I
called out a fellow conservative yesterday, who posted one of those
catalogs of conservative grievances and ended it by saying, “I am betting most of my friends don’t have any guts, that’s why so few actually read or respond to my Posts…” Poor baby. Nobody reads his posts. Boo hoo.
I
pointed out that doing such things is using the same tactics the
unearned moral superiority gang does to herd their own sheep and is
little more than verbal bullying. If I don’t glut my friends’
timelines, message boxes and emails with their crap, the I don’t love
Jesus, I have no guts, or I’m a traitor to all that’s good and holy.
When I pointed out the problem with this tactic, I got the following responses:
- Bully you? How much of a sissy are you?
- Someone must feel his manhood is threatened if this bullied him. Geezus!
- I think you need to get a grip and stop acting like a baby.
I’ve heard this before from toadies in junior high trying to glean a pat on the head from the local bully. The
deal is who feels threatened here – me who refused to be guilted into
passing along something even though there is some misinformation in it
or the folks who passed it on because they were told they had to in
order to have “the guts”. Then, like good little toadies, they go after
me for telling the truth about the manipulative crap at the end of this
post.
I get tons of this stuff from people saying all sorts
of inflammatory things who lay a little guilt on all of us if we don’t
bow to their wishes and pass this stuff on.
manhood is not threatened at all. While the same folks who tolerated
bullies and the cool kids and went along with whatever crap they were
serving up back in high school are cutting and pasting, holding down
their fingers and filling up their friends’ emails and timelines with
this softcore bullying so some twerp living in his mother’s basement can
brag about how many hits he got from his latest post, I’m just saying
no and once in a great while instead of hitting delete, I warn people
that this kind of stuff is what gave us a generation of mind-numbed
snowflakes willing to swallow any sort of virtue signaling that social
media and a corrupt Marxist education system ladles into their heads.
Conservatives are supposed to be better than this.
is, sadly, a fear-based far right element of conservatism that is every
bit about controlling the schlubs as anything Antifa and BLM put out. They
fear conservatives who think for themselves and are constantly
searching for ways to take our minds off of what we need to do to save
our nation. Instead they focus on generating blind rage against “the
other guys.”
We need to be building bridges instead of blowing them up. We
won the presidency last time by speaking to that part of the center
that wants to hear the truth. Trump even got to that part of the
electorate that just wants to feel they are on the winning side or that
someone understands their fear and is going to have their back. Trump
did that remarkably well to the dismay of the left. We can’t rest
there, however, until by reason we help those feeling-based voters see
how their positions are reasonable and intelligent and teach them how to
defend themselves against the herd. If we do that we free them from the
influence of the herd and give them the courage of their convictions to
stand alone.
manipulation, fear of not belonging, and well-meaning lies to get
people to do what we want makes us no better than the liars behind the
progressive movement. All it does is convert them from one kind of
herd beast to another. So let’s stop using this tactic. The president is
out there busting up the DC China shop. That’s what we hired him for.
What he needs behind him is a calm, cool-headed rational army with their
passions engaged, but fully engaged in the service of reason and
purpose.
Follow me at: https://apocalypseobserved.blogspot.com/
5 replies on “Sins of the Brethren – Lies, Guilt, and Manipulation, Oh My!”
That kind of thing comes from people who depend on others to feel pseudo self-worth. They can’t stand on their own and they can’t stand not receiving feedback that makes them feel like they’re important and having some kind of impact on others’ lives and on the world at large. Ayn Rand called them second-handers.
Almost none of them are ever able to develop that true self-worth that comes from recognition of one’s own abilities and achievements. They spend their entire lives feeling empty and desperate inside, which is why they incessantly seek what they feel is validation from anyone or anything that isn’t themselves.
Note that little word there, “feel.” These people don’t think, they uncritically accept whatever emotion rises up in them at any given time and use that to determine their actions, instead of using rational thought about reality to inform their decisions. They don’t think, they feel.
I was a member of the local theater community for about ten years, until mid-2017. Almost every last person I met in that arena was a second-hander, in everything from performing itself to fashion to food to politics. I never cared what anyone thought about my singing and acting – I did them to please myself by striving to make my performances the best they could be. Sure, it was nice to get things like compliments and audience feedback, but to me those were merely information to help me improve – I didn’t need such things to feel good about myself.
And the politics surrounding me was precisely that which people used to say about toxic environments – chilling. I stopped discussing politics about a month after I started because I wanted to perform and I had to get along with actors, directors, musicians, and crew. But when a black improv performer started working into her bits that “all white people look the same” to her and no one said or did anything about it (until about the third time when I stopped, went silent, and gave her a scathing look, halting the scene until she got embarrassed and mumbled some backtracking B.S.), I quit. I left in the middle of the show and never went back, to any more local theater. That everyone else either approved of what that woman said or were too scared to say anything finally drove me away.
Second-handers are weak. They do everything out of fear and self-loathing. That’s why standing up to crazy or rampaging political bullies always makes them back down. It worked in Lancaster, it works on Islamists, and if you have reason on your side it even works on narcissists (one of the best examples of second-handers) like Trump. They have nothing inside them to be able to stand up to anything.
Definitely. Vilifying people for not doing things the way that we think that they should be done is wrong. It is especially wrong when we use derogatory language, demeaning phrases, or generalizing statements to loop people into groups.
Ad hominem barbs are particularly unhelpful in almost all situations. For instance, if you see someone engaged in moral buffalo-ing, it is manipulative to attack their financial situation, living arrangements, weight, heights, etc.
I’m just glad Trump never did anything like this…Or anyone else, I know…
Bravo. Whether on the Left or the Right, the hysterical and the manipulators hate you when you refuse to join their circular firing squad.
I have a strict policy. Whenever I see such a post – one that basically tries to taunt or guilt me into sharing — no matter how much I agree with the content … I refuse to do it. I WILL NOT.
You’re dead on. It’s self-gratifying virtue signaling, and I don’t want any part of it.
Put up the same post without the exhortation to re-post — I might. But with it, no way, nohow.
This is my policy too. I never re-share anything like that, even the most innocuous-sounding.