Writing a Social Justice Motivated Well Intentioned Extremist

So my work happens to feature a very sex-positive, gender egalitarian and LGBT friendly setting. This doesn't mean there isn't some problems regarding the coexistence of different religions and ethnicities. In addition to some antagonistic Well Intentioned Extremists that end up causing problems, I thought an interesting subplot might be including some extremists who happen to be Political Correctness Gone Mad.

• Most of them shown would be relatively harmless compared to some real life 'radical' examples (*cough* [[Website/Tumblr]] ) But I'm trying to figure out how to portray them to make it clear that their actions do not negate the importance of the causes they support.

The problem with this angle is that it can inevitably prove the other side right in a way "see? These oppressed people are just as bad as the oppressing people! We have every right to oppress them in case they try and hurt us!"

So you want to be very careful with how you do that. It also can be very grating to people who work hard for social justice, to be turned into an extremist villain, especially when nowadays there is such few things that depict them positively, or even at all.

Take a look at tumblr, as you brought up. You do have the extremists. But they are dwarfed by the sheer amount of people who aren't extreme, just rather harsh in what they say. Most people are just harsh, not extreme. And whether that harshness is justified or not can be a very long winded discussion, because often times, being polite and kind is a privilege to have in society.

There are also a LOT of people on tumblr who look at the extremists and decide the entire movement is invalid as a result, and so are all the points they bring up.

I am not saying to not do this, what I am saying is that these are the issues you will face, and they are the best thing to keep in mind. The best way to balance it is good execution, obviously, but another thing is: people with the same beliefs/same points that they suffer from who are not that way, people who might go to extremes as well, but more minorly and are not villainous, and people on the other side who are possibly much worse, due to lacking the "well intentioned" part.

edited 4th Nov '13 12:06:24 PM by MrAHR

@OP: Eh, I'd stay away from that if I were you. The howler monkeys on Tumblr have already provoked such a backlash with their behavior that its resulted in a backlash in turn against critics. Legit voices for change have simply stopped listening to people critiquing the movement, whether their critiques are valid or not. The prevailing opinion seems to be "we may be flawed, but we're still right dammit, so keep your opinion to yourself".

And to be fair, Political Correctness Gone Mad has turned into a threadbare excuse for haters to keep hating. Not that it is invalid as a concept, just that its been misused too many times at this point to have much validity anymore.

Simply put, the well's poisoned. Best not drink from it.