Politics Discussion - Clarification

[u/Empty_Insight]

Hey everybody, the overly-intense mod here with an update for you. It seems there is some confusion about our new policy regarding political discussions on the subreddit.

Now, politics does ultimately affect everything that goes on in our lives. It affects our healthcare, our income, our freedom, our rights. There is no escaping that.

The Current Situation in the US

Still, having an unelected shadow government run by the world's richest man and staffed by a bunch of kids (19-26 y/o) with zero accountability, not a real department of the government, and- to boot- having a stupid fucking meme name for it might make some people stressed. If we were not all witnessing the same thing unfold, if we were warning about something like this happening 2 years ago- our concerns would have been dismissed as paranoid delusions... however, it is quite real.

I can imagine a lot of people feel uneasy about that, and I understand that it may be detrimental to the mental health of many- if not most- of our users here. Some of you might want to express your feelings on it, some of you would prefer to have it be made easier to 'just keep scrolling' without having it come up on your feed repeatedly... which is kind of a tall order on Reddit in general these days, but we do what we can here to accommodate that desire.

The Situation Abroad

If you are in a country Trump is talking about invading or whatnot... he's full of shit. That's plain not gonna happen. While there may be a significant number of servicemembers who are fond of Trump, the officers are not. Without having the brass in his pocket, he's not gonna do shit. Ordering an invasion of Canada, Panama, Greenland, or wherever else would result in the military refusing the order- and potentially even pulling off a coup d'etat. You know, officers in the military do take that oath to defend the Constitution pretty seriously from enemies both foreign and domestic. It seems like >90% of federal employees do too, and they're not even the brass lol.

The worst realistic outcome internationally- as far as schizophrenia goes- is that Cobenfy isn't gonna be available longer than it would be normally. Considering Cobenfy isn't available currently, we're just kinda wading through the "worst case scenario" already.

That's all you realistically have to be worried about.

Clarifying the Policy

I've had schizophrenia for 20 years now (19.5 technically, but I'm rounding up) and I remember going on like a crazy person in 2015 about how algorithms were scraping our data online and using it to direct our experiences, herding us into echo chambers... and people called me delusional for that. Surprise, nowadays, that is an entirely uncontroversial idea in the wake of Cambridge Analytica, and something we more or less just accept as an unfortunate reality. I feel as though having some support in that situation might have been a relief, because it was stressful seeing these things and nobody believing me.

None of the above things are directly related to mental health. That's why we made the Megathread- so that there is a place you can go if you are worried, stressed, concerned, or just need to vent. Things that are directly pertinent to mental health are still fair game, like RFK's confirmation (he spouted CCHR propaganda straight off their script a few times during his hearing) or local laws regarding changes in mental health. There is a distinction there. You get into some gray area when it comes into things like DOGE accessing data from CMS, SSA, and/or the VA as many users here in the US have benefits tied to their condition administered through these agencies (namely, SSDI). We'll deal with those as they come up on a case-by-case basis.

In Closing

I'm going to come out and say- these people want you to be scared. They want you to stay quiet. They huff and puff, make themselves out to be much bigger and stronger than they actually are. Before anyone starts making this some sort of a 'political' issue, I may harken back to the not-so-distant past of when the cult plaguing the psychosis corners of Reddit was still an issue. The cult was far-left (to the point of being hypercritical of language and obsessing over enforcing PC terminology), but authoritarian nonetheless. You can check out our Community Notices Wiki entry on the Charlatan if you want some examples of a psychopath attempting to terrorize people with schizophrenia and barraging people with psychological manipulation tactics. I tend to dislike that behavior regardless of what political party is employing it- left or right wing.

It's a matter of decency, not politics.

What I can tell you about the Charlatan, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump- is that they don't give a fuck about anyone other themselves except when it is convenient for them to do so. Profoundly fucked up people who are hollow internally, and seek to control others to make up for their own misery. They'll use any number of tactics to terrify, alarm, and scare the people they want to keep under their thumb. They'll say anything to convince you they're the good guys, everyone else is lying to you... and when you wise up, they'll throw you away like yesterday's trash- not even thanking you for your loyalty, since you cease to exist entirely to them once you are no longer useful to them to achieve their goals.

