You’re Only Getting This Now?
When I became an anarchist, I was 18, depressed, anxious, and ready to save the world. I moved in with other anarchists and worked at a vegetarian co-op cafe. I protested against student tuition, prison privatisation, and pipeline extensions. I had lawyer’s numbers sharpied on my ankle and I assisted friends who were pepper-sprayed at demos. I tabled zines, lived with my “chosen family,” and performed slam poems about the end of the world.
In the pages of Quillette, Conor Barnes, a woke apostate, recounts his time among sad radicals:
Radical communities select for particular personality types… They attract hurt people, looking for an explanation for the pain they’ve endured… However, radical communities also attract people looking for an excuse to be violent illegalists. And the surplus of vulnerable people attracts sadists and abusers ready to exploit them. The only gate-keeping that goes on in radical communities is that of language and passion—if you can rail against capitalism in woke language, you’re in…
Abusers thrive in radical communities because radical norms are fragile and exploitable. A culture of freewheeling drug and alcohol use creates situations predators are waiting to exploit. A cultural fetishization of violence provides cover for violent and unstable people. The practice of public “call-outs” is used for power-plays far more often than for constructive feedback… Having somebody yell at me that if I didn’t admit to being a white supremacist her friends might beat me up, and that I should pay her for her emotional labour, was too much for my ideology to spin.
Update, via the comments:
Several commenters have suggested that, if you’re feeling anxious and depressed, it may not be entirely wise to join a “radical community” in which “deconstructing monogamy” and “freewheeling drug and alcohol use” are favoured activities. Especially when membership entails being surrounded by intersectional conspiracy theorists and borderline personalities, and when the stated aim of the “radical community” is to “destroy society because it cannot be redeemed by its own means.” But as we saw a few days ago, unstable people are often drawn to the kinds of activities and social groups that practically guarantee further deterioration.
And it occurs to me that the account above may also explain Laurie Penny’s sour and outlandish view of men, which doesn’t remotely describe any of the men I know, or the kind of men that any of the women I know would choose to associate with. Judging by Laurie’s own writing, her social circle seems to consist largely of far-left activists, fellow “anarcho-communists” and polyamorist suitors who presumably share her taste for disdaining bourgeois proprieties. If, as she claims, the men she associates with are so prone to dysfunction and obnoxious behaviour – more than chance alone would seem to allow – perhaps that’s less to do with men in general and more a feature of her chosen sub-culture.
Which is to say, if you play the cartoon radical and hang out almost exclusively with other cartoon radicals, you will run into a remarkable number of misfits and creeps.
Abusers thrive in radical communities… A cultural fetishization of violence provides cover for violent and unstable people.
Well, duh.
“Chosen family”.
Well, duh.
We can, perhaps, cut 18-year-olds a little slack for being credulous and unworldly, but it is odd how far into these things someone can fall before realising what it is they’re participating in. I mean, you’d think that interacting frequently with unpleasant people would undermine any illusions fairly quickly. Unless, of course, the trade-off is a supply of victims.
I don’t think I was a particularly cynical or worldly teenager, but I do recall being suspicious of such groups and intuiting, albeit vaguely, that their purported radicalism was actually quite creepy, psychologically, and best avoided. As you can probably guess, my opinions haven’t softened in the intervening years.
This is a stock-in-trade of radical-Islam recruiters as well.
“Abusers thrive in radical communities because radical norms are fragile and exploitable.”
No shit?
Abusers thrive in radical communities…
As noted here before, and by Tim Newman and others, the above may explain Laurie Penny’s sour and outlandish view of men, which doesn’t remotely describe any of the men I know, or the kind of men that any of the women I know would choose to associate with. In short, if you play the cartoon radical and hang out almost exclusively with other cartoon radicals, you will run into a remarkable number of misfits, abusers and creeps.
They attract hurt people, […] and the surplus of vulnerable people attracts sadists and abusers ready to exploit them. The only gate-keeping that goes on in radical communities is that of language and passion—if you can rail against capitalism in woke language, you’re in…
Tim Newman has made exactly this point, in relation to Laurie Penny, but also in relation to the way feminism exposes women to more damage than the traditional social structures it seeks to replace.
Despite the fact Newman is now working in HR, he still gets the reality of the intersection between leftist politics, feminism and the damage it does to women brilliantly.
Newman is now working in HR,
He is? Does he know?
No worldview maps reality perfectly. But when a worldview encounters discordant knowledge, it can either evolve to accommodate it, or it can treat it as a threat to the worldview’s integrity.
As Richard Feynman said:
” If your theory doesn’t match the real-world data, your theory is wrong.”
Newman is now working in HR,
He is? Does he know?
– Well if he doesn’t show-up for work ONE MORE morning, he’s fired!!!
Well, duh.
Yet show me where the MSM has ever done serious investigative reporting on such things. Show me one undergrad level “sociology” class where this sort of thing is covered. Aside from being raised properly, and it is quite clear that there is less and less of that going on, how would an 18 year old, with all the weaknesses that go with such, figure this out for themselves? Especially when every cultural clue to betterment of oneself and society points to radicalization.
“Newman is working in HR.”
