BC FOR LATER READ
Saved by @Alex1Powell

I have some thoughts on this.

Coming from a former alt-righter and former cult member who is still deradicalizing.

This is gonna be long.

Thread time.

 This is de-radicalization going terribly wrong. This is keeping the tactics you learned in a hate group, but turning them on others. This is not unlearning. This is changing targets.

This is weaponizing what you learned to harm those who personally don't back you.
Look, I could sit here and break down my life. Break down the threats I've faced. Break down the ways I learned to find people IRL. Break down why I endorse being anon if you need to. Break down why this behavior is wrong.

But you know what? Screw that. Others covered that.
What I am going to say, is that it is a tactic of cults to teach you that you are the bravest, the strongest, the best, because of your membership in a group and your goals. That you are better than the masses. Above them. You are superior. "The Alpha", as Amy says.
It teaches you to be belligerent. Aggressive. If they're not with you, they're against you. It teaches you to center yourself. Everyone else doesn't matter. They don't understand. They aren't on the same level as you.

It's a delusion.
It's all about winning. Being on top. Being right, being competent. It has no empathy, no humanity. It's regressive, defensive. No matter what, you have to come out on top. You have to be right, the good guy, the one who was wronged. You can't ever be the bad guy.
Even in de-radicalization, there'll be justifications and excuses. I can make them now. I was newly disabled, vulnerable, isolated, closeted. Unable to work, unable to get disability. Perfect target. And in admitting that and turning away, I feel and look like the good guy, yeah?
Look at me, I rejected the awful things I was taught. I passed the bar of basic human decency and left a hate group. I'm so enlightened.

That's how it feels.

Because the alternative is embracing just what you did, and asking yourself what kind of person that makes you.
Yeah, sure, I was roped into a hate group because I was vulnerable.

Sure, they kept me vulnerable and isolated, because that's how they keep people.

But that doesn't make me blameless. It doesn't remove the burden from my shoulders.

And facing that near broke me.
I let my hate, my pain, and my anger get the better of me. I let my loneliness and self-loathing devour me. I lived in my negative emotions because they made me SAFE. And keeping that shield mattered more to me than other people.

I can't undo that.

Anger was easier than that.
Anger is easier than owning what you did. It's easier than stepping away and looking in the mirror. You were hurt, so you fell in with the group. You were rejected by them or left, so you're hurt more. And now, your hurt makes you wanna do worse things, because it owns you.
Your emotions devour you, till you feel like you're the center of this great grand conflict, the only one with the eyes to see it. The only one with skin in the game. Everyone else just doesn't get it, do they? They don't understand how important this is.
Emotion can make you deny all reality, even when presented with it. Combine that with cult mentality, trauma, abuse, and isolation, and it can all really just screw your head up something fierce.

You lose touch. You fold into your own universe.
Look, half of this is coming from me dealing with my endless trauma and my BPD, and like, 20+ years of therapy for that nonsense. Sufficed to say I'm speaking from experience. My own mother trying to kill me is what started the dominos that ended with the alt right.
When I say that I get how real this stuff gets... I get how real this stuff gets. More than once, I've fought for my life, my safety. For the life and safety of others. I get how that pressure, combined with all others, gives you a complex and tunnel vision. That's human.
But this? This posturing, this aggression, this bitterness that Amy is showing? That's not something I support. That leads you right into the arms of another bad person, group, or situation. Because it prioritizes everything over healing, and self-reflection.
A reactionary identity and personality isn't your real one, it's based on the current stressors in your life. Until you remove yourself from them, you're gonna be hostile AF. Like, forreal, alpha wolves? They come from wolves under duress, stressed and fighting. Not stable ones.
There's a very clear irony in that here. If you shove yourself into a situation that runs contrary to your well-being and sense of self, constantly under stress, you're gonna become hostile and violate.

In summary? Get the heck offline if you're deradicalizing.
Get the HELL offline, get away from the discourse, the issues your group fought for or against. Leave it all behind. You are no use right now. If you stick around, you become this. A ticking time bomb of unresolved trauma.

I've been there. It sucks for everyone.
The world does not center on you. The struggle does not center on you. And you're no good to anyone or anything if you behave like this.

We've all bled and fought for this. We all have scars. If you think yours are more important, you're wrong.

Get over it. That's life.
I wish for Amy to get their act together and get their head on straight. Get off Twitter, away from this stuff, and into therapy.

Because otherwise, I worry what their future might be.

And the damage they might do in the meantime.

More from For later read

Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193
Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 ...
@BillyBostickson
1. A little DRASTIC Project you may be able to help with?
We want to collate all references to DRASTIC in academic papers & media articles
Here are a few:
medium article by @emmecola
thorough report by @netpoette
@ColinDavdButler 's Paper
Please add any links to this thread. Tks!


