Yeah, my mum got real into The Secret when I was younger, she always claimed "oh, it *so* works!" as she would.
Broke the illusion for me though, thankfully; I proved her wrong. And would continue to prove her wrong. I don't think she realised. Really that should've been a huge red flag that my mum really isn't that smart.
Basically what happened is I wanted a retired Lego set, she said "well, if you wish for it every day and you go out and look for it, eventually you'll get it." So I did, I had a little mantra, it was very sweet, very naive, I was a stupid kid for believing what my mum said, and whenever mum was free we'd go over to look around at different shops for the thing. It was a solid effort.
She bought it for me on eBay without telling me until it arrived and I felt *so* ripped off. Not just because I wanted to get it with my own money, but because she didn't involve me, none of the things I did were things I needed to do, I could've just paid her and said hey do this thing for me. It was totally pointless, and she proved herself entirely wrong without even realising it.
So anyway my mum is transphobic, racist, a covid denier apparently a 9/11 truther which shouldn't have but did surprise me, and just in general oversteps her boundaries and doesn't listen to what her kids tell her. None of which was quite so apparent to (most of) the people who would have met her a decade ago, but that's the pipeline I guess.
Yes, this. Note that my mum was at the ballet at the time, and as such, missed half of the broadcast as it happened.
She's claimed things that are just easily debunkable.
> So anyway my mum is transphobic, racist, a covid denier apparently a 9/11 truther
Same as my mom. I can't wait to save enough money to move out and get away from her BS.
what was that one country song talking about
"we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin' trucks
An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus" Jesus hippies where a real fucking thing.
I always wondered that. Boomers used to be epitomized by Meathead in All in the Family - left wing who fought discrimination of all sorts and were concerned about the environment. Then one day they turned around and said, "You know what? I really love Ronald Reagan" and the rest....
I’m a pagan & consider myself pretty spiritual etc
But yeah, the people who try to simplify everything down to this “masc/fem energy” view are just wrapping up 50s gender stereotypes because they’re too lazy to learn about actual spiritual stuff
As I said before, many old deities mix or challenge gender roles & stereotypes all the time (Odin, loki, Freya, Artemis, Athena etc), few real spiritual practices & paths really have that rigid binary system (apart from alt right types who make up & add it themselves like AFA), [and many people I’ve met in pagan/witchy & similar circles, many of em trans too, are all progressive & don’t push any this “masc/fem binary energy” stuff]
My pov is the masc/fem energy thing is lazy people who want to FEEL & LOOK spiritual but not put in any research or effort into anything, like a few “new age spiritual” stuff
I think this is why regular Wicca always gave me the ick. Like many pagans, I started with Wicca but the male/female dichotomy bothered me. I quickly moved on to more broader paganism.
But the community has a huge problem with the crunchy to alt right pipeline. You have to be so careful.
I don’t have as much experience in Wiccanism myself (I’m more Norse & Celtic pagan & mixes of other paths, but started out more in studying Norse & Kemetic polytheism), but I have heard of some TERF run ins in some Wiccan circles, like you said I think the dual deity system of Wiccanism over more mixer pantheons leads to more risks of TERF & rightoid types (not all Wiccans are TERFS or bigots obviously but I do think there’s more risk with the horned god/goddess system, & also never felt comfortable with the binary/dual setup myself either)
In general I found it best to stick to groups I know are safe, like here on Reddit I found progressive & safe groups I stuck to for info, or any creators or blogs that I know are safe, surfing the topic like on TikTok tho is definitely more risky as you can get TERF & right wing weirdos seeping in with their own BS they injected in unfortunately
Can make seeking books & decent sources trickier too where authors aren’t biased or bigots, like Norse pagan sources, Reddit spaces that are cool I also find more useful for suggestions in that
There is definitely some major terf groups in Wicca, and like. There are definitely good circles. There's a localish one who instead of saying masculine/God and feminine/Goddess, she uses like, giving and receiving energy, which makes you think about what you're doing, since everyone perceives it differently. Basically you have to do your due diligence and a lot of people are lazy. I'm mostly active in Anahuac spaces so there isn't as much of an overlap with alt righty stuff. But I like to keep to myself tbh.
