u/FireAndRain_

I've come to beliefs that are very similar to anarchism, so I've started exploring the space a little. I come from a somewhat conservative background so this is my first time ever intentionally interacting with the far left. I've met several people (mostly online, in-person is hard for me atm) who have been wonderful. Calm, knowledgeable, principled, helpful, in one case inspiring, just generally cool people who I'd like to be around more and to learn from.

Coming from a space that is decidedly outside the far left, one thing I've been worried about is the really angry people conservative groups like to focus on. I know that they'll be over-represented in outside media because they're A) more visible and B) good for opposition propaganda. I was curious to see what the actual vibe was like. Mostly I've been really happy with it. And then I met (online, thankfully) this one asshole who was constantly hostile, single-minded, made no attempt at even trying to understand the perspectives of people they were disagreeing with, and blatantly stated that they didn't really think anyone on the other side of the political spectrum could be redeemed. They had cause for thinking this way, a history of violence against themselves and people they cared about, but that doesn't make me feel any safer around someone so intractably angry, judgemental, and close-minded. They decried as dangerous things I and other another person said which veered even slightly away from their perspective or context.

This kind of person is exactly what I was afraid of finding on the far left. Quite apart from the intrinsic problems, I just don't have the mental/emotional resources to handle someone like that. I want to find someplace where I can help actually make our rotting world better, and to feel like I can belong, not where I have to worry about stepping one toe outside of someone's party line with no recourse except capitulation. It's not a matter of disagreement, I'm quite happy to have a productive disagreement where I learn something (and I did learn from this person), I'm just terrified of people who might hear me say one thing which disagrees with them and decide that I am a lost cause to be condemned.

I know that this might sound like an over-reaction to one hostile person, but I guess that's part of the point. I have my own trauma issues I'm trying to heal and my emotional resources are low. I still want to pursue a future free from ubiquitous tyranny, and where neither I nor anyone else has to worry about their basic needs. And so I need to know, I guess, how common people like this really are, and whether anarchist spaces tend to accept them.

I hear experiencers talk frequently about various types and levels of more advanced beings, with a common theme that our world and species is kind of screwed up and that there's a fair number of hard-to-perceive entities trying to help us. To my ears, it makes us sound sort of special, in that we are specially stunted. It makes me wonder if experiencers are ever told about or personally perceive other species/planets/realms/etc which have similar problems to us, avoiding spiritual & psychic phenomena, treating the planet's ecosystem poorly, struggling and often failing at treating each other well, being full of fear, and so on. Or are we really a very special case, and it's nigh unheard-of for a species to end up in such a uniquely screwed up situation?