this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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askchapo

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37
[Advice wanted]How much investigation is sufficient for someone to have the "right to speak" on a topic for which they are an outsider? [Serious] (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 month ago by Acute_Engles@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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[The tone of this post is earnest, not in any way meant to be a complaint. I want to be a better comrade]

I'm someone with a very dense cross-section of privileges. (If i didn't grow up poor i might win the least oppressed demographic trophy)

This makes me feel as though I cannot speak on anything important without coming across like I'm whitemansplaining, regardless of whether I consider myself knowledgeable on the topic.

Should i just accept that my voice isn't really needed in most conversations? (A white guy telling an iranian expat that Reza Pahlavi was actually not good for iranians isn't ever going to accomplish anything, is it?)

Not to say I'm an encyclopedia of theory but i consider myself well enough read to apply dialectical and historical materialist analysis to most topics.

I spend a lot of time around people of all walks of life and I feel as though it's kinda disrespectful of me to pipe up and correct the record on basically any topic beyond the mundane like videogame strategy.

I guess i don't even really know what kind of answer I'm looking for here. Maybe just validation that it's ok for me to be silent when someone is just plain wrong about an important topic? Idk. Thanks for reading

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[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

Sometimes even when you "have the right to speak", it's just not worth it. Your Iranian example reminds me of my own experience. My brother (RIP) father in law is from Cuba. Actually threw a Molotov in support of the revolution. Named his daughter after Che's girlfriend. After a couple decades in the US though, he became staunchly anticommunist. I didn't hide my politics around him, but he's this sweet old dude and I'm not going to fight with him about Cuba. We mostly just don't talk about it. If we do, I'll kind of gently ask "was it better under Batista?" and he says "of course not" and we leave it there.