Eh, some shit. Needed a place to put it.

[Jenne]

So this is just my flounce from MW's infamous Political Pagan forum...pay no attention...just said I'd put it up here...

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The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it. 
~Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness


Bourgeois patriotism, as I view it, is only a very shabby, very narrow, very mercenary, and deeply antihuman passion, having for its object the preservation and maintenance of the power of the national state—that is, the mainstay of all the privileges of the exploiters throughout the nation.
~Mikhail Bakunin, Letters to a Frenchman


Every patriot believes his country better than any other country . . . In its active manifestation—it is fond of killing—patriotism would be well enough if it were simply defensive, but it is also aggressive . . . Patriotism deliberately and with folly aforethought subordinates the interests of a whole to the interests of a part . . . Patriotism is fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave and blind as a stone.
~Ambrose Bierce, Collected Works


It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam.
~Zbigniew Brzezinski


In America, unlike Europe, there is both a peculiarly immediate sense of hostility and a coarse, on the whole unnuanced, attitude toward Islam.
~Edward Said


There was a time when I was content to simply sit back and absorb, to only spar and quibble when necessary to defeat a general mocking purpose to subvert creative and intelligent thought.  However, lately, this forum has become a desperate struggle to prove beyond shadow of a doubt that all men are truly created equally.  Apparently, those who would like to speak counter to this principle, one upon which the most powerful, the richest country in the world was supposedly founded, endeavor openly to cast derision and suspicion on a whole religion.  A whole subset of peoples.  A very large and diverse subset of peoples.

And generally, these are the very same antagonists who purport to have no real, everyday contact with the very same group they are endeavoring to rape of their rights.  You cannot have any credibility as a patriot, as a human, as a thinking, cogent being if you have no access to a group you seek to destroy the very life of.  For when you take a man's religion and way of life from him, if only to protect your own, you have forfeited much that is in store for yourself.  There is no honor in removing freedoms from another simply on the basis that you fundamentally disagree with his premise.  Without knowing him, his family, his birthplace, his heart.  To presuppose and prejudge what you know of his existence is to lie to yourself and those around you.  To create a fabrication built on fear of what might be or what can be rather than what is would be to perpetrate those very evil ideals that all democratic regimes tout as their sole purpose to destroy and eradicate.

In short, in removing those rights you would give to yourself from another on the auspices of who they might harm but without general proof or specific fact, you have become what you think you are fighting:  an enemy of patriotism, an enemy of your own people, an enemy of those who would shed blood in order to bring less harm for future generations.  If you would take away someone's rights to their religion, to their home, to their given country, then you would burn down your own home, you would rape your own wife, and you would kill your own children.

What you do to your neighbor, you do to yourself.  What you would do in harm of another for the sake of a false idol set up on an altar of religious prejudice is just such criminal agenda as you would accuse those you do not even know.  History is not kind, it is not politically correct, and it shows time and again that when you seek to destroy a human spirit out of protection of your own, you have given up forever those rights you thought you were fighting for originally.

One would hope, with the amount of political, historical and sociological education that is available in today's world that the above would be rote.  The above is, in essence, the distillation of the past few centuries' worth of higher thought.  But no, there resides on this board a large set of posters who would rape their neighbors of their rights, for mere comfort of supposed safety.  Those who would do so, according to Benjamin Franklin, do not deserve said safety, for they have removed any hope of truly obtaining any for themselves.

The amount of hand wringing and teeth gnashing that goes on in Political Pagan vis a vis the inherent evils of Islam can only be said to be specious, vicious fear mongering.  An informed, experiential, historical discussion on Muslims, their religion, their various cultures and languages has really yet to take place.  And this "War on Terror" is 5 years old.  You have enough scholars and those who know Muslims to have a real, weighty conversation on such things as "Why?" and "How?" and "What to do?"  But this is destroyed through racism, calls for out and out genocide, and a pervasive sense of selfish patriotism that has no sense of forethought or hindsight.

I hope that those of you who are left here will realize, in the end, it will indeed be your loss to accept the above in any shape or form.  To allow it to continue is to pass poison to your children's lips and then forcing them to swallow.  For as long as racism and prejudice are allowed to seep into the corners and crevices of a society that should damned very well know better, there will only be more ammunition for those that would destroy liberties for the innocent.  You join their ranks when you engage in their similar mindset, as painful as that is to hear.

Thank you to those of you who have argued in my name against such grievances, and thank you to those who continue to take back this forum from savage thoughts of murder and revenge instead of understanding and a quest for peace among all.  Forums such as this one always have a delicate balance, as the fulcrum can shift so very easily from right, left, center and back again.  I miss this place, but not what it is today, but rather where it was a few months ago.  I cannot endure any longer, however, in a place where I am considered evil because I have married an ethnic Muslim.  My children will not be the bearers of such nastiness.  I will no longer reside where my blood is unwelcome.

