it's the Pagan Persecution Polka!
Yes, it's not trivial that the circle set aside at the Air Force Academy in Colorado for ritual and worship ceremonies by members of Pagan religions was vandalized with a large cross, particularly because of the context (long history of discrimination there against members of minority religions, commandant lost his job because of it, located somewhere that's a HQ for large Dominionist group). It's a move intended to scare people out of exercising the right to worship in peace.
But oh my freaking Gods, Pagans, dial it down a notch, will you? I swear, give white people a reason to whine about persecution and it's like the whole damn world came crashing down (and yet they're always the same people to whine that other oppressed groups need to stop being "PC" and bootstrap their way to success), complete with accusations of treason, mention of fifth columns, dogs & RA cats living together, mass hysteria, and oh yeah, comparisons between internet trolls and Martin Luther King.
Like this: My struggle isn't for acceptance for wicca and reiki and moon chicken religion, for instance.
Particularly love the person who says how she's calmly stood up for Pagan religious freedom even as members of her circle were shot at and (in another incident) the police were called to shut a ritual down, and here's how our favorite troll responded to her:
You want to start typing a litany of your woes as a neo-pagan, as evidence that you're really a part of the great and powerful solution? From the way you talk about yourself here, you're a one-woman civil rights movement- I'm surprised that you haven't made neo-paganism, in all its thousands of forms, a mainstream phenomenon by now, or at least achieved some great mass understanding for us- for the sake of the good Gods, you've been shot at! And you've taken on the school mothers!
You're just as arrogant in your own way as the people who yell and bitch, and the people who do nothing, claiming to be the great "doves" of the movement. If you'd stop spending so much time looking down on how other Pagans handle business, how they express themselves in this struggle, and paid attention to the bigger picture, your Martin Luther King-esque crusade might have gotten further than just you bragging on The Wild Hunt about all the good you've done.
Because if you're not into assholery and violence for the Pagan Revolution (tm), you're part of the problem! And another poster is here to remind us that:
No one would have listened to Dr. King without the existence of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Because being Pagan just *just like* the oppression of Black people, and our dedicated Internets Slacktivists are *just like* Malcolm X, because they... sit at their computers and whine about The Man?
But it gets better! In order to be a Real Pagan, you have to be a Recon. I speak from a different sort of Pagan experience than the usual one; reconstructionism usually contains people who are a bit deeper in their exploration, who have access to more resources towards understanding a more in-depth theology and metaphysic, and more access to religious traditions that were once widespread and are thus still embedded, on some deep level, in the culture around us. , you see. Those Wiccans just don't know the REAL TRUTH!
And then the other idiot declares holy war against Christianity: We are at war with Christianity. They declared it.
Someone else is on there taking "Uprising" by Muse as teh new Pagan Revolution anthem!
Then, after a parade of silliness of this sort, the blog owner finally steps in and starts deleting comments. Not banning the idiots calling for violent response and holy war and all of this other horseshit, but limply deleting a couple of comments and telling people to pretty please stop fighting now, kids. Thereby ensuring to anyone who looks at what's out there as *the* primary Pagan news outlet that Pagans are crazy.
On the whole revolution thing, though, they've got a point... an awful lot of Neo-Pagans are really revolting.
But oh my freaking Gods, Pagans, dial it down a notch, will you? I swear, give white people a reason to whine about persecution and it's like the whole damn world came crashing down (and yet they're always the same people to whine that other oppressed groups need to stop being "PC" and bootstrap their way to success), complete with accusations of treason, mention of fifth columns, dogs & RA cats living together, mass hysteria, and oh yeah, comparisons between internet trolls and Martin Luther King.
Like this: My struggle isn't for acceptance for wicca and reiki and moon chicken religion, for instance.
Particularly love the person who says how she's calmly stood up for Pagan religious freedom even as members of her circle were shot at and (in another incident) the police were called to shut a ritual down, and here's how our favorite troll responded to her:
You want to start typing a litany of your woes as a neo-pagan, as evidence that you're really a part of the great and powerful solution? From the way you talk about yourself here, you're a one-woman civil rights movement- I'm surprised that you haven't made neo-paganism, in all its thousands of forms, a mainstream phenomenon by now, or at least achieved some great mass understanding for us- for the sake of the good Gods, you've been shot at! And you've taken on the school mothers!
You're just as arrogant in your own way as the people who yell and bitch, and the people who do nothing, claiming to be the great "doves" of the movement. If you'd stop spending so much time looking down on how other Pagans handle business, how they express themselves in this struggle, and paid attention to the bigger picture, your Martin Luther King-esque crusade might have gotten further than just you bragging on The Wild Hunt about all the good you've done.
Because if you're not into assholery and violence for the Pagan Revolution (tm), you're part of the problem! And another poster is here to remind us that:
No one would have listened to Dr. King without the existence of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Because being Pagan just *just like* the oppression of Black people, and our dedicated Internets Slacktivists are *just like* Malcolm X, because they... sit at their computers and whine about The Man?
But it gets better! In order to be a Real Pagan, you have to be a Recon. I speak from a different sort of Pagan experience than the usual one; reconstructionism usually contains people who are a bit deeper in their exploration, who have access to more resources towards understanding a more in-depth theology and metaphysic, and more access to religious traditions that were once widespread and are thus still embedded, on some deep level, in the culture around us. , you see. Those Wiccans just don't know the REAL TRUTH!
And then the other idiot declares holy war against Christianity: We are at war with Christianity. They declared it.
Someone else is on there taking "Uprising" by Muse as teh new Pagan Revolution anthem!
Then, after a parade of silliness of this sort, the blog owner finally steps in and starts deleting comments. Not banning the idiots calling for violent response and holy war and all of this other horseshit, but limply deleting a couple of comments and telling people to pretty please stop fighting now, kids. Thereby ensuring to anyone who looks at what's out there as *the* primary Pagan news outlet that Pagans are crazy.
On the whole revolution thing, though, they've got a point... an awful lot of Neo-Pagans are really revolting.