Post by Heightism Report on Dec 9, 2014 0:05:06 GMT
I certainly hope that more heightism blogs, websites, etc., appear in the coming years, but I think we can also use another tier of allies in the game, and this tier would take far less of a commitment from the practitioners.
An example of what I'm talking about, is sometimes on Twitter, I engage the ignoramuses I encounter in conversation.(I don't generally seek them out, they usually send me inflammatory replies first) Then, the ignoramuses' friends jump into the mix, which spawns a convoluted mess of strawmen, links to Randy Newman, antiquated short puns, and accusations of me being a pathetic short man with no life who "gets no pussy." There's nothing we can really to do to stop this because it comes with the territory, and anti-heightism is a bloodsport, so this is to be expected.
The issue, is that when I'm involved in these dialogues, I usually only have one ally, who happens to be Joe from SupportForTheShort. On occasion, there will be another short guy who appears now and then to join the fight, and these guys will begin to tweet anti-heightist things, but they always disappear within a month or so. I totally understand why they disappear because approaching this issue leads to a constant slathering of running in circles, all-out hate speech, and being greeted with the most shoddy logic that the world has to offer. As far as it just being Joe and I on the front lines, the arguments usually end in our adversaries making a declaration that we're both the same pathetic short guy, running two separate accounts, and many laughs are always had as the result.
My point, is that we need another tier of short people who we can rally to support us in instances such as these discussions. If you're a member of this forum, you definitely have the potential to make a difference, so what I'm saying is we need more people like you spanning across the internet, and eventually, out in the real world.
I'm not just talking about Twitter arguments either. When one of us posts something about a company that benefits off of heightism in advertising, etc., there's no reason that the company shouldn't be getting flooded with emails from enlightened short men. I remember on The Social Complex once, there was an instance where a company pulled a heightist item(I think it was a t-shirt) from their inventory because of emails from proactive short men, thus, we can make a lot more of a statement, if we actually start stating our concerns.
When I post screenshots of hateful Twitter-bigots on my Tumblr, no one contacts them to question them about their beliefs. I know that we're not going to change their minds, but we can give them a few moments of discomfort for being hateful imbeciles, and the more we can create a culture of discomfort for them, the more they get dragged from their cushy lair of unopposed bigotry. Also, there may be short men who see these conversations, and it will be good for them to know that if they ever want to step out of the shadows that there will be a support system in place. As it stands, we don't even have a substantial support system on r/short, which makes it even more sad that r/short is the best we have at this point in time.
The purpose of this post is not to call anyone out or anything like that because you are all highly-valuable people in the anti-heightism game. Personally, I need to be writing more emails to companies, tv stations, and other entities that engage in heightist campaigns and other activities. Another point, is that you don't have to operate a blog, website, etc., to still make a difference. You can just respond to a person here or there, write the occasional email, send a tweet here-and-there, and you will be advancing the narrative in a positive way. We definitely need more numbers as a whole though because the few of us who do this get spread too thin as is. Basically, we need to branch-out our efforts and start hitting them from all angles. They're in our kitchen, so it's time to turn the heat up and make them sweat.
An example of what I'm talking about, is sometimes on Twitter, I engage the ignoramuses I encounter in conversation.(I don't generally seek them out, they usually send me inflammatory replies first) Then, the ignoramuses' friends jump into the mix, which spawns a convoluted mess of strawmen, links to Randy Newman, antiquated short puns, and accusations of me being a pathetic short man with no life who "gets no pussy." There's nothing we can really to do to stop this because it comes with the territory, and anti-heightism is a bloodsport, so this is to be expected.
The issue, is that when I'm involved in these dialogues, I usually only have one ally, who happens to be Joe from SupportForTheShort. On occasion, there will be another short guy who appears now and then to join the fight, and these guys will begin to tweet anti-heightist things, but they always disappear within a month or so. I totally understand why they disappear because approaching this issue leads to a constant slathering of running in circles, all-out hate speech, and being greeted with the most shoddy logic that the world has to offer. As far as it just being Joe and I on the front lines, the arguments usually end in our adversaries making a declaration that we're both the same pathetic short guy, running two separate accounts, and many laughs are always had as the result.
My point, is that we need another tier of short people who we can rally to support us in instances such as these discussions. If you're a member of this forum, you definitely have the potential to make a difference, so what I'm saying is we need more people like you spanning across the internet, and eventually, out in the real world.
I'm not just talking about Twitter arguments either. When one of us posts something about a company that benefits off of heightism in advertising, etc., there's no reason that the company shouldn't be getting flooded with emails from enlightened short men. I remember on The Social Complex once, there was an instance where a company pulled a heightist item(I think it was a t-shirt) from their inventory because of emails from proactive short men, thus, we can make a lot more of a statement, if we actually start stating our concerns.
When I post screenshots of hateful Twitter-bigots on my Tumblr, no one contacts them to question them about their beliefs. I know that we're not going to change their minds, but we can give them a few moments of discomfort for being hateful imbeciles, and the more we can create a culture of discomfort for them, the more they get dragged from their cushy lair of unopposed bigotry. Also, there may be short men who see these conversations, and it will be good for them to know that if they ever want to step out of the shadows that there will be a support system in place. As it stands, we don't even have a substantial support system on r/short, which makes it even more sad that r/short is the best we have at this point in time.
The purpose of this post is not to call anyone out or anything like that because you are all highly-valuable people in the anti-heightism game. Personally, I need to be writing more emails to companies, tv stations, and other entities that engage in heightist campaigns and other activities. Another point, is that you don't have to operate a blog, website, etc., to still make a difference. You can just respond to a person here or there, write the occasional email, send a tweet here-and-there, and you will be advancing the narrative in a positive way. We definitely need more numbers as a whole though because the few of us who do this get spread too thin as is. Basically, we need to branch-out our efforts and start hitting them from all angles. They're in our kitchen, so it's time to turn the heat up and make them sweat.
