Did not see that last part coming, new ideas like this are why I subscribe, super compelling. It certainly seems to be true at first glance; so true I find myself having to think hard to imagine how the world would have felt before a time when we were severed from a more natural identity, when identity was something that so simply was that it would never cross one's mind to ponder it. I wonder when you might think this began? The advent of TV/mass communication? WWII? The Enlightenment?
The soul proceeds from the body. You only have a soul because you have a body. Everything about your soul is derived from your body. When someone says "your soul is unrelated to your body", their only goal is to denigrate the sanctity of the body itself. Denying the inherent equivitude of the body and soul is tantamount to Satanism.
So yes, grasping desperately at a soul that's unbeholden to the body is an unsurprising conclusion for people who despise the physical realm, live every moment seething in denial that physical reality is the way it is, and insist on proceeding through adulthood in a childish delusion that reality can be ignored.
Is it not possible to consider both the soul different from the body, and the body sacred as well? You see all the time that objects can be considered sacred. Should our souls be something precious to us, would what houses it also not be sacred? And if the body houses our souls, the saying "My body is a temple, and I'm the Deity it is dedicated to" is not inaccurate nor does it remove the divinity of the body.
To me, that’s too simplistic-- it’s also too simplistic to call it childish. I would sooner believe (and do believe) that people say “soul” but mean something else
I don’t often comment but I’m pulled to say two things.
1. This kind of writing is exactly why I subscribe, it isn’t ‘hot taking’ it’s something else diving into the underpinnings of a world that’s at the edge of my reality that I wouldn’t hear about otherwise.
2. I’m becoming more convinced that the reason for white obsession with having an ‘identity’ such as being half-Italian, being autistic, queer, trans or even otherkin is because whether we can express it or not we understand that being a white-bread American is the path of the helot
I agree and it's a hard thing to communicate bc it has so much baggage right now. But why else would these alternative histories and cosmologies appeal if not to fill the void of a stolen or belittled heritage? That is no small part of it even if not the whole story. You see the same thing among black Americans, new narratives like those supplied by the Nation of Islam offer cohesion and history that some people may feel was robbed from them.
I just wish you weren't automatically called "racist" for offering that maybe white americans are missing something in their identity that makes the invented histories of people like Gerald Gardner comforting.
Oddly enough the same people most likely to slap the "racist" label on you are precisely those white Americans who themselves are fully submerged in the very same menagerie of socially-constructed identities.
Slightly shorter this time, but not by much I wager. Owning that as is my custom.
First of all, thank you SO much for the copy that came along with the pod. For me it's a lifesaver. It also has the benefit of making sure the podcast isn’t just an hour of definitions and vernacular of the topic. The stuff you tend to talk about, as I have mentioned, is pretty far flung from my normal AO. Were I to try to listen to this episode without this guide I would have had to hash through a sea of chats, forums, and surely inaccurate or dismissive garbage as you mentioned. Even if I had a chatbot up and running I would still have to parse out what IS over what analogy I would make in my normie brain to get a feel for the concepts. You mentioned this very thing towards the end, and the way you talk about it all writ large makes me think maybe you and your audience aren’t so distant an animal from me.
I think the thing that keeps standing out to me about your conversations is how you (seemingly naturally) meet your guest on their island. I never get the impression like they are coming to your land to make a plea for understanding, or that they are just a substrate for content to be applied to. Instead it is more like you are a traveler in a land not your own, but you will take the concepts on their merits as they are presented, given grace, and then carry them with you on the journey home to be presented in a manner your hosts would approve of.
While I have always looked at communities in this area as a form of pathology bred from loneliness, I have never felt like there was a space to stand in judgment for me. When I think about growing up, and some of the far more “real” fictions I created to survive it all, the distance closes. I want at a minimum for people to carry on, to endure, in whatever fashion they need to. I wouldn’t call myself an optimist, but it seems likely to me that the next moment, if you make it there, has just about as much chance to be better as it does to be worse. Whatever we have to build in our minds to get to that next moment seems like the right call. Aight, there is my novel. Thanks again, and keep it coming!
'Mediums or Inventors'... Inventors have the child-like disposition of over active imaginations. There seems to be a legitimate EQ ceiling here in a lot of these cases. Often I think that the Social Media ecosystems they 'live-in' online, create the ceiling and prevent growth beyond the fiction or non-fiction 'Inventor' personality disorders. The 'Mediums' are a whole other ball of wax... And really reside in a category all its own; unrelated to an type of online fiction or non-fiction role play personification.
Social and emotional intelligence... Alluding to stinted growth in these areas with confirmation bias in the associated participation of these online communities.
Great podcast. So fascinating to me to hear about the wide scope of internet communities. As a woman of faith I always feel that it's the missing link that keeps people searching for somewhere to belong. I also realize that if the internet was around in my teens and early 20's I would have been seeking these communities out. SO interesting...
That was a good interview! It was informative to hear more about something I'd just been keeping track of out of the corner of my eye (I'm Weirdly Online, so am aware, but mostly tertiarily).
'Twas neat getting more details, without any overt spin (often the goal on such topics), and I liked the links.
Good questions, interesting responses, and no bad monologues! =]
Did not see that last part coming, new ideas like this are why I subscribe, super compelling. It certainly seems to be true at first glance; so true I find myself having to think hard to imagine how the world would have felt before a time when we were severed from a more natural identity, when identity was something that so simply was that it would never cross one's mind to ponder it. I wonder when you might think this began? The advent of TV/mass communication? WWII? The Enlightenment?
