A small number of people and organisations who set the tone for the movement seems in tension with it being ‘a movement’. While movements might rally around popular figures, eg MLK, this feels like a different phenomenon where the independent funding many orgs receive make the prominence of those people less organic
Lack of transparency in some of the major orgs
No ‘competition’ among orgs means if you have a bad experience with one of them, it feels like there’s nothing you can do about it, esp since they’re so intertwined—which exacerbates the first two concerns
Willingness to dismiss large amounts of work by very intelligent people justified by a sense that they’re not asking the right questions
Strong emphasis on attracting young people to the movement means that as you get older, you tend to feel less kinship with it
Other than the third, which I think is a real problem, one could argue all these are necessary—but I still find myself emotionally frustrated by them to varying degrees. And I imagine if I am, others are too.
Some other thoughts about possible factors:
A small number of people and organisations who set the tone for the movement seems in tension with it being ‘a movement’. While movements might rally around popular figures, eg MLK, this feels like a different phenomenon where the independent funding many orgs receive make the prominence of those people less organic
Lack of transparency in some of the major orgs
No ‘competition’ among orgs means if you have a bad experience with one of them, it feels like there’s nothing you can do about it, esp since they’re so intertwined—which exacerbates the first two concerns
Willingness to dismiss large amounts of work by very intelligent people justified by a sense that they’re not asking the right questions
Strong emphasis on attracting young people to the movement means that as you get older, you tend to feel less kinship with it
Other than the third, which I think is a real problem, one could argue all these are necessary—but I still find myself emotionally frustrated by them to varying degrees. And I imagine if I am, others are too.