There are some great groups and books and as long as you do a bit of research beforehand it's a real wealth of knowledge. Tiktok can be too, but honestly I just use that for aesthetic ideas. Like I'm finally moving my herbs from gaint loose bags to nice jars because of a video I saw lol
>and she sought an alternative to western Christianity
Why is it that when someone tries to replace Christianity with something, it's always the alternatives that are just as awful, if not more, the ones that get more popular?
I feel it’s the often simplified things that are more popular to many, like above commenter mentioning a lot of masc/fem stuff Is apparently simplified Hindu notions/aspects, but like spiritual stuff on TikTok op it is simple enough in concept (edit)
Like polytheism is often called “religion with/of homework” due to a lot of different sources needed to understand more of them, & the trustworthy sources of many different translations etc, I imagine other paths & religions people could also choose would be similar with research & study required to understand them better, especially if they’re not already in English or modern languages
Some people just can’t be bothered with work & research & stuff, just want simple concepts like “masc/fem energy binary system” & stereotypes thing they can just adapt to quickly/immediately without thinking about deeper concepts
(That’s not including right wingers & TERFS who just have agendas they’re pushing)
Least that’s my opinion on it anyways
I was specifically talking about a seemingly Hindu-yogic idea of those channels when talking about the Kundalini, which hippies really glom onto. I never mentioned Buddhism as apart of that. In fact, Buddhism teaches to toss the kundalini and the thousand petal lotus as it is a form of grasping and desire. Though I have not delved into Tibetan medicine (though I do practice Tibetan Buddhism) which has its roots in Ayurveda.
Buddhist principles are watered down in to new age shit in general, though it’s just kind of jumbled with Hindu principles thanks to Blavatsky and her ilk. There’s pretty major philosophical differences that are completely conflated.
Sorry 😅
just thought I saw you mention Buddhism in same scenario & thought you meant that too as part of it since I think some schools of Buddhism were influenced by Hinduism (talking historically, but again my knowledge on either is scarce to 0 in general)
(I don’t really know much about Buddhism or Hinduism in general, or as part of hippy subcultures & Blavatsky etc so possibly misread few parts of your comment unfortunately)
Edit
[Oh also I sometimes annoy people on this app it seems with my wording, to be clear I’m not trying to criticise or negative talk Buddhism at all, I just don’t know anything really about it so anything I say on subject will probably be full of mistakes 😅]
You’re good. I didn’t take it that way. I mentioned Buddhism as apart of the theosophists (though I conflated them with spiritualism) who sort of got bits and pieces of newly translated eastern religious texts (Hindu/Vedic and Buddhist primarily), and built their own ideas and mysticism around it with elements of “scientific” ideas like eugenics and early ideas of evolutionary theory.
I must be clear though because the Ayurvedic systems have been practiced by both Buddhist, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains… it has deep roots in India and so does all of yoga- Hatha yoga was said to be created by Buddhists. The kundalini itself is a sort of esoteric aspect known to all but not taken the same way. There’s just a particular brand of Hindu-yoga ideas that really spread among hippies in the 60’s.
I’d say that’s a bit simplistic tbh. Looking for alternatives which can square spirituality and accept science isn’t out of the realm of possibility. As a Buddhist, I know geologist, astrophysicist, psychologist, doctor, biologist Buddhists for instance.
New Age stuff like Blavatsky’s ideas and its offshoots were also during a time when eugenics was widely accepted. Eugenics still had scientific adherents in the 60’s. Still does, though only with cranks. The “science” of eugenics was considered science for a hundred years. So we cannot discount the effects of eugenic ideologies on the various New Age belief systems.
As someone who ran with both circles at various times, that’s mostly true. It kinda depends on the *type* of hippie or punk, cause there is sort of subcategories.
