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People can justify, normalize, and ignore a lot of things in order to cope and live a pleasant life. But if the coup attempt was the first time you've ever thought, "something is very wrong here," it's worth asking why none of the things that came before felt like red flags. https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1349461663553114121
This isn't said to shame anyone. I understand how hard it can be to break away from a line of thinking, especially if you've been taught your whole life that it's the only right or moral way to think. Indoctrination is nearly impossible to overcome.
But once you HAVE broken away, it's important to look back and critically examine what other issues you missed, overlooked, justified, excused, or enabled. It's hard work, and it can come with a lot of guilt. But it's necessary if we want to avoid repeating those same mistakes.
For many who have been complicit in harmful systems, there's a specific moment when we wake up, and are appalled. That moment is different for everyone. But it's crucial to recognize that the harm existed long before we woke up, and to examine our own roles in perpetuating it.
Going back and looking at all the red flags you missed sucks. It's really hard to admit that the signs were there long before you noticed them. It's hard to admit you were wrong, especially when others woke up WAY before you did. Why did they notice, when you didn't?
And why didn't you listen when they spoke up? Why didn't you believe them? Those are really hard questions to wrestle with, especially if you're still being told by people you care about that the harmful system is good, and the people who have called out the harm are bad.
I have no easy answers to wrap up this thread (which I didn't intend to be a thread, whoops.) Just wanted to say that the intent of my first tweet wasn't to wag a finger at those who are just now waking up, but rather to call us all to critical introspection.
It's good to be able to recognize and call out harm in others. It's much harder to recognize the roles we ourselves played in perpetuating and enabling that harm. But it's a vital part of the process if we are to avoid falling back into those same harmful patterns.
(gonna just keep adding thoughts to this apparently) Just wanted to add that waking up from indoctrination is LONELY. Everyone from inside the camp you called home now thinks of you as the enemy. Everyone outside wonders why it took you so long to wake up in the first place.
That loneliness can make it easy to want to retreat back to the comfort of what you know. To treat your wake up moment as a one-off, and assume that once it's passed, things will be better now. That *one thing* may have been bad, but everything else is good.
This is why it's so important to look back at your own actions, and examine how you contributed to the bad thing. It's so hard to do, but it's also excellent armor against gaslighting. Because so many will try to convince you that the system is fine, and the problem is YOU.
Critical introspection and examination of our own complicity in harmful systems enables us to say, "the problem WAS me, at least in part, but I now recognize how I contributed to the problem and can therefore avoid doing the same thing in the future."
Looking back through a critical lens equips us to recognize that the wake-up moment is rarely (possibly never?) just a one-off. It helps us recognize harmful patterns. It makes it easier to resist the temptation to fall back into old familiar ways of thinking.
It also gives us the humility to acknowledge that if we were wrong about something before, we can be wrong again. It can embolden us to ask questions, consider critique, and not be afraid of the answers.
It took me a long time to realize that if I was afraid to ask a question, it's because I already knew on some level that the answer was going to challenge me in an uncomfortable way. But ultimately, I think, asking questions gives us strength.
There is power in being able to examine your position from all angles, and shift it or even discard it if necessary. There's power in being able to admit you were wrong, because it allows for the possibility that there is always something yet to learn. It allows you to grow.
Beware people who can't ever admit they are wrong, for those are people who have stopped questioning, stopped learning, stopped growing. Everyone is wrong about something. Some of us eventually learn we've been wrong about big things.
I don't think being right all the time is an attainable goal, for anyone. But I think it's worth always working to be wrong less, and the only way to accomplish that is to constantly ask questions, think critically, and examine our own actions for ways we could do better.
There are always, ALWAYS, ways we can do better.
(I'm done now.)
(probably.)
(I'm done now.)
(probably.)
