Ex-SJWs -

[OG 666]

I was balls-deep in the radical leftist queer community for several years before I decided to leave it behind, and this experience is a huge part of what drove me to KF in the first place.

I often feel pretty isolated by everything I went through, and it's been surprisingly hard for me to find people who can relate, but I know there has to be other people who share this experience.

So, I'm curious if there are other Kiwis who used to be SJWs, members of the Queer Community™, radical leftists, members of AntiFa, etc.

Why did you decide to leave? What were some of the difficulties you had when you decided to get out? Do you think we will see more people leaving these communities as time goes on? What sorts of crazy things did you do while you were still into it? When you left it behind, did your ideological views swing to the right, or did they simply become more moderate?

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

I was never part of these groups, but everyone gets lied to by special interest types when they're young. Some people, like the anti-abortionist types, were always obvious bullshitters and easy to blow off, but that's because conservatives don't have the information warfare finesse that liberals do. All that progress has to be good for something, I guess. A lot of leftist concepts I took as ironclad were disproven once I broke away from the conventional wisdom of my betters.

There's always two sides to each coin, and somewhere between is the truth.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I can imagine that group being very exclusive and impossible to deal with on a daily basis. Plus I'm sure it's full of trans-trenders.

 

[QB 290]

Everyone grows up eventually and real life is one hell of a catalyst for that, the people that don't end up with threads here.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

I can imagine that group being very exclusive and impossible to deal with on a daily basis. Plus I'm sure it's full of trans-trenders.

I like to imagine it's like being involved with Channel Awesome cranked up to eleven.

 

[The Great Chandler]

I always wondered what was on the mind of SJWs. Their negativity, paranoia, etc. It's probably no different than fundies, but still.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

I always wondered what was on the mind of SJWs. Their negativity, paranoia, etc. It's probably no different than fundies, but still.

Imagine being Joseph Stalin, but everyone else you know is also Joseph Stalin.

 

[SpessCaptain]

Just a gentle reminder that this is still a Deep Thoughts thread, I just had to slap the wrists of some people here who have forgotten this and decided to go " nice powerleveling" and derail the entire thread.

It's interesting to know how people get in and out of radicalist movements and I'd like to hear more of it.

 

[Tobias Beecher]

Tbh, it was just so EXHAUSTING. Having to cherry-pick everything from media or followers or even something so trivial as your goddamn bio on Twitter, Tumblr, etc. I just couldn't take the pressure of trying to be "perfect" all the time.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I like to imagine it's like being involved with Channel Awesome cranked up to eleven.

minus the constant need to be FUNNAY AND LOLSORANDUM XD

 

[Haunter]

The trap of common, mass Humanism is the reliance on the concept of "Nature": Humans are more "naturally" human the less they are influenced from the outside. Naturally, the lesson we all take from this is: My thought occurs in my mind, seperated from the influencing power of the outside world, and is therefore "Natural", "Authentic", in a word, "Right".

When I was young I fervently believed all this. I didn't need to be educated, to defend my arguments. Such conditions naturally appeal to youth. My beliefs, and the beliefs of all that agreed with mine, were naturally Right (this line of thinking of course carries it's own negation, ending in Fascism, Totalitarianism, etc.).

After being a "hard-leftist", I became a "hard-rightist" (it would take too long to explain here how such a transition happens), and finally became exhausted of all insubstantial socio-politics and the like.

Hope some of the bullshit I just wrote gives some help to Kiwis who've experienced something similar :/

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

minus the constant need to be FUNNAY AND LOLSORANDUM XD

So even more joyless than Channel Awesome cranked up to eleven?

 

[OG 666]

The trap of common, mass Humanism is the reliance on the concept of "Nature": Humans are more "naturally" human the less they are influenced from the outside. Naturally, the lesson we all take from this is: My thought occurs in my mind, seperated from the influencing power of the outside world, and is therefore "Natural", "Authentic", in a word, "Right".

When I was young I fervently believed all this. I didn't need to be educated, to defend my arguments. Such conditions naturally appeal to youth. My beliefs, and the beliefs of all that agreed with mine, were naturally Right (this line of thinking of course carries it's own negation, ending in Fascism, Totalitarianism, etc.).

After being a "hard-leftist", I became a "hard-rightist" (it would take too long to explain here how such a transition happens), and finally became exhausted of all insubstantial socio-politics and the like.

