tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101091710728246497.post7143491384326362134..comments2023-10-04T04:20:14.747-07:00Comments on Not a Good Queer: Warning to NAGQ: Do not go back!Not a Good Queerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527512483098762273noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101091710728246497.post-87039560623697360762008-01-09T15:11:00.000-08:002008-01-09T15:11:00.000-08:00Dear NAGQ,I find it interesting that your hate mob...Dear NAGQ,<BR/>I find it interesting that your hate mob who calls themselves, Not a Good Queer or anything else is so focused on a hate analogy, rather than addressing the merits of the claim: namely that you have created a site whose sole purpose is to gather a large group of people together to express hatred towards a single person.<BR/><BR/><BR/>If the inescapable analogies, whether in literature or in history, are not readily apparent to you, based upon the sole stated purpose of your web site, then I'm afraid that there is no point in getting into a discussion of the lessons history has to teach us regarding danger of mob violence and its relationship to human evil: the theme that runs through the work of literature "Lord of the Flies" and operating as the engine of the holocaust.<BR/><BR/><BR/>But, all evil and brutality by a mob towards an individual, is in its way, unique. No assault quite has the same kind of blows. The bruises land in different places. Bones are broken at different angles. I have not seen the specific incidents you describe, nor have I any need to.<BR/><BR/><BR/>The effect of the Group, empowered by an invented discourse based on an irrational, unconscious need to find a scapegoat, is, in fact, frightening. Whether or not there is any merit to claims about the particular faults of the person, the disproportionate violence of a Group against an individual is repugnant.<BR/><BR/><BR/>A discourse which spreads, like a virus, based on traits (character flaws or frailties) of a vulnerable individual abstracted and magnified into a cruel distortion - is, quite simply the way people are dehumanized so that we may then rationalize either beating them or killing them.<BR/><BR/><BR/>The observation that Groups develop a discourse to rationalize a largely unconscious expression of violence towards an individual is not new. Rene Girard has amply described the scapegoat mechanism in his work entitled "Violence and the Sacred".<BR/><BR/><BR/>I think the most corrosive aspect of your web site is the comedic aspect of it. When a Group turns violence towards a powerless individual- whatever that individual's flaws- there really is nothing funny about it. It is, indeed, a very serious matter. However, the humor is another way that we rationalize violence towards individuals because it makes us able to bear what otherwise would be unendurable self disgust at our obviously cruelty.<BR/><BR/><BR/>The "only" cases where it is ethical to form a Group expressing cruelty towards one person is when that person is a political leader who makes laws and policy decisions that affect the public.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I would suggest that instead of identifying metaphors and analogies that you then place in the matrix of humor - that allows you to rationalize the self-disgust and shame you must inevitably feel at the disproportionate power you wield as a group expressing hatred towards a single individual - you instead reflect quietly for several days on what it is that you "get" from a web site such as the one you have created.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Do you notice that the relationships in the building have improved? Scapegoats improve relationships among groups because small conflicts between members of the group are discharged onto a single individual. That is the nature of "scapegoating". . . Do you notice that you feel a sense of inflation and invulnerability? The hubris in the tone of your web site clearly indicates that this is the case - which, of course, is the confidence of a Group purging itself of tension and anxiety among relationships within the group by discharging that anger onto the magnified flaws of one of its members.<BR/><BR/><BR/>If you do notice these things in the quiet of personal reflection, I would sincerely encourage you to desist from continuing this hate based web site.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Group violence is like a tsunami. It gathers in intensity until the humor and the rationalization crystalizes into an expression of actual brutality. By the time this violence occurs, the Group is so secure in its rationalization that it is right and the vulnerable member is disfigured and denigrated that there is no opportunity for thought.<BR/><BR/><BR/>This is the situation you are creating. This is why you must stop this.<BR/><BR/><BR/>If you have a grievance, then, there are proper channels to go through in order to air them.<BR/>This is not the proper format.<BR/>Desist from this (even for a few days -- so that you can have the opportunity to reflect) before you realize too late that what you have created is not worthy of you.<BR/><BR/><BR/>JDAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com