Notice the way in which people show their gullibility and their herd instinct, and their wish - or perhaps their need - to be fooled. Credulity may be a form of innocence, but it provides a standing invitation for the wicked and the clever to exploit their brothers and sisters.

Christopher Hitchens

Whose taking bets when the Woke fever will break and then try and find anyone who actually believed in it in the first place?

Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation. Unlike those anywhere else, the masses in America have never despaired of the present and are not willing to sacrifice it for a new life and a new world. ― Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time p 50 (1967)

[Scott Horton]

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Dailyprompt-1958 The Bible — in various translations, several of which I have read from cover to cover. I have been a believer from age 14 and devoted much of my life to Faith. 1984 – George Orwell (published in 1949) — scared the bejesus out of me because it alerted me to the possibility of real evil in the world — In my early teens I read all sorts of stuff that no one my age was…

View On WordPress

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Dailyprompt-1958 The Bible — in various translations, several of which I have read from cover to cover. I have been a believer from age 14 and devoted much of my life to Faith. 1984 – George Orwell (published in 1949) — scared the bejesus out of me because it alerted me to the possibility of real evil in the world — In my early teens I read all sorts of stuff that no one my age was…

View On WordPress

How Lifton Sought to Discredit the Working and Colonized People of the World

The practices of self-criticism and criticism are central to many political and social movements and play a crucial role in promoting personal growth, organizational development, and the success of these movements. By regularly engaging in self-reflection and critical analysis, individuals are able to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their motivations, and identify areas for improvement in their work style and in their collective’s work, fostering culture of accountability within the movement, and promoting unity and solidarity among members. By encouraging members to regularly reflect on their beliefs and behavior, they can gain a deeper understanding of the societal contradictions they are working to address, and work together more effectively to create lasting societal transformation.

As part of the practices of self-criticism and criticism, it is essential for individuals to bring their ideas to the organization, including criticisms, and for the masses to bring their ideas, including criticisms, to the organization. This open and honest dialogue helps to hold the organization accountable to the people it serves and ensures that the organization is responsive to the changing needs and perspectives of the masses. It also helps to create a culture of transparency, trust, and accountability within the movement, which is critical to its success.

An argument often used against the use of self-criticism and criticism in political and social movements is the notion that these practices lead to so-called thought reform and brainwashing. This idea was popularized by psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, who argued that individuals who engage in self-criticism and criticism, and study circles, are programmed, deceived, and brainwashed. This argument ignores the fact that these practices are a necessary and healthy part of personal and collective growth, and are a means of transforming and remolding individuals and organizations.

The reality is that these practices help to hold organizations accountable to the people they serve and ensure that they are responsive to the changing needs and perspectives of the masses. By committing to personal and collective change, individuals and organizations can grow, adapt, and become more effective in promoting and accomplishing their goals. 

Lifton's research on thought reform was meant to discredit revolutionary impulses and ideas, and the idea of committing to personal and collective change. He sought to create a negative perception of the masses' ability to transform and remold, and to make it seem as if they had been programmed, deceived, and brainwashed. This argument ignores the fact that individuals who engage in self-criticism and criticism, as well as study circles and reading groups, are acting of their own free will, and that these practices help to advance and strengthen progressive organizations and movements. Through these reflective practices, and through critical analysis, individuals and organizations can become more effective in advocating and accomplishing their political goals. These practices also allow for those on the outside of the organization, including the populations being served and uplifted by the organization, to bring their ideas and criticisms. In this way, these organizations are held accountable to the people they serve, ensuring that they are responsive to the changing needs of the broad masses of people. 

A friendly reminder:

If the state has the power to decide who must give birth

It also has the power to decide who must not give birth.

Hermione, in both canon and often in fanon, seems to have predominately male friendships and kind of difficult time building strong relationships with women (Lavender, Fleur, etc.). Even initially with Luna, Hermione was particularly skeptical and had a rocky start.

What's your theory on why this is?