If he’s not there, that proves it.
Being out of the office or traveling out of town are the quantum states of “HR professionals”.
how would an 18 year old, with all the weaknesses that go with such, figure this out for themselves?
Fair point, and my own example, above, involves a climate and time less uniformly doctrinaire. But it wasn’t so much the politics that repelled me – I wasn’t a political teenager and didn’t much care about the issues and shibboleths they mouthed. It was more a case of seeing their, shall we say, unhappy personalities. The repulsion was instinctive, almost visceral.
[ Added: ]
Even as a know-nothing gay teenager, I remember noting that their intimate relationships were rather unusual and entangled, and it wasn’t clear from one month to another who was sleeping with whom. But when visiting their collective house, there was an atmosphere of complication, for want of a better term, and despite their supposedly liberatory radical noises, which they made pointedly and often, none of them seemed to be happy.
“Yet show me where the MSM has ever done serious investigative reporting on such things.”
It’s almost as if they enjoy and profit from the abuse and resulting “newsworthy” spectacles such things cause…
He is? Does he know?
For clarity, I’m a student, studying an MBA with a major in HR management. My aim is to help small or medium sized companies grow while avoiding the pitfalls of lunatic feminist policies, and providing some much-needed HR competence.
What is tabling zines?
What is tabling zines?
Organising or distributing ‘anarchist’ magazines and other shoddy pamphlets. Sometimes by selling them, literally, on a table.
My aim is to help small or medium sized companies grow while avoiding the pitfalls of lunatic feminist policies, and providing some much-needed HR competence.
You’ll be chased out of the village.
But it wasn’t so much the politics that repelled me – I wasn’t a political teenager and didn’t much care about the issues and shibboleths they mouthed. It was more a case of seeing their, shall we say, unhappy personalities. The repulsion was instinctive, almost visceral.
Perhaps it’s just that the first step to becoming an alienated intellectual/radical is learning to disbelieve your lying eyes. All of us are prone to rationalization, of course, but it seems to me that the basic formula for an alienated worldview is counterintuitive rationalization — “These things which appear to be alike are actually completely different,” and “These things which appear to be different are actually identical.”
Ordinary people convince themselves to believe, say, a new diet in a supermarket tabloid that promises the ability to lose weight while eating ice cream in bed. Alienated intellectuals, who would scoff at such pedestrian delusions, convince themselves that being furious and miserable and treating other people callously is the counterintuitive path to a world where no one is ever furious or miserable again. To see things straightforwardly and describe them as such is to appear naive and unsophisticated, and nothing could be more fatal to the aspirations of a “critical” thinker. Like the sarcastic Nirvana lyric, “I’m too busy acting like I’m not naive/I’ve seen it all, I was here first.”
As Richard Feynman said:
” If your theory doesn’t match the real-world data, your theory is wrong.”
Otherwise known as the Global Warbling BS…
Radical SJW groups remind me of the period of my youth I spent as a “happy-clappy” evangelical Christian, only more so. The things I hated about organised Christianity – the self-righteous viciousness and spite, the self-flagellation, the endless hunt for more and more trivial and unavoidable sins to condemn others for or ostentatiously repent of, the whited sepulchre scumbags who take advantage of other believers’ faith for financial, sexual and other advantage – are all far worse among SJWs than they ever were at church. There were a few Christians I knew who thought what they believed was self-evident to anybody, and the only reason anyone could fail to believe it was intentional badness, but most knew they were a bit weird and were a bit self-conscious about it.
In the end, it took me a while between privately concluding there was no God and no longer calling myself a Christian, mostly because church was pretty much my entire social life. The decent ones stayed friends with me, and I hadn’t been such a horrible Christian that I had alienated the non-Christian people I knew. SJWs are even worse at cutting themselves off from wrong-thinkers, much nastier to people they don’t agree with, and they put even more of their self-image into their beliefs. Can you imagine being someone like Laurie Penny or Steve Shives, and starting to suspect that the beliefs you have hitherto advocated might be wrong? What options do you have? If you change your position publicly, your fellow SJWs will hate you forever, and the people you now agree with won’t trust you because you’ve been so horrible to them.
Quilette has had an, shall we say, eclectic mix lately. I had some fun with someone’s harrumphing that Sabrina the Teenage Witch gives Satanist a bad name.
Yet show me where the MSM has ever done serious investigative reporting on such things. Show me one undergrad level “sociology” class where this sort of thing is covered
Sociology? My experience of sociology students and lecturers is that they provide the ideological training for leftist cults
Having somebody yell at me that if I didn’t admit to being a white supremacist her friends might beat me up, and that I should pay her for her emotional labour, was too much for my ideology to spin.
He could have saved a lot of time by reading David’s blog.
You’ll be chased out of the village.
That. Tim’s been lucky in that he’s been working in a field and a region where Getting Things Done is prioritized over mindless compliance with stifling politically correct bureaucracy. I suspect he has no firsthand knowledge of how much of a stranglehold modern HR has on the C-suite in North America. They’re the contemporary equivalent of Soviet Russia’s political commissars, and for the same reason: they’re not the enforcement arm of the C-suite, they’re the enforcement arm of the state, in the form of endless “hostile environment” and “discrimination” lawsuits.
