing that we want to name is to take a relationship approach. As you mentioned earlier, Julia, identity is really important. However, when we start with identity, such as our gender, orientation, or race, we're talking about a large group of people and ourselves as one member of a large group of people. And as such, we become more prone to stereotypes, essentialism, or black and white thinking, and moral superiority. Instead, consider the dyadic relationships that are the most important to you. Your siblings, your partnerships, your family relationships, your best friends, and speak from the perspective of what might help those two and three person relationships thrive rather than a large group of people who may have different understandings of what it means to be a member of that orientation.”