2. More References
Papers by @MonaRahalkar and @BahulikarRahul
Papers by @Rossana38510044 and @ydeigin
Medium articles & papers by
@gdemaneuf & @Rdemaistre
Papers by @flavinkins (Daoyu Zhang)
Papers by "Anon" & "interneperson"
French News - le Monde
Can anyone remember any more?

3. More References
Papers & Blog Posts by @Harvard2H (Sirotkin & Sirotkin)
260 Questions for WHO collated by @billybostickson
If you find mentions of our individual names or "DRASTIC" in Papers or News, please forward here to this thread as links or screenshots.

Histoire du COVID-19 – chapitre 6 - Partie 2 : Pourquoi le séquençage complet du virus RaTG13 n'a pas été communiqué par Shi Zheng Li avant février 2020 ? https://t.co/MYEZZSAzaE


SARS-CoV-2: lab-origin hypothesis gains traction
BY ANNETTE GARTLAND ON OCTOBER 12, 2020
https://t.co/sPs1y8Herg
ALL , FOR LATER READ
Jail all false accusers
Jail all false accuser...
@Hammertonhal
The very first section of Robson's allegations is an example of how when he realizes a certain true part of his story does not support his goals he simple changes it to a lie.

He and Joy repeatedly stated under oath that Target run the 1987 dance contest.

Wade 2005 testimony


Joy 2016 deposition


Wade 2013 Apr declaration

blacked out but it's clearly Target not MJJ Production


Wade 2013 Apr Complaint


Wade June 2013 first amended complaint
FOR LATER READ
Advertisement
Vigilant AFA
Vigilant AFA
@AfaVigilant
One fascist to watch in 2021 is Joseph Charles "Oakman" Golinske of SE MI. He's been a Proud Boy for a couple years, but took a break recently from the group and promotes himself through the "Oak Nation" channel on Telegram.


Most people may be familiar with him as the tall guy in the Proud Boys bridge shot, from their August 17, 2019 attack on Portland, which featured an American Guard bus trying (and failing) to bludgeon antifascists with hammers.


He was also with his g/f at the time (Dominique Tota, left of Tarrio), and that's definitely a twitter account folks will want to block/report because he posts on it.


He's been plenty active at the pro-Covid/anti-mask/ReOpen protests in Lansing MI, seen here with Jerry Wayne and an effigy of Gretchen Whitmer, who his militia friends tried to kidnap and publicly execute.


Outside of the Proud Boys, his solo "career" with Oak Nation features the same misogyny, classism and gateway to far-right domestic terrorism the Proud Boys themselves feature. Here's him peddling oxychlorinque and bragging about harassing service workers.
FOR LATER READ
FRSC, NIGERIA
FRSC, NIGERIA
@FRSCNigeria
VALENTINE DAY CELEBRATION: FRSC CAUTIONS MOTORISTS AGAINST EXCESSIVE SPEED, DRUNK DRIVING AND RECKLESSNESS ON THE ROAD.

Owing to the need to ensure a safe and crash free celebration during the 2021 Valentine Day celebration, the Federal Road Safety Corps has warned the teaming community of celebrants and other road users, to desist from indulging in drunk driving, avoid excessive speed,

and resist the temptation to drive recklessly so as to mitigate all incidences of road traffic crashes during the celebration.

The Corps Public Education Officer, @BisiKazeem who made this public, said that the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has directed Commanding Officers across board to double their efforts by ensuring massive deployment of Officers and Men for enhanced visibility,

adequate traffic control, and maximum enforcement of all COVID-19 protocols amongst motorists.
FOR LATER READ
Dr Claudia Antolini \U0001f30c\U0001f680#BLM she/her \U0001f42f
Dr Claudia Antolini 🌌🚀...
@CA_AstroComm
People! Have you seen people being rude to each other during meetings, maybe directed at women/people of colour/disabled people/LGBTQ+ people? Do you want to help prevent this abuse?

Some tips you can consider as a bystander depending on the situation (thread)

Have a code of conduct and circulate it. Make it clear that abusive behaviour will not be accepted. Build in accountability strategies (what happens if someone violates it). Have a moderator/chair to observe the dynamics of your group.

This kind of behaviour is very normalised and insidious, so train yourself to spot it. Is there somebody that usually interrupts? Is there somebody that usually gets interrupted and silenced? Are there signs of aggressive communication?

Not everyone might like that you jump at their defense - your heart might be in the right place but it can come across as patronising. Try to bring up the subject with your colleagues and see what they think. Foster a culture of positive communication.

Once you see that somebody is trying to interrupt - politely redirect the discussion towards the person that was originally speaking. Eg "thank you for that, now I'd really like to hear what person xyz was saying earlier".
FOR LATER READ

You May Also Like

Caleb Porzio
Caleb Porzio
@calebporzio
🎉🎉 PHP 7.3 is here!