I pray and hope that one day you will not exist under such scrutiny and you will not have to bear what I have here in PP, a place where all peoples are welcome in name only.  I hope you will not have to defend the honor of your mate, the goodness in the hearts of his people.  That he will have to fight the innate desire to ghettoize his entire generation of Afghan Muslims from those he's lived amongst for most of his life tears the both of us to shreds. What it will do to our sons, I have yet to discover.  I only know what I've seen here, a place where people are brought to expand and open their minds, but has only served to beat down those who have a different train of thought.

Good luck, All.  Even those of you so misled.  One day, you may find what I speak above to be the veriest of truths, and for that I hope your own truth about yourself is revealed as plain as could be. 

[Jenne]

This is the flounce from the whole damned forum altogether:
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Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
   ~John Lennon

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
   ~Oscar Wilde


Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
   ~Robert F. Kennedy


When I first embarked upon the path I'm currently on...I was not even aware of the destination.  Not by a long shot.  I'm not even sure if I know even just yet.  I went by instinct, by desire, by need.  For once, the plan wasn't set, the parameters, unknown.

I'm a rather forgiving person, when all is said and done.  In fact, I think I tend to give way more benefit of the doubt than I have ever known most to give.  Especially at the outset.  But I'm also an acute judge of character as well. Both of these factors tend to work against each other, as you might imagine, so the results are not always, well, warranted.  So when I say that I stuck around here, hoping, praying, asking that things change, I did so with a simultaneous sense of dread and lurking anticipation.

I came to the internet early on in its inceptions...being a technophobe, I truly had few expectations.  MystickWicks was my fifth or sixth Pagan online community.  I lurked long before I jumped in and posted.  It's my way.  I like to get the lay of the land before I set out to make myself known.  Being more confident in the ways of the posters and their stances seems an easier way to enter into an already tight-knit community.  Those that start out like MW seem to fall into this category all too well.

The past few weeks, after being here for 3 solid years and posting day after day as a paying member, I've endeavored to stay away from MW.  It holds no more thrall for me.  You see, I've witnessed a rather nasty turn of events that, despite the best efforts of the few, and because of the worst efforts of a good many, have rendered the place inhabitable.  I've watched as those who would bring honesty and clarity are quashed in a weak attempt to harness the human spirit.  I've watched as those that would pander to the new status quo are petted and coquetted, appeased and kept about, even in the face of persecutory acts publicly witnessed and then consequently shamefully hidden.

In short, I lost my home.  The place I felt safe, the place I came to when I needed to post...well, anything.  I lost a place I could put up my feet, care not what others thought, and though I may disagree with some from time to time, I was still free to roam about the boards without infighting and groupthink disturbing my wanders.

And now, it's become quite a travesty.  I have people calling me out, I have mods who would rather whip and batter down than cajole or caress.  I have a site owner who is too busy to deal with the destruction that is his community.  My heart bled this past month, and the desolate wasteland that was my internet home is now gone.

I no longer feel safe to post about my family, job or place of living.  I have shared much about who I am and what I do, for I am proud of both.  But the abuse and invocations against me are too much, especially in the face of the sweeps that have been made in "routing out the miscreants."  I side with "the wretched trolls," if only because what they were doing was more real, more honest, more revealing about the true nature of things than what MW has become.  The panderers, the bootlickers and those with knee-jerk prejudices have won.  And so, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot tolerate where I am not tolerated.

The rule about discussing not the poster but the subject at hand is entirely fallible.  For, unless personal attacks are stopped outright (a truly impossible feat), then there is no way you can tell a person s/he cannot defend her/himself.  And to do so is unrealistic and partial to the attacker.  The current complaint resolution system is also faulty, for mods unapologetically quash those they have deemed "problem posters."  If such a person comes under attack, they have little in the way of support.  I am so weary of seeing, in an "online spiritual sanctuary," constant downgrading of religion after religion.  Constant belittling of those of differing religions and nationalities, and baiting and outright flaming of those who would defend them and attack the members who perpetuate the hate and fear that now resides quite freely on this board.

And so, you all may have MW.  Enjoy it.  It will devolve into a fluffy place horded by those who don't want to come upon those with differing opinions, or those who bring to the table a sense of democracy, a sense of diversity, a change of pace.  No, rather, these are the members who would rather hear the drone of their own voices, drowning out sense and purpose.  No sharing, no equitability, but a bastardization of what once was a thriving, growing community.  It may be adding new members even still, but the collateral damage has been dear.  Exactly how dear is yet to be determined.

I've swept my place.  I've left to the master his leavings.  I've scrubbed the floor and wiped the crumbs.  I'm hoping another person comes to shed light on those subjects I hold dear, those areas of humanity that decree life, love and liberty are not just for white folks in the suburbs of the Midwest or the South of the US.  That MW should be for all peoples and races and religions, like I thought it was when I first came to it.  That peace really CAN happen, and should happen. 

Because when you stop asking for peace, you have already lost your voice.  My lips speak no more.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

While you lie low 98% of the time, I've seen you post a few things that made me go "Holy shit, Jenne is a goddamn undercover genius". Those are some epic fucking eloquent posts, and I'm so glad you ended up here!

[Cramulus]

great posts! I'd love to read the responses. Can you hook us up with an hxxp link?