Someone not worth linking to or naming recently said that all kittens are going to burn in hell unless you pledge to give Jesus all your money and your first born son. And even though this person is not worth naming or linking to and may not have actually said that or in fact even be a real person at all, they're still worth directing scorn and insults at, so I'm going to devote a blog post to ranting about why I think they're wrong about everything and are too worthless even to name.... And since I haven't bothered to name, link to or even directly quote from this someone, you will have no way of knowing if my version of this person's position is in any way accurate, or if I'm misinterpreting or intentionally misrepresenting this person in order to stir up controversy and drive up readership on my blog. Because I'm not actually interested in honest conversation or thoughtful engagement with complicated issues. I'm more interested in being a passive-aggressive ranter who feeds on others' hard work by turning it to shit and mud-slinging.
This is why I dislike the Pagan community so much sometimes. People who are supposedly "leaders" of our community can get away with behaving in some pretty nasty, childish ways. It's disappointing, yes, but even more than that, it's embarrassing to think that these people represent the community to the general public. This is why we can't have nice things. This is why, when I first told my parents I was Pagan, they asked me if that meant I "hated Christians" — because that's the stereotype that such leaders continue to play out before the eyes of others. Angry, small-minded, petty and totally missing the point.
I strongly believe in surrounding yourself with sincere, supportive, caring people. I strongly believe in avoiding bullshit if you can at all help it. And that means avoiding bullshit-farms even if you might miss out on the off chance that one of those bulls swallowed a diamond and, if you just keep digging, you might get lucky. Not worth it.
One way I avoid bullshit is to avoid anything that starts with "Someone not worth mentioning/naming/linking to said such-and-such.. and here's why they're wrong." That's a big red flag right there. Because if you're about to write an entire blog post about something, saying that the person is not worth mentioning is simply dishonest. Obviously they are, or you wouldn't be taking the time out of your day. So if you're not willing to link to a source and you make no convincing argument up-front about why you're not linking (such as, for instance, not wanting to drive traffic to a hate group's website or something legitimate like that, in which case you could still name the source without providing a link)... chances are, it's because you're too insecure or insincere in your own opinion to trust your readers to make up their own mind. Chances are, you just want to rant without being challenged. (Like I'm doing now, yeah, because this is a personal journal that nobody reads and that doesn't allow comments.) Chances are, you're hoping to get away with making sweeping value judgements (like the intrinsic "worth" of an idea or point of view that you've given only a passing, biased summary of) without alerting the person you're criticizing and allowing them to respond — because allowing them to respond could lead to an actual conversation, which would totally undermine your self-righteous ranting.
So if the ideas you're writing about aren't "worth" sourcing, then the blog post you're sharing isn't worth my time to read. I don't need any more rants in my life, thanks. I have enough ranting going on in my own mind, I don't need to invite you into that mental space to clutter up my day.
I do wish that our community had more leaders who were grounded in a healthy spiritual life that gave them the tools to cope with insecurity and petty behavior. I'm mortified that on the largest interfaith website out there, we're represented by writing like this. (Yeah, that's right, I'm linking to the post that inspired this rant, because it's aggressive, petty and ridiculous.)
Sure, there are some diamonds that plopped down here and there amongst the bullshit, statements like "I believe in the holy power of the Many." Or maybe that's just a fancied up bit of pretty glass...
Because there are also statements (far more of them) like this: "Christianity won because it was the Borg. It was organized and ruthless. It bulldozed everything in it’s path." and "We have to learn to survive in a world infested by the Borg. We have to learn that resistance is not futile and assimilation means death."
Yeah..... that doesn't sound like celebrating the holiness of diversity to me. That sounds a lot like making sweeping generalizations about a huge segment of the world population, portraying them as less-than-human monsters who need to be demonized and punished, with any attempt at understanding or mutual respect being equated to "assimilation" and death.
With statements so steeped in bullshit, I find it hard to swallow the whole "belief in the holy power of the Many" claim. I don't see it in evidence. If this is what belief in the sacredness of diversity looks like, I weep for my community.
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