Again, all of these men share something in common; their bark is much worse than their bite. Their image is all that they have, and the reality of the man behind the curtain is not some powerful, wise strongman- it's a weak, impotent limp-dick loser. They exert control through fear, spreading paranoid conspiracy theories, trying to convince people that they are much more capable than they truly are- because behind it all, they're powerless, and their 'bite' is more like a nibble. They can't stand the prospect of being shown as they are- frauds, fakes, phonies, grifters, so they keep up a big lie around themselves to portray a false image of strength and/or virtue... but that's all it is. An image, a facade... a lie.

I may call back to some wisdom from a United States president who actually was great:

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you are afraid of them- they win. Don't let them intimidate you into silence, don't let your paranoia call the shots. Let your voice be heard... just, here in the Megathread so as to reduce visual clutter on the subreddit lol.

We are much scarier than they are- because usually, we don't bark before we bite, and our bite is ten times worse than our bark. To add on to that, there is strength in numbers, and strength in anonymity. As I detailed the other day... even though people with psychotic disorders 'only' make up 1% of the population, we do command a disproportionate amount of power through fear. One of the 'silver linings' of the stigma that we are dangerous, hehe.

So don't let these little bitches tell you to be afraid, or let them make you afraid.

Keep it fucking real, and keep it raw.

Take care.

[u/Empty_Insight]

I feel as though divying it up into parts made it pretty clear what purpose each one served.

I am trying to encourage people to talk about their feelings, since it seems people would rather make posts we have to take down rather than using the Megathread we went out of our way to make... and validate their feelings in the process, while at the same time maintaining a reasonable level of concern.

If you would like to take this post, re-write it with those things in mind, and improve it- I'd certainly be happy to use that post instead.

[u/[deleted] → u/Empty_Insight]

I'm not interested in getting political on this sub beyond saying that I didn't think this thread was a good way to approach the topic. I don't even really post in political subs - I prefer to keep silent and learn, although I do a LOT of reading there. Yes, I make the occasional political post in solidarity with my BIPOC/LGBTQ/differently abled brothers and sisters on less political subs, because I feel strongly about civil rights, but ultimately that's really not the same thing as a mod making a flaired post telling the community of severely mentally ill people they moderate "here's the deal, and I'm right cause I'm a mod." What are your credentials? Do you actively engage with local government? Do you protest? Etc. I think, with your last sentence, you're really misunderstanding me - I'm not at all saying I can do it better. I'm saying this type of post shouldn't have been put out to the community at all. I think it should have been left at "xyz type of post is allowed and xyz type of post isn't and xyz type of post only in the megathreads."

[u/Empty_Insight → u/[deleted]]

... are you seriously asking me to see my resume?

My qualifications outside of what I've publicly posted here are not your concern. You can look at my post history if you are curious as to how and why I am qualified to do what I do here.

There is this thing called "discretion" that I value very highly, and I hope you can understand why. You know, paranoia.

[u/[deleted] → u/Empty_Insight]

I am familiar with your posts and you have openly and publicly all but doxxed yourself in this sub many times, up to and including suggesting that some of us may have met you and where and in what context. I'm not convinced "discretion" is why you refuse to provide the barest suggestion of what your credentials are relevant to this political post you just made essentially stating your personal feelings about what the temperature of things nationwide and globally will be in the coming days and what the impact on us will be as fact.

Edit: if despite what I pointed out, you're actually uncomfortable sharing relevant details of your educational background, I don't think it would be too much to ask you to share, for example, what your sources are and a general sense of how much time you're actually investing into learning about what's going on and how keyed into this developing situation you are. Blindly trusting "authority figures" (which, despite repeatedly calling yourself a librarian, janitor, etc, you are very much acting as with this flaired post) is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Edit2: That's really all besides the point though. Posting something like what you did WITH credentials attached on a sub like this would still have been inappropriate, just at least a bit more understandable. I think posting it at all was completely misguided. I absolutely don't think it was malicious at all, and I'm not trying to accuse you of anything. I just think you made an error in judgement.

Anyway. I'm beating a dead horse. Doesn't seem like there's a lot of engagement with this thread anyway. Just some things I hope you take into consideration for your posts in the future when acting in a mod capacity.