Hope some of the bullshit I just wrote gives some help to Kiwis who've experienced something similar :/

Yeah, I think a huge part of the problem - particularly among the postmodernist crowd - is this idea that having farfetched views is actually just further proof that you're in the right. Leftists have gotten really good at adopting this narrative where anyone who encourages you to look at logic, facts, or critical thinking skills is working to further the interests of The Oppressors.

It makes it really difficult to reason with people who have this mindset, because they come into arguments convinced that even the slightest disagreement is proof that you are a member of the oppressive class and can't be trusted whatsoever.

 

[Lunete]

I dipped my toes into the sjw madness in my early twenties but was quickly driven out for saying that made up pronouns aren't valid.

 

[soy_king]

I was never a full SJW, but I used to be a fellow traveler parroting their popular talking points, to the extent that I once accused my parents of racism when the subject of Michael Brown happened to come up. The only thing that kept me away from going fully down that rabbit-hole was my overall contrarian nature and a general approach towards objectivity by assuming all ethnic groups were in some way full of themselves. What really made me distance myself from any of the popular rabid leftists was their lack of coverage over the mass assaults in Cologne, followed by the aftermath of Brexit, when these supposed champions of democracy started complaining that the British public were too stupid to know what they voted for and that the decisions should be made for them.

 

[Unfiltered Red]

I was probably only a true SJW ten years ago during Bush. I'd moved to a basic liberal/leftist irritated with SJW crap (namely feminism) for the past seven or so years. However, I was still for outright socialism, idolized Venezuela (lmao), supported Bernie, thought Islam was a religion of peace, and cried like a bitch when Trump won.

Why did you decide to leave?

The cult mentality, feels over reals, the fact they remind me so strongly of the religious right of the 90's and 00's I'd railed against as a Democrat. Learning that righter-wingers and conservatives don't just hate love, tolerance, and peace was an awakening. Because that's what I genuinely believed. That they're just malice-filled bigots full stop. But once you turn off your knee-jerk outrage at people's concerns over illegal immigration, you realize holy shit none of what they're saying is racist!

Also over the years I'd unconsciously moved toward an individualist mindset and couldn't reconcile that with my collectivist left-wing beliefs. It was like walking around in clothes that don't fit anymore.

What were some of the difficulties you had when you decided to get out?

It was very literally like losing my faith. When you don't question your beliefs your entire life and then find out a huge chunk of them are absolute bullshit, it's scary as hell. I'd believed capitalism was pure evil and upon listening to economists state facts like making everything free was bad for the economy, my FDR-loving mind exploded.

Do you think we will see more people leaving these communities as time goes on?

No doubt. And with stats out that Gen Z is more conservative than millennials the pendulum has already started to swing back the other way.

What sorts of crazy things did you do while you were still into it?

Never did anything that crazy that I recall. But I do remember my relief I didn't end up going to a family Thanksgiving in 2016 because a bunch of my relatives liked Trump and I just couldn't stand the idea of being around them after they voted against people like ME reeeeeeeeee. It's goddamn hilarious how the further I moved away from the left the more tolerant I became of people with different political opinions than me.

When you left it behind, did your ideological views swing to the right, or did they simply become more moderate?

Moderate to center-right libertarian-leaning. Which is a different planet from hard left even though I'm still as socially liberal as ever.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

The only thing that kept me away from going fully down that rabbit-hole was my overall contrarian nature and a general approach towards objectivity by assuming all ethnic groups were in some way full of themselves

Fucking bigot...

It's goddamn hilarious how the further I moved away from the left the more tolerant I became of people with different political opinions than me.

That's the ultimate irony, isn't it?

 

[QB 290]

One of the main reasons it's hard to leave the sjw mindset is because of how much it pry's at your loneliness, your sadness, your inadicuacy etc. You are always bad and you can never not be bad but you can be worse is a pretty common lesson there.
When you're younger and you already don't like yourself, thousands of strangers telling you how shit you are only re-enforces how much you need them to not be even worse then you already are.
Then you step out into the world and realise how re.tarded they were

 

[OG 666]

It's goddamn hilarious how the further I moved away from the left the more tolerant I became of people with different political opinions than me.

Yep, same here. I had a pretty similar experience to you, in that I was shocked when I realized how many center-to-right-leaning people weren't evil fascist monsters who wanted to cause LITERAL VIOLENCE against me.

If anything, most of the right-wing friends I've made are much more open to dissenting opinion and critical thinking than any of my old friends. On the contrary, if any of my remaining left-wing friends knew how much my ideological beliefs have shifted, they would probably disown me entirely.

 

[cunt bucket]

I can barely remember how it happened, it was very gradual. Then eventually I found KF.