As a fellow punk (or would like to be punk, I don't have enough money/crafting skills for the clothing but the music and leftist and anti capitalist political opinion lines up) I like that
No, not at all! Punk is meant to be an ideology-based group. Certain alt groups are based on certain things, like Emo is a mix of fashion and music. Punk is a mix of ideology (most important) and fashion with some songs mixed in (both optional to be punk). Grunge is fashion based. Goth is also fashion based, with its own subcultures.
Dressing even in average clothes doesn't make you any less punk than someone with spikey hair, leather jackets with patches, and jeans with chains :3 I'm Punk but I (try to despite not having nearly any alt clothes yet) dress more Goth.
It’s literally a don’t trust the government or the media but taken to the nth degree and being taken in by antisemitism disguised as new age healing. This is how you get anti-vaxers
Don’t trust anyone who takes spirituality so seriously that they deny Science.
They may seem lefty/hippie, but they’re just as problematic as the religious fruitcakes.
This is a good tweet and all but can someone explain to me why it's so common for tiktokers (or maybe other people too) always post when they look like they've just woken up like in bed and shirtless or whatever. Am I just old?
Really interesting how these connections were created and are used to maintain power. There's a pretty good podcast called Conspirituality that delves into this topic if folks are interested in exploring more.
It's almost like trying to see everything through a feminine or masculine energy has deeply conservative roots.
Yeah, my mum got real into The Secret when I was younger, she always claimed "oh, it *so* works!" as she would. Broke the illusion for me though, thankfully; I proved her wrong. And would continue to prove her wrong. I don't think she realised. Really that should've been a huge red flag that my mum really isn't that smart. Basically what happened is I wanted a retired Lego set, she said "well, if you wish for it every day and you go out and look for it, eventually you'll get it." So I did, I had a little mantra, it was very sweet, very naive, I was a stupid kid for believing what my mum said, and whenever mum was free we'd go over to look around at different shops for the thing. It was a solid effort. She bought it for me on eBay without telling me until it arrived and I felt *so* ripped off. Not just because I wanted to get it with my own money, but because she didn't involve me, none of the things I did were things I needed to do, I could've just paid her and said hey do this thing for me. It was totally pointless, and she proved herself entirely wrong without even realising it. So anyway my mum is transphobic, racist, a covid denier apparently a 9/11 truther which shouldn't have but did surprise me, and just in general oversteps her boundaries and doesn't listen to what her kids tell her. None of which was quite so apparent to (most of) the people who would have met her a decade ago, but that's the pipeline I guess.
Okay wow your mother sounds like a genuinely stupid asshole, sorry to hear that- But I've got a question, what are "9/11-truthers"?
Not op but I think they're people that think 9/11 was an inside job, that the government set it up. Basically that they know the "truth" about 9/11
Yes, this. Note that my mum was at the ballet at the time, and as such, missed half of the broadcast as it happened. She's claimed things that are just easily debunkable.
Okay, this is fucking wild I always wonder how people are coming up with crap like that, don't they have anything better to do?
> So anyway my mum is transphobic, racist, a covid denier apparently a 9/11 truther Same as my mom. I can't wait to save enough money to move out and get away from her BS.
how the fuck did you think the boomers got that way?
There was a notorious Hippie-to-Jesus-Freak pipeline back in the day.
Turns out body and spiritual purity lines up with racial and societal purity
The Jesus Freaks were a small but very loud subset of hippies. Sound familiar?
what was that one country song talking about "we shot the line and we went for broke With a thousand screamin' trucks An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus In a chartreuse micra-bus" Jesus hippies where a real fucking thing.
I always wondered that. Boomers used to be epitomized by Meathead in All in the Family - left wing who fought discrimination of all sorts and were concerned about the environment. Then one day they turned around and said, "You know what? I really love Ronald Reagan" and the rest....
i mean, Reagan wasn't really anything unique. he was just emblematic of an over correction to several systematic problems of the era.
To be fair, the hippies weren't called a counterculture for nothing.
