StrypeyMar 3

Urrgh. Ok, I desperately need sleep, and I can't sleep until I get this off my chest. So here goes.

A couple of weeks back I posted a reply about what's effective in dealing with the problem of bigotry IMHO, based on nearly half a century of lived experience,;

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/116038706291119626

I don't see myself as the font of all wisdom, and I have no issue with people disagreeing with me. Sometimes they even end up changing my mind (see my posts in the MeaCulpa hashtag).

(1/?)

#bigotry #bullying

Strypey (@[email protected])

(1/2) @[email protected] > You don't stop bigots being bigots. You make being a bigot socially costly. You make palling around with bigots unpopular with people who might otherwise associate with bigots This is cynical, fatalistic, and incredibly antisocial. For a start, your core premise is wrong. People can and do stop being bigoted. I've seen this myself. Daryl Davis has proven it many times. There are many other examples. @[email protected] @[email protected]

Mastodon - NZOSS
Show threadStrypeyMar 3

But what I got was dogpiled by a gang of self-righteous bullies. Parroting a bunch of thought-terminating clichés, and hurling bullshit accusations that had nothing to do with anything I actually said, or anything I've ever said, here or anywhere.

Life is too short to deal with that kind of networked idiocy. So I'm going to say this once, to anyone who thinks this is an acceptable way to carry on.

(2/?)

Show threadStrypeyMar 3

What if it was someone you care about, who you knew as a perfectly lovely person before they started hanging out on that dodgy gaming forum, or wherever they picked up the bigotry brainworms? What if it was your best friend since school, your sibling, your parent, your *child*?

Maybe then you'd think twice about whether it's good advice to tar and feather other human beings as bigots, and deny them all social contact with anyone not also pegged as a bigot?

(3/?)

Show threadStrypeyMar 3

If not maybe you're a fucking sociopath? Maybe you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror, and think deeply about Nietzsche's famous quote about fighting monsters.

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/112782360387794556

Maybe you need to seriously consider the possibility that you're in a cult? Telling people to cut off longstanding relationships with people who don't share the group ideology is what cults do. Because maintaining old relationships is how you keep perspective, and avoid getting sucked into cults.

(4/?)

Strypey (@[email protected])

One again, I think #FriedrichNietzsche's warning is timely here; "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you." (2/2) @[email protected]

Mastodon - NZOSS
Show threadStrypeyMar 3

Frances Lee wrote about being excommunicated from the "church of social justice" (see the link here https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/110789459980665321). Lee was being polite, but let's call a spade a spade; what she's describing in her pieces on this topic is a cult. A 21st century networked cult, not mindslaves in a compound, but a cult all the same.

A cult that I refuse to conform to, or make any excuses for, just became it's ideology is a twisted parody of leftist and pro-diversity ideas I deeply believe in.

(5/?)

Strypey (@[email protected])

I'm a greenie and human rights activist, with loud opinions about tech policy. My overall political bent could be described as left-libertarian or anarchist (of a vaguely Chomskian/ Graeberian variety). As befits any rational humanist who advocates for human rights, I'm very socially liberal. But I'm also openly critical of much of the strategy and tactics of "identity politics", for reasons Frances Lee explains beautifully in the links here: https://hellofranceslee.com/excommunicate-me/ This annoys some people.

Mastodon - NZOSS
Show threadStrypeyMar 3

The identi-moonie cult has nothing to do with real world anti-bigotry or social justice work. It's the opposite; a crucial part of the conservative-to-fascist pipeline. So I say this to the cult members and their apologists and appeasers;

Stay out of my mentions with this bullshit. Or by all that is holy, I will verbally tear you several new arseholes. I will unleash all my fury with the Useful Idiots of the world on you, and I will enjoy every minute of it.

You have been warned.

(6/?)

Show threadStrypey

Oh and in case it needs to be spelled out, as I said to the identi-moonies who dogpiled me as mentioned in the OP, I agree that nobody is obliged to educate bigots. If it's not safe for you to do that, or you simply choose not to spend your time that way, I respect that.

All I'm asking is that we stop publicly shaming people who maintain *pre-existing* relationships with people who've contracted bigot brainworms, and try to guide them back to sanity.

Surely that's not too much to ask?

(7/7)

Mar 9 at 3:49amWeb
Show threadStrypeyMar 12

"Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model© [Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control] to describe cults’ specific methods to recruit and maintain control over people

...

Not every group or relationship uses every one of these. Some are universal such as deception (Information control), indoctrinating people to distrust critics and former members, or installing phobias to make people afraid of questioning or leaving."

https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model-pdf-download/

#CultDynamics #BITE

@KarlHeinzHasliP

BITE Model of Authoritarian Control - Freedom of Mind Resource Center

Discover the foundational principles of psychological freedom with our BITE Model PDF. Dr. Steven Hassan's pioneering framework offers insights into controlling behaviors and thoughts. Download now to explore strategies for personal empowerment and understanding undue influence. Perfect for educators, counselors, and anyone seeking to reclaim their freedom of thought.

Freedom of Mind Resource Center
Show threadCy2d ago
That's pretty fantastic, though it could remove that weird spectrum from the beginning of the article. Hate is unhealthy? Compassion is healthy? Nice sounding claims, but very... pollyannaish. Psychologically healthy is healthy?

But from page 2 onward it's great.

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadErin Church  🏳️‍⚧️Mar 9

@strypey I mostly agree.

I think we can be overly prescriptive in either direction: whether we tell people to disassociate with anyone who disagrees on a particular issue, or to make friends with those who disagree with their existence. Room for nuance.

Simultaneously, there are cases where shunning *is* the appropriate response.

And if we choose not to shun, we need to educate; we've (white people) put up with racism for far too long, silence is no longer an option.
(1/2)

Show threadErin Church  🏳️‍⚧️Mar 9

@wxhbxh @strypey (not accusing you of either extreme tbc)

There is a lot of ground between the acquaintance who makes an off-colour remark and the klansman, and for the social justice movement at large to cede all of that ground would be a tactical error.

But we also need to be willing to trust one another to determine our own level of comfort and make our own decisions about whose redemption we put energy towards.
(2/2)

Show threadErin Church  🏳️‍⚧️Mar 9
@strypey I've also heard my share of deradicalisation stories where in reality it took both; being shunned to realise that there was a problem, and having patient friends willing to help them grow and change. (apologies for the mention spam, just came to mind)
Show threadStrypey2d ago

@wxhbxh
> it took both; being shunned to realise that there was a problem, and having patient friends willing to help them grow and change

This is the point I got dogpiled and called a bigot for trying to make. If this was unusual, I wouldn't have made a fuss. But I've been treated like this, online *and* off, since the early noughties, if not longer. It's a serious problem.

> apologies for the mention spam, just came to mind

Have you seen my regular multi-post replies? 😆