The first few days of Trump’s presidency has been a wild ride.  As with all politicians, he’s done some stuff I agree with and some stuff I don’t.  With his ascension to the Oval Office, however, comes the obligatory onset of symptoms of many on the left who are fighting terminal TDS.  No place is this more apparent than the cesspool that is reddit.  In my case this comes into focus with reddit’s biggest pagan community r/pagan.  It is with a heavy heart that I must come to you, hat in hand and admit that, in the finite “wisdom” of the r/pagan mods, I have been deemed persona non-grata.  Yes, that’s right, they have banned me.  Sweet mother Brigid what am I to do!?

The crime you may ask?  Beware, it is a heinous one.  So terrible in fact, I’m having trouble admitting to it publicly.  You see I… I… Gods this is hard.  I dared to agree with the Anti-Defamation League with regards to Elon Musk’s spastic salute on Inauguration Day.  I know, I know.  I simply don’t know if I’ll be able to come back from this.  To make matters even worse, apparently both I and the ADL are spreading misinformation.  Someone may want to inform the largest pro-Jewish defense group in the country that they are now sympathizers.

All dark humor aside; this does bring to light the continuing damage that is being done to the community at large.  This idiotic, dare I say, fascistic attitude is exactly the thing I was warning about in my last post.  When you censor people, whose opinion differ from yours you limit discourse.  Limiting discourse turns you into an echo-chamber.  Becoming an echo-chamber will inevitably lead you to an isolationist position that will one day do irreparable damage to your movement or community. 

If you don’t think this is true, just look to the past.  History is replete with isolationist countries whose policies led to their governments demise or, at the very least, harsh blowback when they were forced to heed the inevitable push towards modernization.  One perfect example of this was Tokugawa era Japan.  You had a country that pushed almost all foreign influence out after decades of trade.  As a result, the country stagnated so much they become technologically stunted.  So, when Admiral Perry came toddling up to Tokyo Bay with all of four war ships, Japan had little choice, but to acquiesce to his demand to open trade.

This may seem like am odd comparison, but it does fit.  If you stagnate you die, and the surest way to stagnate is to stick your head in the sand.  In the case of our current cult of censorship, you only compound the issue with the ever-moving goalpost of far-left ideology.  Believe it or not, but a little over a decade ago, I was considered left leaning.  Now I fully admit that my opinions have shifted over the years, especially after 2019/20 and the shocking amount of Government ineptitude and overreach, but I’m still pretty much the same dude I was back then.  I’m pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-free speech, pro-science.  All liberal values up until the twenty-tens.  I didn’t change nearly as much as the party did, and it keeps doing so.

We are at a crossroads right now here in the U.S., and the world at large.  Free thought, and free discourse is being discouraged at an unprecedented rate.  Make no mistake, this will not end well.  With regards to our little pagan community, it may take a while due to its adjacency to liberalism, but the crows will eventually come home to roost, and I for one don’t want to see that happen.