u/striving1962

I read today that "the ultimate goal of censorship is for people to censor themselves." It made me think of the Baha'i community, where the requirement to comply is so profound that it becomes internalized, often to the point that it isn't even recognized. That kind of internalized censorship is pernicious and can be very difficult to deconstruct.

For myself, after 30 years in the community, even after leaving almost a decade ago, I still find myself self-censoring my thoughts or resisting some criticism of the community. This stuff runs deep.

There seems to be a lot of people on this subreddit who are intent on deflecting or minimizing the experiences of others. This can be very damaging, especially to those who are trying to heal from the harm and/or trauma they experienced from the Baha'i Faith.

I simply want to say to those of us in this situation: don't let anyone tell you that your experiences aren't valid or real, or that they don't matter. If one person participates in the Faith and isn't harmed by their experiences, good for them. That doesn't make the very real harm someone else may have experienced any less valid. It's like saying 'I am buddies with that guy being accused of sexual assault and I never saw him do anything so he must be innocent.' It's a ridiculous denial of the harm done to some.

I know it's hard for people who have been harmed or traumatized to ignore this kind of minimizing but I hope we can see it for what it is: a fundamental misunderstanding of the pain and trauma involved.