Oh just had occasion to realize this wasn’t common Amhist knowledge – there were three distinct foundings of the Ku Klux Klan with no actual continuity between them
The first one was in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, measures were aimed at them by Reconstruction troops but it was really later, broader (less upper-class) groups like the White League and rifle clubs that overturned it and restored local white control
The second one in the 1910s was the one that really mattered, this important early movie “Birth of a Nation” retold a myth of the first one, added voguish Scottish historical romance elements (the movie invented those white hood costumes and cross-burning), and it was a huge cultural event.
Then someone built like, a mail-order fanclub (then a cutting edge thing!) around it, and then that got used as a critical element of a huge reactionary repressive wave that was so successful people don’t believe that like, utopian pacifist socialist internationalist feminism had been a big thing before WWI. Anyway the second KKK effectively controlled many cities and even states.
The third one, inspired by the first two, the second having firmly set itself in mind as the idiom of the volk, was founded to resist the Civil Rights Movement but was cargo-culty and incompetent, not realizing what the second had done to succeed (articulate with other power centers, co-opt government) or even that the first failed. Modern groups are considered to come from the third founding.
bit of an analogue here to the progression from Romans and various historical/mythological Germanic groups that Nazis took inspiration from, Nazis themselves, and neo-Nazis.
It’s funny to ask Neo-Nazis what the first two reichs were
You should try adding using cocaine and psychedelics to your routine to see what it does for your brain.
Cocaine’s distinctiveness as a stimulant is also being an anxiolytic, lifting anxiety, based on how alcohol treats me now I don’t think that’s that useful now that I had my sense of anxiety sandblasted away to begin with
Gotta say, it’s a testament to the personality shift that you can just come right out and say “oh, rapebaiting?” now. I’d agree with your analysis generally, feels like that and the “gentle femdom” stuff are the two big things bubbling under the radar. At least going off of Reddit. Not sure what to do about ravishment fantasies coming back into the mainstream as a guy who came of age in the early 10s. It’s conceptually hot, but I have a near-pathological anxiety about irl sexual assertiveness.
I know damn well all this stuff happening to me is the result of a brain infection doing brain damage.
It is NOT getting worse with time, threatening to suck me into a vortex of destruction.
In fact, as it cyclically recurs in largely the exact same forms I’m used to, it’s milder each time, and I can see an intermediate horizon past which I barely notice it anymore.
Pretty much every Long Covid patient I’ve heard of under general, neurological, or other specialist medical supervision says that the doctors at best diagnose and analyze the body’s recovery as and to the degree it happens, if not actively chase unhelpful treatments
If there were something doctors could do, I would not be a priority candidate for it. I am in the “will recover fine on his own” triage tranch.
It would’ve been nice to be a medicoscientific source, but I’ve already progressed so far without observation I wouldn’t be too useful as a case study anyway, and this is not exactly a rare disease that will be scrounging for patients to investigate.
Instead I think I might be more useful as a more humanities-oriented example. All of you, when you hear of “someone with long covid”, you now have me as a reference example. (Compare Twitter, where the usual catastrophizing=engagement dynamic centers quite different examples)
Also cause ~brain damage~ has a mystique as permanent and additive, like “oh you just keep getting a little more eventually you’ll exhaust your reserves!”
Like I’m pretty sure we’re not looking at permanent cell death here in part because as it grows milder each case it’s ridiculous to imagine it as fresh brain learning anew every time, like for 2 hours every few months I get fuzzy on some sort of social subroutine then redevelop it from scratch, naw it’s just creating temporary noise in the line
Just recovered a huge stumble on uneven ground cause apparently the flatfooted walking I had used all my life is now my emergency backup stability mode and I’m still quite good with it
You keep dodging questions about whether you've gone to a doctor about your condition and told the doc all of what is going on. That makes me think you haven't. Please see a doctor and tell them about the weight loss and changing mental states. Don't want to see you end up in a bad situation.
No, I haven’t. Been a while since I had a priest or psychiatrist look at my soul, either.
Oops, just saw your big post. My bad. Definitely agree that the case study angle is also kinda moot due to how long you’ve already progressed. Best wishes man, hope you enjoy your new powers and the side effects don’t hold you back too much 👍
I’m a different guy who thinks you should maybe see a neuroscientist of some sort, but I don’t think anything bad is actually gonna happen to you. I just think the idea that you got mild brain damage and suddenly have enhanced charisma and social confidence is fascinating, and has interesting implications. That said, idk if our scientific establishment is good enough to actually do anything interesting with the info. Mostly I just want to electroshock myself into being likable lmao
Yeah the triage thing is real here: to the extent there are people who can supervise cases of long covid-induced brain damage, I expect the cases available exceed their capacity and I shouldn’t be a priority
I am so sure this problem is recognized in psychiatry (no case reports of happy, well-adjusted families) Scott must have riffed on it somewhere
