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Self-censorship. Toxic Positivity. Delusion Syndrome.
How to respond to the inner reality blocks?
How about DO NOT ENGAGE, DO NOT ARGUE? AGREE.

toxic positivity, delusion syndrome
I've been very struck by widespread toxic positivity - ever so different from healthy positivity. Then there is the delusion syndrome. Both are ways of blocking out reality, self-censoring. And finally, a page you may appreciate: favorite resources to reach people about Islam.

The Delusion Syndrome. A friendly helpful young man at a hostel told me there was good food available at Mao's Kitchen, a restaurant up the road. I mentioned that Mao starved 40-60 million people to death. And murdered another 20-30 million in other ways. That's when the Delusion Syndrome surfaced. Communism - no worse than any other political system, I was told. I brought up Obama - I was sure the young man was not a Trump supporter. The young man listed horrors committed by Obama in the Middle East. I completely agreed re Obama.

But I did not agree with seeing all political systems as equivalent - Hitler, Obama, Trump, Clinton, Kennedy - all basically one and the same.

The Delusion Syndrome - in this case, refusing to even wonder if there could be differences between different political systems. It's a powerful way of cutting off any looking at reality - like the reality of Communist systems.

Mao's kitchen, a nice little restaurant, right beside that trendy pastry shop, Auschwitz Ovens, across from lovely new bed and breakfast, Hitler's Haven.

Not quite.

Fortunately, most people have learned enough reality-awareness to acknowledge the Holocaust as horrific. However, most people in the West don't have a negative response to Mao. So there it is, a bustling beach community with Mao's Kitchen. Lots of clients. And an owner who, when I spoke to him about the name of his restaurant, insisted he was not political.

For more,
http://elsasblog.com/190124-delusion-syndrome.html

Something else was prevalent, in that friendly hostel. Toxic positivity - people pushing away anything they saw as negative with a comment like: I like to focus on the positive. What's the use of focusing on the negative. It just gets me to worry for nothing.

For more, http://elsasblog.com/190123-toxic-positivity.html

A friend recently emailed me, worried about my negativity. Her belief: thinking, speaking, writing and being involved in negative info will actually attract MORE of that and increase its energy rather than lessen it. 

Here's one fact about her: she has eaten at Mao's Kitchen a number of times. No attention to negativity for her!

Here's my answer to her (emailed to her):

I'm all for the positive - the healthy sane positive.

Note that all the positive vibes re Hitler (the vast majority of people were sure he was a good guy, basically) paved the way for World War II by blocking reality perception. 

The positive, for me, includes being positive that we can find a way to a good world - a way that definitely includes acknowledging, and often includes confronting, dangerous stuff that is going on.

So I see that a tipping point is on its way re Islam - not coming from people being positive re Islam - but from more and more people aware of the dangerous content of Islamic ideology. This is connected with ever more people speaking the truth about it. 

Israeli scientists believe they are about one year from a 100% cure for cancer - not from being positive about cancer, but from studying cancer closely, being very very accurate about its dynamics, and finding a way to disrupt it without damaging healthy cells. 

I do not believe in being positive toward cancer. I do believe in being positive that we can find a way to cure it. 

That’s my thought re Islam and Communism as well. There are many beneficial ideologies. 

So I see, in fact, that I am way more positive than you. 

You go to a restaurant commemorating a mass murderer, and with even a red star, emblem of the mass murderer’s totalitarian dictatorial murderous ideology. You go, seemingly oblivious of and utterly unconcerned about Mao's mass starvation of about 45 million people.

I don’t see that as positive whatsoever. 

My positive: that we have a world where good things are celebrated - and where it would be unthinkable to have a celebration of mass murderers like Mao, or an ideology like Islam (against male female equality, against freedom of religion, against freedom of speech, denigrating "kafirs", etc) - a world where people would find these things emotionally impossible to grasp. 

**

What's going on? Just as sunscreens keep out unwanted rays, both the delusion syndrome and toxic positivity keep out reality. As if the fake news outlets weren't doing a good enough job! Of course the fake news outlets don't fool 100% of the mainstream people 100% of the time. Plus there are people like me who bring up stuff. So it's great that many people have built-in filters against whatever is outside the mainstream narrative.

About a year ago, by the way, I explored one aspect of the delusion syndrome - the Big BUT Syndrome, the many ways people keep themselves deluded about Islam by butting away information they don't want to take in: http://westindanger.com/ed/big-but-system.html

**

How to deal with the Delusion Syndrome and Toxic Positivity? Bill Warner recently sent out a very interesting short video (less than 5 minutes) on a new debating method. DO NOT ENGAGE, DO NOT ARGUE. State some story about Mohammed engaging in behavior widely deemed immoral, like engaging in sex with a child. If there is push back, just say: SO YOU WILL NOT CONDEMN OR REJECT MOHAMMED FOR . . No debate, no engaging. Just go to another story about Mohammed engaging in behavior widely deemed immoral. Note: Bill explains it far better:
https://youtu.be/RnBqAchhEVU

With the Big BUT Syndrome, I was for a somewhat similar strategy: no arguing against the BUT (BUT I know a nice Muslim, BUT there's bad in the Bible), and instead saying, What you've just said is an interesting example of the Big BUT Strategy.

If I used Bill's strategy with the Delusion Syndrome or Toxic Positivity, it seems I would answer: SO YOU DO NOT CONDEMN OR REJECT MAO'S MURDER OF 45 MILLION PEOPLE. Or, SO YOU DO NOT CONDEMN OR REJECT HITLER - TOO NEGATIVE.

My guess is that refraining from engaging would be very hard for me. Bill's method, I believe, is likely to take quite a bit of self-control!! Many of us have spent a lifetime engaging!! - and it's often a waste of time. My intention: to give Bill's approach a try.

**

Final thing. Recently, I gave links to some favorite resources about Islam and asked: how do you reach people about Islam. Quite a number of you answered.

Now I've put together a page of favorite resources on Islam, plus a dozen strategies from readers:
http://westindanger.com/ed/intro-to-islam.html

A suggestion: bookmark the page to make it easy to find. You can also turn the page, or any part of it, into a signature, for easy sending.

As always, all the best to all who care and dare,

Elsa

PS. Here, by the way, are The Nicies, who are FOREVER POSITIVE. Meditation. Staying Positive. And 106 Dead Children Gone!

PPS. More from readers. I recently wrote about a secret key to the power of political correctness: it's hurts our feelings to admit we've been wrong - it can feel humiliating. A bunch of you answered. Here's the post, along with the responses:
http://elsasblog.com/181227-secret-key.html


For lots more, come explore
http://elsasblog.com
and
http://ElsasEmporium.com


posted February 5, 2019

Self-censorship. Toxic Positivity. Delusion Syndrome.
How to respond to the inner reality blocks?
How about DO NOT ENGAGE, DO NOT ARGUE? AGREE.



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