Epilogue to the Group Upset

This post is a continuation of a previous post. Read this one first for context.

Things have cleared up a fair bit after deaing with ... That. They're more stable now, thank goodness. And I just want to write down what happened, alongside a few concluding thoughts.

Group Readjustment

After the intial upset, described in the previous blog post, things were... Rough, in the admin group chat. As I said, the other admins were sliding toward the more "moderate", "let them talk" side, while others (me and two main admins, more notably) were still... Strongly against letting people with such an alignment in the chat.

The debates this caused kept going for a while, on and off during a few days, and actually wore down one of our longest, more active admins, with huge contributions to the community of the group. They decided to step back - mostly because they wanted to focus on their own things again after serving the community, but in part also because this debate had been a strain. I certainly wish them the best, and am really looking forward to the fursuit they are going to build, because, hooo boy, it is looking awesome.

Before stepping back we had a longer chat about... All this. And it made me realize how important it is to stand up for keeping your places safe, and to be vocal. One other thing they also mentioned was how this one oddly supportive mod ((furthermore referred to as the "loud mod"))... Had been trouble in the past, as well. Not intentionally, perhaps, but ... Not the most apt with social situations. And a plan was discussed, to vote the Loud Mod of the group.

Truth be told - if they hadn't stepped back, I was planning to do a protest leave, to explain to the group why I no longer felt compatible there and would want to seek out more comfortable shores. But like this... Well, I couldn't leave that power vacuum. Instead, I tried a more direct confrontation. I had been too shy before, and not verbal enough - about my dissatisfaction with the Loud Mod, the rule change and the complacency. And so, I started reaching out to other mods more directly - to see how they felt, and to brush the topic of voting out the Loud Mod. One by one.

It... Did not end up looking particularly good. A surprising amount of mods now felt the ban on the AfD voter had been too quick, and didn't share the same complains about Loud Mod as me and a few others. Those were in the majority...

But it didn't end up mattering. Someone snitched, and told Loud Mod I was asking around about voting them out, and ... They got so insulted by this action that they decided to leave, by themselves??? Look, I don't know about you, but if I heard a fellow mod was asking about voting me out I'd go for a dialogue, hold the vote & discuss, fight for it. But... I suppose they felt it wasn't worth fighting for that community any more?

It certainly saved me some trouble.

In the end, thanks to this, things have stabilized. The "no politics" absolute rule was rolled back, and inspiration from a few other groups was taken to approach a more ... "No bullshit & don't annoy the community" rule. It's not as openly anti-nazi as e.g. the Furry Technologists Telegram group chat, but it still holds. Especially with us around still, and new moderators are being onboarded. If there's one thing I learned, it's to speak up early, and persistently, and hold.

We're a community. Not a political channel. People of all walks of life are welcome with us - the one rule you should have is to not be an asshole to anyone else, simple as that. If you disrupt that rule...

Thoughts on extremism

This whole debate also sparked some internal thoughts about ... All of this. Coming in touch with AfD voters and the "moderate" people that "just don't want to make a big deal of it"...

Extremism is a virus. A memetic plague, spreading and growing much like any other virus would. And much like a virus, it rewrites the very machinery of its host for its own purposes, progressing through stages until the host immunizes - or dies.

In simple cases, the infection repurposes the sense of frustration at the world into the belief that a different, simple but strong solution can help! Such as the rethoric of the AfD. The human mind is so much more comfortable finding an easy explanation for something, even if it does not work, and those that talk with confidence and a loud voice are easier to listen to, even if they lie. This is the benign version of the illness, a simple missguided "I just wanted change for the better", able to be repurposed through lack of knowledge.

As it grows, it begins attaching to a more malicious part of the human psyche. If a simple solution can not be found, or does not work, then a simple adversary must be at work. After all, surely all the world's complex interplay can be reduced to a migrant in the wrong place, at the wrong time - it is so much easier to hate than to think, and if you have other people telling you this is true, then it must be right!

In a healthy society, the first stage would have little reason to happen, with people feeling mostly content - the second stage then could not grow. With noone to resonate against, their beliefs would not usually find footing, and these people would stay isolated.

But... Given a state that has grown complacent. That has stopped investing in infrastructure, and is letting itself degrade, the first stage can grow and fester - the current governing bodies are not doing their job, obviously, and change is needed. This is important for any good democratic process, but it is so, so much easier to appear to improve things when you lie, than if you try to find the hard truths that actually improve something.

And so the infection is given fertile minds to seek out, progressing into a common, missguided goal of improvement, with some sinking even deeper. After all, if other groups do not improve things, and my group has the simple and correct answers to all my problems, then anyone who speaks against this must be a part of them, a part of the other that merely wishes to restrict me. And so the infection takes a persistent hold, walling itself off with memetic barriers that manage to deflect any critique by mere matter of "No, look how many other people believe what I do, we can't be wrong!". At this stage, perhaps many, if not all attempts of external correction may deepen this deflection, serving as "proof" that the "other" is out to "get" you.

With one further step to take, then, the virus reaches presumably its final, immutable state - when it is no longer enough to, yourself, have your beliefs, but to see any other belief not merely as "incompatible", but as a threat to your own, as a "mental illness" or "communism" or ... Take any of the many words that can be thrown around at this point. How do you reach someone who is so deep in this state that they can deflect any of your arguments by your mere existence not being what they deem worthy?

Of course, along all this there are plenty who may not even believe any of this, but instead see this herd of infection as a pathway for their own success. Tap into the correct narratives, position yourself in the right light, and it is so, so easy to garner sympathy and power and money through this. These are the secondary infections, the cancers formed when society is being eaten up dealing with this internal conflict, when defenses are weakened. Not necessarily part of the same illness but symbiotic with it, understanding the profits and control that can be gained with it.

Herein lies a, to me, rather important note: Much like you should not be angry at someone who is sick with the flu, it is not helpful to be angry at someone sick with extremism - at least not the early stages. Some people are surprisingly blind to politics and genuinely mean well, they just... Were not given many other options, or did not care to look these options up. Healing them takes facts, and time, and care.

For those that are deeper in the infection, however, and for those who are parading about without masks proud to spread the pathogen, we do not need this sympathy. We need quarantine, and campaigns against them, to ensure they to not get too much ground.

Be very careful when differentiating between these two cases, as the latter will try to appear like the former, to sneak in to your spaces and spread from there. But do try to differentiate, and to talk, and inform. There are still people that can be healed and shown fact and reason, and those are the important ones to reach.

Concluding thoughts

It ... Won't get better, quickly. All these things already have too much a hold, it feels like. Germany's votes are... Sad to see. It has been a sad year for democracy. But life will happen in ten, twenty, hundred years. Someone will be there, looking back, hoping and thinking, perhaps even loving, and creating art, way after all our troubles have concluded - much like I am sitting here, today, having had a really good hot dog and some nice coffee decades after Hitler's regime fell. Someone will be there.

We get to set the steps to reach that future, and every step does matter, even in the face of adversity. We can save our communities and keep their spirits alive and well - keep knowledge safe, keep cultures going. For those of us that have a bit more energy, we can even go out and protest, and fight, and inform people and push. But at the very least - promise me you all will love, a bit more. It's very needed, these days :)