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by mburshteyn 4913 days ago
You may be interested in reading this: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/complete.html#proveit.
2 comments

I've never seen this before, but this is seriously fantastic.
I just glanced at several of the headings, and it looks like that page is just a list of reasonable things to say.
That's the point.
I think either your sarcasm meter is broken, or mine is. Honestly cannot tell which.
I'm confused. Isn't that page supposed to be holding those statements up for ridicule? I'm saying that although the person who made that page thinks that the statements are bullshit, they seem perfectly reasonable to me.
Yeah, that is what I am getting out of it too.

I think that either mburshteyn is sarcastically saying "that's the point" (perhaps to indicate that you thinking that is exactly the problem s/he is trying to highlight?), or mburshteyn has missed the sarcasm in the derailment page (it's not actually advocating 'derailment').

I'm saying these arguments may sound reasonable, but they can also be viewed as a tactic to derail conversations about oppression and marginalized groups. The fact that "it looks like a list of reasonable things to say," as part of our dominant discourse about topics such as gender, is exactly why they're such a powerful and effective tactic. Until a discussion can move past using derailing tactics in these conversations, marginalization and oppression won't really be challenged.