Still, it’s his go and the resultant blogging is interesting reading.
He could have saved a lot of time by reading David’s blog.
I’m here most days, and cheap.
I’m here most days, and cheap.
But not easy, you should hasten to add.
Listen, if you’d really want to join the PFJ, you’d really have to hate the Romans.
I do!
Oh really? How much?
A lot!
Right, you’re in.
But not easy, you should hasten to add.
Rather depends who you ask, I suppose.
Excuse me while I lick my own eyebrows.
It was more a case of seeing their, shall we say, unhappy personalities.
The damaged people in these group aren’t damaged because something just dropped out of the sky on them one day; they’ve been damaged by their home life as children, and possibly abuse. They literally don’t know what happy looks like, and so have no idea how to seek it out or maintain it they luck into it. For many, the adrenaline/dopamine rush of constant conflict and self-righteous mobbing is the closest thing they’ll ever get.
My experience of sociology students and lecturers is that they provide the ideological training for leftist cults
The joke is told – the Head of the university budget department is raking the Head of the Chemistry Faculty over the coals. “Your Faculty is costing us a FORTUNE! All these chemicals, and PRECURSORS, whatever they are – and all the lab equipment you break every year! Are your students all clumsy putzes who have to keep breaking things all the time?”
She goes-on; “Why can’t you be like the Math Faculty? – all they ever need are paper, pencils and erasers! Or the PHILOSOPHY Faculty – THEY don’t even need erasers!”
I may have swiped that joke off this site, come to think of it…
“I was 18, depressed, anxious”
Spiking your coffee with vodka will do that.
Tim Newman,
What are the words to avoid and the words to use in an initial job ad that will best repel sjw’s and other narcissists?
I mean, I can imagine that words like “exciting” and “high-profile” would attract them, and that words like “stolid” and “reliable” would repel, but that all seems too easy. Is there anything better?
Is there anything better?
I’d start with “responsibility” and “accountability,” and maybe throw in a bit of “tangible accomplishments” or “performance measures” if necessary.
“I was 18, depressed, anxious”
Spiking your coffee with vodka will do that.
Getting into fights with police so you get pepper sprayed and arrested will do that.
Leaving your family for a
‘radical community’cult will do that.Getting into fights with police so you get pepper sprayed and arrested will do that.
Yes, quite. If you’re feeling anxious and depressed, surrounding yourself with borderline personalities and getting involved in violent protests isn’t an obvious or ideal solution. But as we saw a few days ago, unstable people are often drawn to the kinds of activities and social groups that practically guarantee further deterioration.
Hopp Sing, try “multi-tasking,” a term well known to indicate a shitty job. The SJWs won’t apply. Of course, no one else will either. Hmmm. Maybe concentrate on phrases like “reason,” “facts,” “logic”?
Is there anything better?
Punctuality, monthly performance reviews, mandatory overtime, some manual labor involved (OK, it is changing the copier paper, but the ream isn’t going to lift itself).
Attention to detail? Self-starter? Familiarity with [some machine besides a computer] helpful? Business attire? CCW license helpful? Statistics?
Business attire and strict grooming standards mandatory.
SJWs apply to real jobs? I thought that’s what Starbucks, NGOs, and HR departments were for.
What is tabling zines?
Organising or distributing ‘anarchist’ magazines and other shoddy pamphlets
Specifically . . .
. . . and from there, the merchandise isn’t going to float in midair by itself, so get a table to put things on and thus do the tabling . . .
What about dress codes? Do you (guys, all, whatever) think “conservative dress code” might help?
Or maybe “Perks include free company membership at the local gun club”…?
Business attire and strict grooming standards mandatory.
Oops, I shouldda refreshed before asking about dress codes, Farnsworth. I see you’d already covered it!
I see you’d already covered it!
No worries – Biannual weigh in and physical fitness test.
Perhaps it’s just that the first step to becoming an alienated intellectual/radical is learning to disbelieve your lying eyes.
My experience is of watching a good deal of someone actually knowing which end is up, but as that is not what is wanted, instead demanding that all—and especially that someone—must ignore that knowledge.
. . . a new diet in a supermarket tabloid that promises the ability to lose weight while eating ice cream in bed. . . . .
. . . which gets handled as I want ice cream, and I’m going to have it, and everything else is irrelevant. . . . the bit about diet might get used as a different set of denials.
. . . Alienated intellectuals, who would scoff at such pedestrian delusions, convince themselves that being furious and miserable and treating other people callously is the counterintuitive path to a world where no one is ever furious or miserable again.
. . . . which I keep seeing as simply demanding to be seen as the center of everything, and when that never occurs, thus follows the ongoing tantrum.
That’s why you should use whisky.
Free range membership?
Pick me! Pick me! I am woefully out of practice.
The left hasn’t changed much from Orwell’s day. From “The Road to Wigan Pier”:
‘One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words “Socialism” and “Communism” draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, “Nature Cure” quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.’
And now it’s time for us to all get this now:
When you believe in nothing and anything at the same time it’s probably natural that Anarchy is Something To Believe In.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11622