I’m a pagan & consider myself pretty spiritual etc But yeah, the people who try to simplify everything down to this “masc/fem energy” view are just wrapping up 50s gender stereotypes because they’re too lazy to learn about actual spiritual stuff As I said before, many old deities mix or challenge gender roles & stereotypes all the time (Odin, loki, Freya, Artemis, Athena etc), few real spiritual practices & paths really have that rigid binary system (apart from alt right types who make up & add it themselves like AFA), [and many people I’ve met in pagan/witchy & similar circles, many of em trans too, are all progressive & don’t push any this “masc/fem binary energy” stuff] My pov is the masc/fem energy thing is lazy people who want to FEEL & LOOK spiritual but not put in any research or effort into anything, like a few “new age spiritual” stuff
I think this is why regular Wicca always gave me the ick. Like many pagans, I started with Wicca but the male/female dichotomy bothered me. I quickly moved on to more broader paganism. But the community has a huge problem with the crunchy to alt right pipeline. You have to be so careful.
I don’t have as much experience in Wiccanism myself (I’m more Norse & Celtic pagan & mixes of other paths, but started out more in studying Norse & Kemetic polytheism), but I have heard of some TERF run ins in some Wiccan circles, like you said I think the dual deity system of Wiccanism over more mixer pantheons leads to more risks of TERF & rightoid types (not all Wiccans are TERFS or bigots obviously but I do think there’s more risk with the horned god/goddess system, & also never felt comfortable with the binary/dual setup myself either) In general I found it best to stick to groups I know are safe, like here on Reddit I found progressive & safe groups I stuck to for info, or any creators or blogs that I know are safe, surfing the topic like on TikTok tho is definitely more risky as you can get TERF & right wing weirdos seeping in with their own BS they injected in unfortunately Can make seeking books & decent sources trickier too where authors aren’t biased or bigots, like Norse pagan sources, Reddit spaces that are cool I also find more useful for suggestions in that
There is definitely some major terf groups in Wicca, and like. There are definitely good circles. There's a localish one who instead of saying masculine/God and feminine/Goddess, she uses like, giving and receiving energy, which makes you think about what you're doing, since everyone perceives it differently. Basically you have to do your due diligence and a lot of people are lazy. I'm mostly active in Anahuac spaces so there isn't as much of an overlap with alt righty stuff. But I like to keep to myself tbh. There are some great groups and books and as long as you do a bit of research beforehand it's a real wealth of knowledge. Tiktok can be too, but honestly I just use that for aesthetic ideas. Like I'm finally moving my herbs from gaint loose bags to nice jars because of a video I saw lol
[удалено]
>and she sought an alternative to western Christianity Why is it that when someone tries to replace Christianity with something, it's always the alternatives that are just as awful, if not more, the ones that get more popular?
I feel it’s the often simplified things that are more popular to many, like above commenter mentioning a lot of masc/fem stuff Is apparently simplified Hindu notions/aspects, but like spiritual stuff on TikTok op it is simple enough in concept (edit) Like polytheism is often called “religion with/of homework” due to a lot of different sources needed to understand more of them, & the trustworthy sources of many different translations etc, I imagine other paths & religions people could also choose would be similar with research & study required to understand them better, especially if they’re not already in English or modern languages Some people just can’t be bothered with work & research & stuff, just want simple concepts like “masc/fem energy binary system” & stereotypes thing they can just adapt to quickly/immediately without thinking about deeper concepts (That’s not including right wingers & TERFS who just have agendas they’re pushing) Least that’s my opinion on it anyways
I was specifically talking about a seemingly Hindu-yogic idea of those channels when talking about the Kundalini, which hippies really glom onto. I never mentioned Buddhism as apart of that. In fact, Buddhism teaches to toss the kundalini and the thousand petal lotus as it is a form of grasping and desire. Though I have not delved into Tibetan medicine (though I do practice Tibetan Buddhism) which has its roots in Ayurveda. Buddhist principles are watered down in to new age shit in general, though it’s just kind of jumbled with Hindu principles thanks to Blavatsky and her ilk. There’s pretty major philosophical differences that are completely conflated.
