"When years of engagement can be erased in 24 hours because someone points out an uncomfortable power dynamic, there was never really intellectual engagement - just conditional tolerance that evaporated when ideas became inconvenient."
#BurningTree, 2025
https://gist.github.com/burningtree/d4aa172470293bdf2939c993cf48bbd4
(1/2)
Before someone blames the net and suggests the Amish are right, this isn't just an online problem either. I've experienced this in offline activist communities too. I think this goes some way to explaining why it happens;
https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
(2/2)
"This follows a pattern that institutional theorist Ivan Illich spent his career documenting: institutions form around liberating ideas, then gradually transform those ideas into tools of control, all while maintaining the original liberating rhetoric. The people within these institutions can't see the transformation because recognizing it would require questioning their own position within the power structure."
#BurningTree, 2025
https://gist.github.com/burningtree/d4aa172470293bdf2939c993cf48bbd4
This comment is a classic example of what Illich is takling about;
"Is that what you want people to remember you by? Being a crazy kook? Sorry but holy hell you need to just chill the fuck out, and keep your ideologies in your pants."
This is bullying. An attempt at silencing. It's also borderline threatening, implying that the target will continue to be subject to character assassination until they shut up. All of this is horrible.
(1/2)
"You deleted your account on Bluesky, you removed your blog, but yet... you can't stand not hearing yourself talk, right?"
This bit is DARVO. The target withdrew and created their own space for the discussion they're trying to have, to avoid pushing their opinion in other people's faces. If anyone is reading this, it's because they've sought it out. The person who did that, and then posted this bullying there, is the one insisting on pushing their opinion in other people's faces.
(2/2)
Strypey
