Old Comment Policy (No longer used)

Drop down menu with the mouse hovering over the Comments option, which this website doesn't have.

As of January 19th, 2023, Yopp has implemented comments and as such has a new comment policy. I’m leaving this post here for the sake of Yopp’s history and in the event that we decide to return to no comments. Please check out our new comment policy here. 


You may have noticed that there are no comments enabled on this blog. This was an intentional decision.

I think the discussion of complex topics is important. The comment policy is not intended to stifle discourse. But when it comes to who is contributing to such discussions, socially, the more privilege you have, the more opportunities you will have to speak your mind. And the more sources of oppression you deal with, the more likely you are to be silenced.

To compound this problem, the more privilege you have, the more blind spots you have to the struggles of those who are marginalized, which means, the more likely your comments are to be ill-informed on the subject of oppression. And internalized in every unequal power dynamic is the tendency to downplay the views of the group with less power and elevate the opinions of the privileged, which further worsens this problem.

This tendency directly contradicts the main mission of this blog.

And those arguments are assuming that these actions are well intentioned and informed only by ignorance and not desire to harm.

Comment sections on social justice articles are commonly riddled with trolls who aren’t just spouting off their ignorance or demanding to be educated but actively trying to make the environment inhospitable for marginalized people. “Don’t read the comments” is a common saying online. But trolls aren’t just assholes trying to piss people off. They are trying to perpetuate a world in which people who are ”the default” do the talking, and everyone else should shut up or avoid interacting with the outside world. This goal is consistent with the primary goals of oppression.

For these reasons, comment sections require heavy moderation in order to avoid perpetuating the patterns social justice seeks to eliminate.

Unfortunately, I have a job and a busy schedule and simply don’t have the time and energy to devote to moderating. I also find that unlike writing, moderating does not come naturally to me. Rather than force myself to do something I’m bad at and do a half-assed job, I’d rather disable comments entirely.

With that in mind, I highly encourage you to repost and share my articles and spark discussions in your own social media outlets to your heart’s content.

 

About the writer: Kella Hanna-Wayne is the creator, editor, and main writer for Yopp. She specializes in educational writing about civil rights, disability, chronic illness, abuse, and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her work has been published in Ms. Magazine blog, The BeZine, and Splain You a Thing and in 2022, she released a self-published book of poetry, “Pet: the Journey from Abuse to Recovery“. You can find her @KellaHannaWayne on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, and Twitter.

 

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At Yopp we're dedicated to providing educational material for social justice that emphasizes the individual experience of lived oppression and helps you understand the whole picture instead of memorizing do's & don'ts.


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