When I was a small child I tasted the black coffee adults were so enamored with. The bitterness was much too strong for me and I was astonished that anyone would drink the stuff. Now I happily drink the bitter brew plain. I think people can develop a taste for bitterness of their souls and savor it and cling to it because they get a charge from it, because happiness is not available and they unconsciously enjoy the pain like cutters do, because after all it is evidence they are alive.
Like you, I continue to be astounded by the continuation of the whole Woke thing-- I thought they would've destroyed each other and discovered they are SO ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE shitting all over the world all the time that they'd come crawling back to the land of the living. But alas. Even 6 years after my career and reputation was destroyed online...even despite the fact I moved literally as far away from my old NYC community as I possibly could in America to rural Northern California...even despite the fact that my crime was defending someone else who made a complicated statement, not actually saying it myself...and despite the fact that I'm actually very good at what I do--- just last month I was booked and then unbooked for a festival by a local producer who was warned about the cost of choosing to work with me. She said she couldn't risk the backlash of being associated with me. So I continue to not be able to work at all with anyone who knew me from my former 14 year career. That's a pretty high price to pay. Slander really works, as Teal Swan says. The damage that shit is doing is lasting, I'm sad to report. Which is why your book is urgently needed, even if you were beaten up by putting on their glasses to see the world for your research!
Another great article Rhyd - I felt lots of your sadness in the story. One thing I respectfully disagree with though - I don't think the Woke behaviour is Bipolar - it fits Borderline Personality Disorder perfectly: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/borderline-personality-disorder
I apologize if I keep making the same comment, but post-60s New Leftism is and has always been as much a therapeutic project as well as a political one. And I think the foundational dogma of therapeutic Leftism is their famous slogan: The Personal is Political.
Trying to be charitable or steelmanish, it's easy to see that yes, esp for women and sexual and ethnic minorities, there are aspects of personal life that are affected by politics, esp reproductive issues for women and discrimination against gay people (and this recognition has achieved much good in the past 50 yrs); but I think now that the real battles have been mostly won, we can see the downside of the political-personal connection: the interpretation of every private wound and grievance as political oppression, as in "no one wants to fuck me, it must be the government's fault" or "He didn't call me back, I blame the patriarchy."
So I think this means that the Left has evolved from the redistribution of wealth to the redistribution of misery, i.e. since some are miserable, fairness demands that all be miserable. Or, as usual, Nietzsche said it best: “Someone or other must be to blame that I feel ill.”
Once again, I find myself saying, "Yes, but..." I definitely see the depths of pain and misery which circulate amoung the internet left and to be frank, the lack of will to improve one's lot in life or outlook. On the other hand, I've noticed a growing trend in the US to diagnosing any criticism of society as "negativity" and indicative of mental illness. Just this week, two old acquaintances of mine launched personal attacks on my lifestyle and sanity based on what they assumed my life to be like based on their assumptions about people who hold beliefs they lump together with mine. Interestingly, both are acquaintances who know very little about my life and their assumptions were uncannily similar- indicative to me of a counter-narrative to Wokeism that could in turn become dangerous in it's assumption that all dissent is based in a negative personal outlook and unwillingness to work towards happiness. If that narrarive becomes the one which combats Wokeism the cure could end up being worse than the disease.
All this is hard for me to handle due to my own mental illness. I can't deny that I have to work to be healthy, or that I go to a very negative place in moments of weakness. And I can't deny that the state of the world feeds into that. However, I also have to accept that my mental illness is also rooted in more mundane things such as chronic illness and some very unhealthy coping mechanisms that got me through but are now holding me back from moving on. Moreoever, the "solutions" offered by the sellers of dissent as mental illness are basically to remove the things which have led me to accept how things are, my limited agency in the broad scope of the world, but my unlimited agency in making my own life better within the limits imposed by society and nature. So many people right now in the US are pushing a narrative that life would be better if everyone who has problems with society just switched to country music and beer-drinking as hobbies, and gave up reading, music that doesn't contain product placement for John Deere and Chevrolet, and adopted an "All-American" attitude that I can only describe as begging the boss for more overtime to buy a bigger truck to burn the gas/ money made by that overtime.
Just don't forget us here in the US, living in Europe. Many of us get attacked by our families if we support policies like abortion being legal in cases of incest or risk of death for mother or fetus. It can be very alienating and lonely to be even someone who is pretty moderate dealing with people who believe Q is telling them how to stop Clinton from running child brothels out of pizza shops. There is a lot of cry for help going on. There is a total lack of answers to that cry that aren't some variation on "Ignore the problems" or "Join the people causing them".
Jun 22, 2022·edited Jun 22, 2022Liked by Rhyd Wildermuth
Great piece Rhyd. I relate to the challenge of writing about the darkness infesting our world without succumbing to it ourselves. It's a tricky dance, I find, to come close enough to it to name it clearly without pulling any punches, but not to be infected by it to the extent that it pulls us into its own frequency. I've been writing an essay series that attempts to name directly the dark metaphysical forces I see at work in our apocalyptic times -- including, especially, through woke ideology. I have to say even though I knew that in writing about these forces I would attract their attention, I'm pretty humbled by how intense the challenge has been. I'm currently visiting my homeland of Australia, exhausted on a deep level from battling a storm on many levels, including physically. I'm still standing, and still highly motivated to say my piece, but I'm having to work pretty hard to regain my mojo. I find your example inspiring in how you are doing battle with these forces.
Beautiful! Honesty and compassion perfectly woven 🙏🏼🧡🙏🏼
Yes. Yes. Yes. Just here to let you know that I am quietly reading, appreciating, and agreeing with you. And, your writing is stunning.
