I Quit Meetup
(I sent this to CivicAction at Meetup dot com. I also sent out-takes from this to the groups that I belong to, most of them computer user interests.)
I am cutting my access to all of my Meetup groups and to Meetup.com as of February 28, 2017, in response to a corporate decision by Meetup to support the Resist political action collectives.
“We decided that we wanted to do more to support these efforts so we created a network of 1,000 #Resist Meetup groups with a few special characteristics.” --
https://www.meetup.com/help/article/2...
While I am sympathetic to many of the social justice causes pursued by Resist, I must object to Meetup’s delivering a special value to them. My comrades on the right wing also have advanced the cause of freedom. Their methods and their successes do not grab headlines. It is a matter of culture.
As collectivists, my progressive comrades form strong groups, and groups are easy to see. They grab headlines when they grab other people’s property. But that property had to be created first. The exceptionally great wealth of America was the work of millions of individuals who mostly minded their own business, making their own lives as best they knew how by the standards they chose according to their personal values. That does not make the home pages of news media – unless it is to “doodle” in celebrating the historical birthday of a dead writer, musician, inventor, or scientist.
Meetup.com is a tool for those conservatives, libertarians, and Objectivists who advance the ethics and politics of individualism. By creating new, no-cost platforms for one political group, Meetup.com of necessity excludes those of other political beliefs – and those groups with no political agenda. It is also a platform for millions of individuals who share personal – sometimes peculiar – interests of their own, far removed from politics. And that speaks to a fundamental problem with progressive causes.
It is critical that this be understood. Dr. Martin Luther King looked forward to a future in which each person is judged by the content of their character. But character is an attribute of a person, not of a group.
Choosing not to do business with someone because they are not from your ethnic, social, gender, class, or religious group is irrational. But freedom of association is a fundamental political right. While my collectivist comrades try to eliminate discrimination by engaging the power of the state, my friends on the right go to the root problem: lack of character.
If the owners of Meetup.com want to end social injustice, they should empower their customers who meet to build character. But that would mean creating a 1000 special groups for some religions or some philosophies in preference to others. And there is no way to parse that, because, after all, even karate builds character.
Therefore, I will delete my Meetup account and switch to some other service or set of services, such as Google Groups, which, in fact, evolved from the age-old Usenet maillists. Ultimately, no one needs Meetup.com. That is something to keep in mind.
Michael E. Marotta
I am cutting my access to all of my Meetup groups and to Meetup.com as of February 28, 2017, in response to a corporate decision by Meetup to support the Resist political action collectives.
“We decided that we wanted to do more to support these efforts so we created a network of 1,000 #Resist Meetup groups with a few special characteristics.” --
https://www.meetup.com/help/article/2...
While I am sympathetic to many of the social justice causes pursued by Resist, I must object to Meetup’s delivering a special value to them. My comrades on the right wing also have advanced the cause of freedom. Their methods and their successes do not grab headlines. It is a matter of culture.
As collectivists, my progressive comrades form strong groups, and groups are easy to see. They grab headlines when they grab other people’s property. But that property had to be created first. The exceptionally great wealth of America was the work of millions of individuals who mostly minded their own business, making their own lives as best they knew how by the standards they chose according to their personal values. That does not make the home pages of news media – unless it is to “doodle” in celebrating the historical birthday of a dead writer, musician, inventor, or scientist.
Meetup.com is a tool for those conservatives, libertarians, and Objectivists who advance the ethics and politics of individualism. By creating new, no-cost platforms for one political group, Meetup.com of necessity excludes those of other political beliefs – and those groups with no political agenda. It is also a platform for millions of individuals who share personal – sometimes peculiar – interests of their own, far removed from politics. And that speaks to a fundamental problem with progressive causes.
It is critical that this be understood. Dr. Martin Luther King looked forward to a future in which each person is judged by the content of their character. But character is an attribute of a person, not of a group.
Choosing not to do business with someone because they are not from your ethnic, social, gender, class, or religious group is irrational. But freedom of association is a fundamental political right. While my collectivist comrades try to eliminate discrimination by engaging the power of the state, my friends on the right go to the root problem: lack of character.
If the owners of Meetup.com want to end social injustice, they should empower their customers who meet to build character. But that would mean creating a 1000 special groups for some religions or some philosophies in preference to others. And there is no way to parse that, because, after all, even karate builds character.
Therefore, I will delete my Meetup account and switch to some other service or set of services, such as Google Groups, which, in fact, evolved from the age-old Usenet maillists. Ultimately, no one needs Meetup.com. That is something to keep in mind.
Michael E. Marotta
which has many strong comments agains Meetup's choice to support progressive causes.
Pretty sad... Of course the far left liberal base is overjoyed to see Meetup abandon it's long held core values... I guess it's far more exciting to be one of the rabble rouser sheeple than be a business... at least if you're a leftist liberal.
It's OK, tho... I haven't used Meetup before, so I see no reason to start now.
I quickly found out that my appreciation for SCI-FI is different from the costumed Comicon crowd who also gather as a group annually to dress dress up, hold arms practice in character in public parks and visit the Renaissance festivals.
Needless to say it didn't pan out. While I cancelled my account some time ago, I started receiving occasional emails recently inviting me to join, primarily deviant social cause groups.
And on a personal note, just because you are too uptight to come out of the closet and go in drag does not invalidate the hobby. Myself, I once (1998, I think) went to a local Trekker con as the hu-mon burser of a Ferengi ship. A couple of weeks ago, I put on a World War II uniform and took my wife to a Sweetheart Dance at the Texas Military History Museum. (See here: http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20... .) Again, just personally, I think that the problem - if there is one - that you are an individualist and not well fitted to collective engagements. (Just sayin'...)
"Just because you are too uptight to come out of the closet and go in drag does not invalidate the hobby."
I never said it invalidated the hobby. I only said I didn't appreciate sci-fi in the same way.
The one exception, perhaps, is Amnesty International. It is true that no one goes to prison for saying that we should obey the government because our traditions are a sacred trust. But being "international" they choose not to pursue justice for Americans. In particular, I point to Bernard von Nothaus who was robbed of $60 million in silver and gold - much of it in other people's money voluntarily entrusted to him. You did not see any social justice warriors in the streets over that.
As I said, the difference is cultural. Generally, people on the political right wing are individualists: they mind their own business; live their own lives by their own standards. It is the "progressives" who appear en masse.
I couldn't find their website in search.
If their standard is that big tent I quoted above from the meetup website and they rejected Cato or ARI, then I agree Meetup is committing pure hypocrisy.
"people on the political right wing are individualists: they mind their own business; live their own lives by their own standards."
It depends on what you mean by right and left. I've heard of right meaning asking people to do things a certain way because that's how they historically were done. I've heard of left meaning trying new things and leaving people alone to fly their freak flag according to their own standards.