mellowtigger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mellowtigger) wrote2012-05-22 10:14 pm
mellowtigger) wrote2012-05-22 10:14 pm
Entry tags:
how to annoy a Klansman
I recommend against annoying people who are dangerous. Escalation of tensions rarely results in any productive outcome. If you find yourself in a hopeless situation with nothing left to lose, however, it is possible to take a psychological swipe at a certain kind of villain.
I learned this particular weakness of the Ku Klux Klan psychology some 20 years ago when I had my own personal homophobe threatening my life online. Don't worry. The police got involved, and apparently they convinced him that it would go badly for him if I suddenly wound up injured or dead. At the time, I made a dismissive comment online about him just being another clueless skinhead. His detailed reaction to my dismissal was very illuminating.
I called him a "skinhead" because their group was in the news back around 1990 as the latest version of witless intolerance to grace America's social landscape. My dear homophobe responded with righteous indignation to my unintended insult. It turns out that he valued the (supposed) long history of white supremacy and the ritual of brotherhood. He repudiated skinheads for valuing nothing. Hatred, it seems, has levels of cultural purity. Cultured thugs who kill their supposed inferiors find it insulting when they are mistaken for common thugs who kill their supposed inferiors.
If you want to annoy a Klansman, simply dismiss the culture that he finds so deeply satisfying.
Even longtime readers at my blog would not have known the details of this encounter or similar ones in my life. The worst of these experiences happened during a time before "the internet" was a phenomenon. I don't like discussing them because doing so means reliving moments that I'm better off abandoning to forgetfulness. I mention this incident now only because it can serve a useful purpose. The Klan, you see, is openly advertising for a good, old fashioned cross burning.
Know your enemy.
I worry about the future for everyone, so I rarely write about the unpleasant episodes of my own past. If I make the world better for everyone, then by extension the world is also a better place for me.
I learned this particular weakness of the Ku Klux Klan psychology some 20 years ago when I had my own personal homophobe threatening my life online. Don't worry. The police got involved, and apparently they convinced him that it would go badly for him if I suddenly wound up injured or dead. At the time, I made a dismissive comment online about him just being another clueless skinhead. His detailed reaction to my dismissal was very illuminating.
I called him a "skinhead" because their group was in the news back around 1990 as the latest version of witless intolerance to grace America's social landscape. My dear homophobe responded with righteous indignation to my unintended insult. It turns out that he valued the (supposed) long history of white supremacy and the ritual of brotherhood. He repudiated skinheads for valuing nothing. Hatred, it seems, has levels of cultural purity. Cultured thugs who kill their supposed inferiors find it insulting when they are mistaken for common thugs who kill their supposed inferiors.
If you want to annoy a Klansman, simply dismiss the culture that he finds so deeply satisfying.
Even longtime readers at my blog would not have known the details of this encounter or similar ones in my life. The worst of these experiences happened during a time before "the internet" was a phenomenon. I don't like discussing them because doing so means reliving moments that I'm better off abandoning to forgetfulness. I mention this incident now only because it can serve a useful purpose. The Klan, you see, is openly advertising for a good, old fashioned cross burning.
Know your enemy.
I worry about the future for everyone, so I rarely write about the unpleasant episodes of my own past. If I make the world better for everyone, then by extension the world is also a better place for me.