>don’t be mean/rude to other people publicly, and think about what you say before writing it down.
This is obviously good advice, but the rest of your comment basically amounts to rephrasing "there is nothing to be afraid of if you have nothing to hide". The problem is that often times people don't have a choice about what they are forced to hide.
For example, one's sexuality is often something that needs to be hidden. It isn't just that some fetishes are embarrassing. Some orientations in some jurisdictions are illegal or not legally protected. It was just a few months ago that the US Supreme Court ruled that you can't fire people for being gay for example. And that is just the legal repercussions. There are all sorts of social, religious, and familial circles that will react negatively to a person's true self that might force that person to hide a part of their life.
Ideally we get to a place in the future when this isn't true. However it is true today and failing to recognize it is either of sign of naivety, privilege, or a lack of empathy.
> Some orientations in some jurisdictions are illegal or not legally protected. It was just a few months ago that the US Supreme Court ruled that you can't fire people for being gay for example.
Here are several maps[1] of the US that show the states and counties where it is legal to discriminate against LGBT people in housing, education, healthcare, public accommodations and whether or not hate crimes against them are recognized by the governments as hate crimes.
> Ideally we get to a place in the future when this isn't true.
You know the Gibson quote "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed"? The corollary is that the present isn't evenly distributed either. The past often lingers well past it's sell-by date.
So even if/when we get to such a place, I don't think the problem will actually go away for a long time, if ever.
Consider that the US is more than two generations past the 1964 civil rights act, and that while, as a country, the US recently elected and even reelected a Black president, there has subsequently been a significant reactionary backlash, to put it mildly, that is still ongoing.
This is obviously good advice, but the rest of your comment basically amounts to rephrasing "there is nothing to be afraid of if you have nothing to hide". The problem is that often times people don't have a choice about what they are forced to hide.
For example, one's sexuality is often something that needs to be hidden. It isn't just that some fetishes are embarrassing. Some orientations in some jurisdictions are illegal or not legally protected. It was just a few months ago that the US Supreme Court ruled that you can't fire people for being gay for example. And that is just the legal repercussions. There are all sorts of social, religious, and familial circles that will react negatively to a person's true self that might force that person to hide a part of their life.
Ideally we get to a place in the future when this isn't true. However it is true today and failing to recognize it is either of sign of naivety, privilege, or a lack of empathy.