Should be obvious but some people may not realize they're doing it until its said idk
You're not an advocate if you:
- don't support normalizing things that can otherwise be used to target and single out victims
- pressure people into meeting higher standards than they can achieve without breaks / into handling far more than they can take
- get defensive and snap at anyone who thinks differently from you rather than listening and learning to form more informed takes (does not mean you have to agree but that you can take something from what they have to say)
- weaponize victims, your own mental health, ignorance or what have you for any sort of manipulation to get your way or harm others who disagree with you
- use victims of something as a shield to defend your argument but don't listen to those victims if they're the ones disagreeing with you (cherry picking which victims you support and hiding a personal opinion behind victims to make it seem more substantial or "important")
- think it somehow isn't invasive to ask people for personal information (trauma, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex etc) in order to justify them using or reclaiming something (you aren't the judge, not your call, nor do they owe you shit)
- blame someone for their own misfortune, telling them it's their fault they got hurt in a situation out of their control or their fault despite it being someone elses actions. (victim blaming)
- set a bar for others or put people in a box of how something should be but dont apply it to yourself or refuse to make room for nuance.
- believe your experience is the golden standard
- justify yourself and your actions against others using people you know with the topic at hand despite not experiencing it yourself or having said thing yourself, without communicating with those people if it's okay/if they haven't asked you to defend or support them or if you are talking over them (you cant speak for someone who's marginalized about a topic they experience if you arent part of it just because you know someone who is)
- bring up unrelated or irrelevant things to derail the discussion of something you so "advocate" for
- bring someone whos against or harmful to the very thing you claim to advocate for into what's supposed to be a safe space / support and platform the people harming the thing you claim to advocate for
Feel free to add to the list, just discussion not fighting or arguing thanks
Applies to many things not just cdd advocacy