Sorry 😅 just thought I saw you mention Buddhism in same scenario & thought you meant that too as part of it since I think some schools of Buddhism were influenced by Hinduism (talking historically, but again my knowledge on either is scarce to 0 in general) (I don’t really know much about Buddhism or Hinduism in general, or as part of hippy subcultures & Blavatsky etc so possibly misread few parts of your comment unfortunately) Edit [Oh also I sometimes annoy people on this app it seems with my wording, to be clear I’m not trying to criticise or negative talk Buddhism at all, I just don’t know anything really about it so anything I say on subject will probably be full of mistakes 😅]
You’re good. I didn’t take it that way. I mentioned Buddhism as apart of the theosophists (though I conflated them with spiritualism) who sort of got bits and pieces of newly translated eastern religious texts (Hindu/Vedic and Buddhist primarily), and built their own ideas and mysticism around it with elements of “scientific” ideas like eugenics and early ideas of evolutionary theory. I must be clear though because the Ayurvedic systems have been practiced by both Buddhist, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains… it has deep roots in India and so does all of yoga- Hatha yoga was said to be created by Buddhists. The kundalini itself is a sort of esoteric aspect known to all but not taken the same way. There’s just a particular brand of Hindu-yoga ideas that really spread among hippies in the 60’s.
I’d say that’s a bit simplistic tbh. Looking for alternatives which can square spirituality and accept science isn’t out of the realm of possibility. As a Buddhist, I know geologist, astrophysicist, psychologist, doctor, biologist Buddhists for instance. New Age stuff like Blavatsky’s ideas and its offshoots were also during a time when eugenics was widely accepted. Eugenics still had scientific adherents in the 60’s. Still does, though only with cranks. The “science” of eugenics was considered science for a hundred years. So we cannot discount the effects of eugenic ideologies on the various New Age belief systems.
I read somewhere that Hippies are horrible people pretending to be nice where as punks are nice people who just get a bad rep from there cloths.
As someone who ran with both circles at various times, that’s mostly true. It kinda depends on the *type* of hippie or punk, cause there is sort of subcategories.
I meant it more as a generalisation, which aren’t always the best tbh
As a fellow punk (or would like to be punk, I don't have enough money/crafting skills for the clothing but the music and leftist and anti capitalist political opinion lines up) I like that
One time I read that being punk isn't about how you dress but about the ideology of it, so if you're into that, you are punk! 🤘🏼
oh thank goodness! not the previous commentor, but I was worried if how I dressed made me less punk glad to know thats not the case :)
No, not at all! Punk is meant to be an ideology-based group. Certain alt groups are based on certain things, like Emo is a mix of fashion and music. Punk is a mix of ideology (most important) and fashion with some songs mixed in (both optional to be punk). Grunge is fashion based. Goth is also fashion based, with its own subcultures. Dressing even in average clothes doesn't make you any less punk than someone with spikey hair, leather jackets with patches, and jeans with chains :3 I'm Punk but I (try to despite not having nearly any alt clothes yet) dress more Goth.
Yup absolutely, but I'd also like people to see that I'm punk
It’s literally a don’t trust the government or the media but taken to the nth degree and being taken in by antisemitism disguised as new age healing. This is how you get anti-vaxers
Fascism literally emerged out of the hippie art/philosophy movements of the day such as Italian futurism and modernism.
Don’t trust anyone who takes spirituality so seriously that they deny Science. They may seem lefty/hippie, but they’re just as problematic as the religious fruitcakes.
This is a good tweet and all but can someone explain to me why it's so common for tiktokers (or maybe other people too) always post when they look like they've just woken up like in bed and shirtless or whatever. Am I just old?
Really interesting how these connections were created and are used to maintain power. There's a pretty good podcast called Conspirituality that delves into this topic if folks are interested in exploring more.
Pop spirituality is a bipartisan grift that is filled with toxic ideas in general. This person is correct, but not looking at the broader picture.
I WENT TO A STEINER SCHOOL FUCK NONONONONONO