Here are the things I'm excited about.

🚂 Trailing commas in function/method calls!

This will certainly be a required styling choice for me. Same delightful benefits of trailing comma in multi-line PHP arrays, and JavaScript objects.


🧵 Less disgusting heredoc syntax!

Inlining heredoc strings in any way right now is grrrosssss. Now we get sensible capabilities. Everything that was wrong with it is now fixed!

(Ignore the bad syntax highlighting)


☠️ Finally, not-so-silent json_decode error detection!

This really sucked before, now it just sucks a bit less (who wants to pass a 4th param and pass 2 default params first? (helper function anybody?)


📜 Not horrible functions for getting the first and last item (or key) from an array!

Before you either strung a bunch of functions together or messed with internal array pointers. This is a much-needed improvement.
TECH
SK
SK
@sk_diary1
Andhakasuravadha Samharamurti -#story #Thread
Sculpture of Bhagwan Shiva as the destroyer of the Asura Andhaka - Cave 29,Ellora caves

Asura Andhaka hangs on to a trishula held by 6-armed Shiva.

Once Parvathi & Shiva were relaxing in the pleasant gardens of Mount Mandhara.


Bhagwan Shiva sat down there to enjoy the happiness.Parvati closed the eyes of Shiva playfully & darkness covered the whole universe.Parvati was perplexed & her palms were wet with perspiration.A few drops of her sweat mixed with sweat from Shiva’s body& fell to the ground.

From this sweat,a fierce creature was born,it started to roar.Child was born blind as Shiva's eyes were closed so was named as Andaka.Andha means darkness&also ignorance.Around the same time Asura Hiranyaksha was performing rigorous tapas Shiva for a boon of powerful son.

Bhagwan Shiva was pleased by tapas of Hiranyaksha & blessed him with darshan.Hiranyaksha asked for a powerful son,Shiva told him that he cannot have his own son,but can adopt a blind child who would become very powerful later.Shiva gave child Andaka to Hiranyaksha.

Hiranyaksha returned to his kingdom with Andaka.Later after the vadh of Hiranyaksha, Andaka is said to have lived with his cousins.He was ridiculed,so dejected Andaka went to forest.He did severe tapas for over many years towards Brahma Dev. Brahma dev appeared before him.
ALL
Advertisement
The New York Times
The New York Times
@nytimes
Stan Lee’s fictional superheroes lived in the real New York. Here’s where they lived, and why. https://t.co/oV1IGGN8R6


Stan Lee, who died Monday at 95, was born in Manhattan and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. His pulp-fiction heroes have come to define much of popular culture in the early 21st century.

Tying Marvel’s stable of pulp-fiction heroes to a real place — New York — served a counterbalance to the sometimes gravity-challenged action and the improbability of the stories. That was just what Stan Lee wanted. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i


The New York universe hooked readers. And the artists drew what they were familiar with, which made the Marvel universe authentic-looking, down to the water towers atop many of the buildings. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i


The Avengers Mansion was a Beaux-Arts palace. Fans know it as 890 Fifth Avenue. The Frick Collection, which now occupies the place, uses the address of the front door: 1 East 70th Street.
CULTURE
ArmaniTalks \U0001f399\U0001f525
ArmaniTalks 🎙🔥...
@ArmaniTalks
Shy people are either overthinking or highly observant of the social setting.

And in many cases it can be both.

'So what do I do?'

You learn the 75/25 law.

'What is that?'

The law of charisma...👇

Let's address the over thinkers first.

Do you have any idea why you overthink?

'Yea. Because others are judging how shy I am.'

Incorrect.

Others are thinking about themselves, not you.

But the fact that you think they are thinking about you, you fuck up the interaction.

Now you stay in your head too much & avoid the present moment.

A major no no in the social world.

Your tendency to think that others are judging you for being shy, coincidentally makes you more shy.

And that's when you start giving off a strange vibration to the social setting.

This is when you begin attracting comments like 'why are you so quiet?'
LIFE
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
JWALAMUKHI TRIPURASUNDARI, UTHANAHALLI, MYSURU (KAR)
#bharatmandir

Jwalamukhi Tripursundari is believed to be the sister of Devi Chamundeshwari, the presiding deity of Mysuru
It is also that she represents the flaming mouth of Jalandhara, the demon whom Shiva crushed to death.


When Devi Chamundeswari was fighting Mahishasura, she observed that from every drop of blood that spilled out of Mahishasura, another demon was born. So she created Tripurasundari to ensure that no blood dripped from Mahishasura.


Tripura Sundari means beauty of the three worlds.
The murti was installed during Wodeyar rule. An utsava murti made of pancha loha is kept in the sanctum sanctorum.
Another shrine here is dedicated to Siddeshwara / Shiva surrounded by a beautiful wooden Mantapa.
@GunduHuDuGa
ALL