i gotta say that even if a bingo were pure mockery, i am ok with it -- as long as the person mocking isn't using it as a distraction from examining zir own shortcomings in the -ism realm. people who're constantly downbeat by the stupid and ignorant and willfully cruel use mockery as self-defense, and i don't find that necessarily wrong. in any case it's not really up to me to tell them that. or maybe just not at the time when they feel it necessary to wave the bingo card in front of another hurtful git's face.

but i am not in that position of self-defense, really. i am fairly strong now, and no longer subject to getting beaten down by random people. ergo i am privileged; too privileged to stop at mockery -- i completely agree with you that it's more productive to educate than to mock. and i do (though mostly not in my own journal because that can feel preachy); i do it where i see it's necessary.

i am not so much belittling myself, as using pithy little bits to check myself against -- am i making one of those arguments, even if i use different (bigger) words? i'm prone to seeking alternative reasons for bad behaviour, and make easy excuses for geeks, for example. and i've made the tone argument too many times to count, without even realizing it.