It is. However I find it annoying that Godwin is often used as a dismissal of an argument as if the Nazi party were not globally recognised as the primary manifestation of pernicious groupthink ideology writ large. Your references to Decameron and Atlas Shrugged are no different, so if you don't mind, fuck Godwin.hadespussercats wrote: Is it Godwin, the inevitability of the Hitler reference?
Well I don't see that they've been dealing with anything that they have not brought upon themselves. What they are experiencing is not a reaction to a reasonable claim of respect and civility on their part, I only wish it were. Has the reaction been vile? Yes in part I'd say so. Do they deserve it? Yes, I'd definitely say so. They have had no problem engaging in such aggressive negativity themselves. They don't get fucking condemn others for behaviour that they engage in. They don't get to claim to be a skeptic and critical thinker if they won't provide evidence or engage in critical thinking and in fact subscribe to a dogmatic cobbled together shambles of an ideology as is evinced by their Feminism 101 crap. It is utterly fucking hypocritical to do so.hadespussercats wrote: I don't see this situation quite like you do. I think the founders of the forum/movement really have been dealing with an overwhelming amount of internet hate and trolling-- to the point where to me they seem trigger-ready, unable to distinguish sometimes between hatefulness and simple dissent.
I mentioned the Decameron earlier-- I think the analogy is apt, on a number of levels. They're creating an escape, a closed community where they can share refined (and occasionally not-so-refined) stories and cultivated camaraderie, while on the other side of the doors the rest of the world (with our "diseased" minds-- I think I remember that phrase actually being used) can go hang. There's a moral quandary there-- choosing to be part of an elite, deciding the rest of the world doesn't deserve to survive.
Like I said, that actual language is being used-- as a metaphor, of course (though I imagine some feel it literally.)
But I don't think the ones posting that way have thought through all the implications-- like how very Atlas Shruggish they're being.
And maybe I wouldn't mind so much, if moderates like me weren't being tarred with the same brush as MRAs.
Even if I were allowed passage, it sounds like I'd basically be inviting some semi-anonymous overseers (really, anyone from the forum) to monitor my behavior wherever I went on the web. One dirty joke of the wrong variety, one ill-timed quip, one moment of criticism, anywhere, and I'd be booted from the garden. No warning, no appeal.
No appeal.
And what is much worse is to malign those who are pointing out that to them.
As I said, the People's temple wanted a safe place, so did the Solar Temple, so did the Branch Davidians. There is something wrong, not with the central ideas behind their belief system, but the belief system itself and the way they have chosen to interpret it and as much as I'm prone to ridicule them, I have a tiny tiny part of me that is genuinely concerned that such an echo chamber as they are building is entirely unhealthy for some of them and might cause them to do very stupid things, over and above document dropping, DCMA's etc.