Hermione, especially in the early books, is written by an author who treats her unfemininity as a quality that makes her different from, and superior to, other girls. Hermione is self-serious, intellectual, and decisive, which are classically masculine virtues, which Hermione (and the author) are aware of; and so Hermione eschews femininity in any number of ways. The other girls at Hogwarts, meanwhile, with the exception of Ginny, are often portrayed as shallow, vapid, flirty (count the number of times Lavender or Parvati "giggles" or goes "oooh"), hyperemotional, and boy-obsessed. Meanwhile, Hermione is intense, driven, and oblivious to other people's feelings — in many respects "boyish." Not until the later books, when both the characters and their writing starts to mature, is humanity offered to people like Cho Chang or Fleur Delacour — and even then, Lavender's arc in sixth year is this remarkably mean subplot where a sixteen-year-old girl becomes the butt of endless jokes because she has the audacity to... act silly around her crush. (If you think "Won-Won" is a bad nickname, you need to go see what actual teens in relationships call each other, because I'm telling you, Ron has it easy.)

The narrative wants you to know that Hermione is special, and her specialness is underscored by her difference from other women. In canon, she buys into that specialness, which leads to a degree of disdain for other girls that's fueled by a superiority complex and internalized misogyny. I say this as someone who adores her, and adores her in her complexity: Hermione has trouble forming friendships with women because she believes that she is Not Like Other Girls, and her author agrees with her.

the self-justifying and self-mythologizing that this website did about john green is actually ridiculous. tumblr users didn’t drive him off tumblr because of some righteous crusade because of some evil thing he did. they did it because it was funny to be mean to him. anything else people try to claim is post-hoc rationalization so they personally don’t feel bad for finding it funny

legitimately insane how to some people, "we should wipe out this ethnic group that we've violently constrained to a ghetto because they're just genetically more violent and dangerous" is a reasonable and justifiable statement but it's Nazi Rhetoric to say something like, "it's bad that Israeli civilians are being killed but acknowledging that as tragic includes acknowledging that the almost daily state-sanctioned murder of civilians by the Israeli government is also tragic and unacceptable"

btw guys speaking of Nazi shit - can we check in, alongside what's been done to Palestinians in the last 75 years, what's the Israeli government's take on the Azerbaijani government's newest round of ethnic cleansing of Armenians? oh are the Israeli government's actions maybe not determined by Jewish identity, but by a commitment to colonial supremacy which puts them on the same page as other violently genocidal states like Azerbaijan, the US, and the UK? god can you Even Imagine?

(framing speaking against Israeli war crimes as inherently antisemitic requires understanding the Israeli state as representing all Jewish people, when it doesn't even represent all Israelis.

framing Israeli war crimes as synonymous with Jewish identity is pretty fucked up if we're being honest. I don't think that controlling water and power and movement for a captive population and shooting children dead for throwing stones is an inherent value of Judaism, any more than I think the torture carried out at Guantanamo Bay is an inherent value of Christianity - in both cases they're atrocities carried out by a far right genocidal government using religious identity as a shield.

Calling statements like "Israel is committing genocide against the people it's displaced" inherently antisemitic is doing more to further the idea that all Jewish people are associated with Israel than saying "the Israeli government is doing war crimes," which is a statement of fact about a country that exists and does war crimes. Is criticism of Israel as a nation often used as cover for antisemitism? Absolutely. Does that mean the Israeli government isn't doing literal war crimes repeatedly, on record, while talking publicly about scrubbing an ethnic group off the map? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well in the last 48 hours they've definitely cut off water and power to almost 600,000 civilians and allegedly used white phosphorus against civilians so in an extremely factual and unambiguous way yeah man those are Literal War Crimes whoever does them.)

if your strategy is “vote blue no matter who” while refusing to ever demand better of your politicians, you’re essentially giving the democrats a free pass to become as awful and rightwing as they want as long as they remain marginally better than republicans, who incidentally are also becoming more and more awful and rightwing. so you end up with this situation where both political parties are just perpetually shifting towards fascism, with no real opposition from anyone. really great strategy for maintaining democracy you got there.

also it really is shit how several popular bloggers were like. Horribly bigoted towards ace people when it was cool, but once it stopped being trendy they 1) deleted those posts so receipts couldn't be pulled 2) maybe put up claimed "redactions" or said "omg its been years if you really wanna know wether i still hate those people dm me" but never apologized for their behavior lmao. I don't think any of the people who did that actually changed, I just think they know it's not such an acceptable/fun target to bully anymore. It's really sick how that type of bullying was encouraged for years and how few people repented for their behavior.

👿👿👿ONE OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS TRANSHUMANISM👾👾👾

🛑🛑🛑