Pagan tree hugger from OR with you, thanks so
When I was a small child I tasted the black coffee adults were so enamored with. The bitterness was much too strong for me and I was astonished that anyone would drink the stuff. Now I happily drink the bitter brew plain. I think people can develop a taste for bitterness of their souls and savor it and cling to it because they get a charge from it, because happiness is not available and they unconsciously enjoy the pain like cutters do, because after all it is evidence they are alive.
Like you, I continue to be astounded by the continuation of the whole Woke thing-- I thought they would've destroyed each other and discovered they are SO ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE shitting all over the world all the time that they'd come crawling back to the land of the living. But alas. Even 6 years after my career and reputation was destroyed online...even despite the fact I moved literally as far away from my old NYC community as I possibly could in America to rural Northern California...even despite the fact that my crime was defending someone else who made a complicated statement, not actually saying it myself...and despite the fact that I'm actually very good at what I do--- just last month I was booked and then unbooked for a festival by a local producer who was warned about the cost of choosing to work with me. She said she couldn't risk the backlash of being associated with me. So I continue to not be able to work at all with anyone who knew me from my former 14 year career. That's a pretty high price to pay. Slander really works, as Teal Swan says. The damage that shit is doing is lasting, I'm sad to report. Which is why your book is urgently needed, even if you were beaten up by putting on their glasses to see the world for your research!
Another great article Rhyd - I felt lots of your sadness in the story. One thing I respectfully disagree with though - I don't think the Woke behaviour is Bipolar - it fits Borderline Personality Disorder perfectly: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/borderline-personality-disorder
I apologize if I keep making the same comment, but post-60s New Leftism is and has always been as much a therapeutic project as well as a political one. And I think the foundational dogma of therapeutic Leftism is their famous slogan: The Personal is Political.
Trying to be charitable or steelmanish, it's easy to see that yes, esp for women and sexual and ethnic minorities, there are aspects of personal life that are affected by politics, esp reproductive issues for women and discrimination against gay people (and this recognition has achieved much good in the past 50 yrs); but I think now that the real battles have been mostly won, we can see the downside of the political-personal connection: the interpretation of every private wound and grievance as political oppression, as in "no one wants to fuck me, it must be the government's fault" or "He didn't call me back, I blame the patriarchy."
So I think this means that the Left has evolved from the redistribution of wealth to the redistribution of misery, i.e. since some are miserable, fairness demands that all be miserable. Or, as usual, Nietzsche said it best: “Someone or other must be to blame that I feel ill.”
Once again, I find myself saying, "Yes, but..." I definitely see the depths of pain and misery which circulate amoung the internet left and to be frank, the lack of will to improve one's lot in life or outlook. On the other hand, I've noticed a growing trend in the US to diagnosing any criticism of society as "negativity" and indicative of mental illness. Just this week, two old acquaintances of mine launched personal attacks on my lifestyle and sanity based on what they assumed my life to be like based on their assumptions about people who hold beliefs they lump together with mine. Interestingly, both are acquaintances who know very little about my life and their assumptions were uncannily similar- indicative to me of a counter-narrative to Wokeism that could in turn become dangerous in it's assumption that all dissent is based in a negative personal outlook and unwillingness to work towards happiness. If that narrarive becomes the one which combats Wokeism the cure could end up being worse than the disease.
All this is hard for me to handle due to my own mental illness. I can't deny that I have to work to be healthy, or that I go to a very negative place in moments of weakness. And I can't deny that the state of the world feeds into that. However, I also have to accept that my mental illness is also rooted in more mundane things such as chronic illness and some very unhealthy coping mechanisms that got me through but are now holding me back from moving on. Moreoever, the "solutions" offered by the sellers of dissent as mental illness are basically to remove the things which have led me to accept how things are, my limited agency in the broad scope of the world, but my unlimited agency in making my own life better within the limits imposed by society and nature. So many people right now in the US are pushing a narrative that life would be better if everyone who has problems with society just switched to country music and beer-drinking as hobbies, and gave up reading, music that doesn't contain product placement for John Deere and Chevrolet, and adopted an "All-American" attitude that I can only describe as begging the boss for more overtime to buy a bigger truck to burn the gas/ money made by that overtime.
Just don't forget us here in the US, living in Europe. Many of us get attacked by our families if we support policies like abortion being legal in cases of incest or risk of death for mother or fetus. It can be very alienating and lonely to be even someone who is pretty moderate dealing with people who believe Q is telling them how to stop Clinton from running child brothels out of pizza shops. There is a lot of cry for help going on. There is a total lack of answers to that cry that aren't some variation on "Ignore the problems" or "Join the people causing them".
Great piece Rhyd. I relate to the challenge of writing about the darkness infesting our world without succumbing to it ourselves. It's a tricky dance, I find, to come close enough to it to name it clearly without pulling any punches, but not to be infected by it to the extent that it pulls us into its own frequency. I've been writing an essay series that attempts to name directly the dark metaphysical forces I see at work in our apocalyptic times -- including, especially, through woke ideology. I have to say even though I knew that in writing about these forces I would attract their attention, I'm pretty humbled by how intense the challenge has been. I'm currently visiting my homeland of Australia, exhausted on a deep level from battling a storm on many levels, including physically. I'm still standing, and still highly motivated to say my piece, but I'm having to work pretty hard to regain my mojo. I find your example inspiring in how you are doing battle with these forces.
Chapels, shrines, healing oaks -- I'm envious. Great post. Thank you.
I love your writing. Thank you.