The soul proceeds from the body. You only have a soul because you have a body. Everything about your soul is derived from your body. When someone says "your soul is unrelated to your body", their only goal is to denigrate the sanctity of the body itself. Denying the inherent equivitude of the body and soul is tantamount to Satanism.
So yes, grasping desperately at a soul that's unbeholden to the body is an unsurprising conclusion for people who despise the physical realm, live every moment seething in denial that physical reality is the way it is, and insist on proceeding through adulthood in a childish delusion that reality can be ignored.
Is it not possible to consider both the soul different from the body, and the body sacred as well? You see all the time that objects can be considered sacred. Should our souls be something precious to us, would what houses it also not be sacred? And if the body houses our souls, the saying "My body is a temple, and I'm the Deity it is dedicated to" is not inaccurate nor does it remove the divinity of the body.
I agree -- that’s definitely one way to look at it
To me, that’s too simplistic-- it’s also too simplistic to call it childish. I would sooner believe (and do believe) that people say “soul” but mean something else
What is that something else?
Intense feeling I think is the main culprit
And don't feelings come from the body?
Sure, but that doesn’t preclude the kinds of language confusion I’m describing
You are so good at being non judgmental
I try!
I don’t often comment but I’m pulled to say two things.
1. This kind of writing is exactly why I subscribe, it isn’t ‘hot taking’ it’s something else diving into the underpinnings of a world that’s at the edge of my reality that I wouldn’t hear about otherwise.
2. I’m becoming more convinced that the reason for white obsession with having an ‘identity’ such as being half-Italian, being autistic, queer, trans or even otherkin is because whether we can express it or not we understand that being a white-bread American is the path of the helot
I agree and it's a hard thing to communicate bc it has so much baggage right now. But why else would these alternative histories and cosmologies appeal if not to fill the void of a stolen or belittled heritage? That is no small part of it even if not the whole story. You see the same thing among black Americans, new narratives like those supplied by the Nation of Islam offer cohesion and history that some people may feel was robbed from them.
Or Hoteps.
I just wish you weren't automatically called "racist" for offering that maybe white americans are missing something in their identity that makes the invented histories of people like Gerald Gardner comforting.
Oddly enough the same people most likely to slap the "racist" label on you are precisely those white Americans who themselves are fully submerged in the very same menagerie of socially-constructed identities.
Are you in Chicago? Are you going to speak anywhere in the city? I read your blog, but would want to see you give a talk in person.
Hey, I live here, yes, but I don't have any speaking engagements planned and am not sure what that would mean or look like
Slightly shorter this time, but not by much I wager. Owning that as is my custom.
First of all, thank you SO much for the copy that came along with the pod. For me it's a lifesaver. It also has the benefit of making sure the podcast isn’t just an hour of definitions and vernacular of the topic. The stuff you tend to talk about, as I have mentioned, is pretty far flung from my normal AO. Were I to try to listen to this episode without this guide I would have had to hash through a sea of chats, forums, and surely inaccurate or dismissive garbage as you mentioned. Even if I had a chatbot up and running I would still have to parse out what IS over what analogy I would make in my normie brain to get a feel for the concepts. You mentioned this very thing towards the end, and the way you talk about it all writ large makes me think maybe you and your audience aren’t so distant an animal from me.
I think the thing that keeps standing out to me about your conversations is how you (seemingly naturally) meet your guest on their island. I never get the impression like they are coming to your land to make a plea for understanding, or that they are just a substrate for content to be applied to. Instead it is more like you are a traveler in a land not your own, but you will take the concepts on their merits as they are presented, given grace, and then carry them with you on the journey home to be presented in a manner your hosts would approve of.
While I have always looked at communities in this area as a form of pathology bred from loneliness, I have never felt like there was a space to stand in judgment for me. When I think about growing up, and some of the far more “real” fictions I created to survive it all, the distance closes. I want at a minimum for people to carry on, to endure, in whatever fashion they need to. I wouldn’t call myself an optimist, but it seems likely to me that the next moment, if you make it there, has just about as much chance to be better as it does to be worse. Whatever we have to build in our minds to get to that next moment seems like the right call. Aight, there is my novel. Thanks again, and keep it coming!
Thank you for your kind comments - I take all your feedback and try to apply it as best as I can
'Mediums or Inventors'... Inventors have the child-like disposition of over active imaginations. There seems to be a legitimate EQ ceiling here in a lot of these cases. Often I think that the Social Media ecosystems they 'live-in' online, create the ceiling and prevent growth beyond the fiction or non-fiction 'Inventor' personality disorders. The 'Mediums' are a whole other ball of wax... And really reside in a category all its own; unrelated to an type of online fiction or non-fiction role play personification.
What do you mean by EQ ceiling?
Social and emotional intelligence... Alluding to stinted growth in these areas with confirmation bias in the associated participation of these online communities.
Great podcast. So fascinating to me to hear about the wide scope of internet communities. As a woman of faith I always feel that it's the missing link that keeps people searching for somewhere to belong. I also realize that if the internet was around in my teens and early 20's I would have been seeking these communities out. SO interesting...
Thank you! And yes - they're very seductive
That was a good interview! It was informative to hear more about something I'd just been keeping track of out of the corner of my eye (I'm Weirdly Online, so am aware, but mostly tertiarily).
'Twas neat getting more details, without any overt spin (often the goal on such topics), and I liked the links.
Good questions, interesting responses, and no bad monologues! =]
Thank you!!!