Who banned Amaris?

Not to psychoanalze someone who isn't here (which I'll go ahead and do anyway), but Amaris never struck me as performative. She seems to really buy into whatever belief system speaks to her at the moment. It's an identity thing, kind of like watching a movie and taking on the personality of the main character. It's sincere, but just a cover for what you feel is missing in yourself.

To be clear, I'm not judging Amaris for this. I am constantly fighting a battle against feeling worthless/dealing with a weak sense of self, so I get it. It happens.

You know how I know Doomcock is a Nazi? Because of how readily @The Ghost of Crazy Horse stumbles into a thread to defend him.

There’s a YouTube video out there that outlines why he’s a Nazi so if we go by your standards it’s definitely true

Like garamet said, her situation isn't as easy as "pick up and move" as she's been the caretaker for her two parents almost from the day she graduated high school. An absolutely blighted life that I know I'd be frustrated by.

That's the best way to put it. She's radicalized every bit as much as Dinner, but I do believe her core is made of sterner stuff than his ever was and I hope she finds a better medium to express her opinions.

That said, like Doc said, accusing every person who doesn't agree with "burn the whole system down" to be a supremacist is the type of crap that really does push people away and frustrates activists. At the end of the day Amaris can walk away from this and nothing in her life changes. But people like myself have to go back and unfuck the mess to say no, this isn't our idea because white voices carry louder and further than ours and the people who truly don't care write off the whole thing because of hurt fee-fees.

People are ignorant of microaggressions or slights or things that may seem supportive but are hurtful (see also: the time my well-meaning mom posted an anti-bigotry scripture into a Pride support post and got run out on a rail for it). It's up to us to do our best to explain but to always do so in a way that doesn't further burden these groups.

Whatever I think of the exact content of Amaris's beliefs, I feel she's genuinely concerned about people and about the future of the country, and she wants to move issues in directions that will benefit us. And we need people like her to set a fire under people like me who tend to move more conservatively and, as the Democrats have lately shown, may not get anywhere at all without prodding.

I was a little dismayed at the reception she was getting in the RR. I think some people are so habituated to slam on oldfella every time he pops his head out lately that they carried over the same aggression to Amaris. I should have been more supportive of discussion but I've usually visited on mobile this past week and that either means I'm on break at work or I really want to avoid playing with quote tags as much as possible.

It's not that. It's been brewing for a while, looking at her FB page, which gets very little engagement from anyone after the election and it went. 24/7 Biden bashing.

Most tellingly, she never made a specific post calling out the insurrection of Jan 6th. Like, not one post specifically calling out how hundreds of thousands of white supremacists came to the capitol specifically because the "wrong" votes (read: black) were counted. Yet, Doc and Garamet and Async are the problem?

Says a lot, really.

Amaris is a fully committed marxist. Hard to be sympathetic to that viewpoint, given the litany of failure that it has generated in the real world. That said, I wish her only clarity and peace.

It's a worrisome trait when someone sees things in black and white. Going from the absolutism of evangelical Christianity to the absolutism of outright Marx/Lenin/Communism after realizing that Evangelical Christianity is a crock of shit makes me wonder what comes after he/she realizes that Marxist/Leninist/Communism isn't the answer either. I worry.

I would be just as worried if she had bought into the horseshit doctrine of Libertarianism.

I've loved her honesty and dedication, however sometimes misplaced, but if she comes back in whatever form she takes, I have only word for her: Cambodia.

Scientology or something worse?

Exactly.

Amaris isn't a child, and until recently she's always been capable of expressing herself clearly and politely, and had no problem disagreeing with different arguments without making things personal. She's spent decades on internet forums, learning how to engage people productively.

She was given multiple opportunities to clarify her positions or to rephrase herself in a less confrontational way. She declined. She deflected. She insulted.

What are the rest of us expected to do in a situation like that?

Those of us who have any way of contacting her should do so. The rest of us (I had an old email address, but it bounced back) can only wait and hope.

I simply elected not to engage in discussions where that was happening or to respond in a low-key manner. I have no wish to push anyone when they're obviously at a crisis point in life...well almost anyone...

Her Facebook/Messenger account is still up and running, I checked.

If the idea of defending your sincerely held beliefs is proving costly to your mental health, the world won't collapse if you take a break. I hope that's what Amaris is doing.

I didn’t say anything about picking up and moving, Black Jenee, i said that would probably be beneficial for her to spend less time on the internet and more time focusing on how to improve her life which is an entirely reasonable assertion

Amaris is a big girl and gives as good as she gets

Dang, I miss all the drama. Where can I catch up?

I just recently noticed that Amaris had come back and now she’s already gone?

After 20 years on these here internet message boards I think I’ve seen it all. Can’t imagine anything that would upset me or piss me off enough to want hard delete all my accounts.

I understand Amaris had severe health and financial issues so I’m sure that played some part in wanting to be done with this place.

Real life shit comes first and if this place stops being an amusing diversion and becomes a source of more stress then definitely step away.

But I did, and she was responding directly to my post that happened to quote yours, so...

She facepalmed my original post so I’m pretty sure i know where she’s at

I was behind on this too, because she has maintained the old persona at Facebook out of fear of family reprisals (as I understand it) and I had a pretty firm association with "John Allen" as the IRL ID.

But after some private discussion, she identifies as trans, but closeted IRL

She always struck me as feeling things a lot more passionately than the typical person does. I can't speculate how much of that is or isn't connected to difficult life circumstances (though I absolutely relate to the clash between processing your gender and impossible personal circumstances) and how much of it is just personality, but there are times when I felt her...intensity...was compromising her point.

I’m surprised amaris hasn’t been taken in by Qanon yet.

I find it interesting that both of you started off on the very religious side (although Shep was far more conservative and irritating than J Allen) and then flipped to the other end of the spectrum.

For myself, I probably started off as apolitical/moderate when I first joined WF and now solidly identify as liberal/progressive. I was in college then and didn’t have much knowledge or understanding of the real world. Never been very religious though. Pretty much have always identified as spiritual/believer in karma.

People with low self-esteem are particularly vulnerable to cults of personality and philosophy, I think. But you can't get the self-image you want from a Trump or Marxism. I'm not sure how you get a good self-image, but I think I'm on the right track.