By Alex Posa
In my first two and a half years I almost never went on Oberlin Confessional or Obie Talk. The idea never appealed to me and the few times I did go on, I didn’t find anything interesting. Reading comments intended to piss people off and the responses to those posts is just boring. Unfortunately, now I’m addicted. It started when I ran for senate; I spent quite a bit of time checking out the buzz about me. A couple of people mentioned my Facebook ads (awesome idea on my part), someone called me a snide asshole. But I didn’t stop gawking after I was elected (sorry guy who called me a snide asshole).
Me being egotistical I couldn’t stop searching for my name. Someone told me to stop being a self-righteous asshole. It hasn’t been all bad; on a thread about the Review, I was the only column anyone said they liked. That’s about it on the positive front. There was another thread about my column where I discovered quite a few Obies other than myself are mentally ill. I also found out at least one person wants to start a petition to remove me from senate, I don’t think that’s gone anywhere beyond the next person saying “easy’s [sic] pie.” I’ve also noticed that students 1) hate the senate and 2) want us to do things we have no control over. I’m not complaining about that; I think any involvement is good. I want people to be concerned about what’s going on here, if I didn’t I would not have run for senate. (Plenary sessions are held every Sunday at 7:00 PM and are open to the public).
I’m happy to say I’ve noticed an improvement in the discussions on ObieTalk. Outside of the usual ‘this guys an asshole,’ ‘I want to fuck this guy’ and ‘I’m horny,’ I’ve seen real debates about real issues. The kind of issues people wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable talking about in public: feminism, gender identity, safe spaces, racial issues, etc. People who stand outside of what they think is the mainstream at Oberlin have a place to explain their views without getting shot down as just perpetuating the oppressive hetero-normative culture. As long as we have people more than happy to silence opposing views, Obie Talk is an absolutely necessary part of our school.
While the occasional libel and blatant personal attacks is unfortunate, creating a forum for controversial issues, no matter how hateful some people think they may be, is a positive. In the handbook of student regulations, our school takes the position that “anonymous expressions are inimical to the free and open exchange of ideas.” After looking up what ‘inimical’ means I came to the conclusion that I strongly disagree with this sentiment. Fear of reprisal is a strong deterrent against the free exchange of ideas. Just as people have the right to express their ideas anonymously, people can ignore that expression. I’m also pretty sure people at Oberlin are smart enough to realize that Obie Talk posters are not representative of the Oberlin community as a whole and that I’m only posting all those racist comments to cause controversy.
If people want to have real conversations about my articles or any other article on F+L, they can post their comments here. If for some reason you don’t feel comfortable letting the world know what you think, e-mail me and I will be more than happy to respond.
