Thursday October 1, 2020

Thursday October 1, 2020

– Full Moon Phase (@5:05 PM) – illumination, realization, fulfillment, shadow, relationships, experience

– Gardening tips  (from the Farmer’s Almanac) –  October 1st – 2nd – Barren days, do no planting.

– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): Shodashi (Goddess Who Fulfills Our Highest Desire) and Matangi

– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Elias, God of the West, God of Transformation

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New moon in Leo: “A boy with censer serves near the priest at the altar” (& A New Moon reveals that it’s time for people to go ahead with their different projects)

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: “A Triangle with Wings”

SUN:  09 LIBRA: Three old masters hanging in a special room in an art gallery

EARTH:  09 ARIES: A crystal gazer

Funny that the Crystal Gazer symbol should come up today. Just yesterday, I was reading Harry Potter (I am coming to the end of Prisoner of Azkaban). The “final exam” for their much maligned Divination class with Professor Trelawney was gazing into the Crystal Ball.

For those who read the book, Harry bluffed his way through the exam, but then witnesses the Crazed Professor having an actual Prophesy. She goes all stiff and weird and has a prediction about a Servant of the Dark Lord rejoining his master. The scene and prophesy are not was well done in the movie, but you get the point.

Crystal Balls seems to be in the air for me.

But that’s neither Here or there. Just kind of interesting.

Propaganda is in the Air

For me, the more interesting and more frightening issue that seems to have taken hold of my thoughts is the level of propaganda that is taking place. Funny thing is that it probably is not any better or any worse than last week, last month, or last year. But it is much more apparent in the political and social environment that we find ourselves in.

I have been talking about the rampant bias in the media at length. But exactly how they display this bias in public is up for debate. And speaking of debates, the US Presidential Debate showed how blatant it can be.

I was reading an article this morning, that opened my eyes to a new form of propaganda. Its actually more of a different definition. And it is less propaganda and more a way of manipulating speech in order to force opinions on other people and control the public narrative.

I have pasted an article I found about an insidious one called the Kafka trap. Everything about it you need to know is in the article. And I think this will be the first in a series of discussions about this.

And if you want to have some fun, think about the Kafkatrap and see if you can name at least 5 forms of it that were perpetrated during the Presidential Debate. And that does not even open the discussion about BLM, which in itself is one giant, ooozing puss-wound of a Kafkatrap.

Kafka trap
The Kafka trap might also be called the Social Justice Warrior trap.

Author Eric Raymond coined the term Kafkatrapping in his 2010 article in which he presented a style of argument that is common today with SJW’s, but has it’s origins in The Trial a book written in 1915 by Franz Kafka.

In The Trial the protagonist is arrested and accused of serious crimes which are never specified. He receives no explanation or description of the charges, and his refusal to acknowledge that he must be guilty is what makes him guilty. The only way to stop his abuse is to admit that he is guilty.

What is the kafka trap?
In the kafka trap you are accused of being a:

Racist
Sexist
Bigot
Facist
Homophobic
Transphobic
Islamophobic
Misogynist
Nazi
Hitler
etc.
…and any attempt to argue, deny or defend yourself is seen as proof of guilt.

Yep.

Denial is proof of guilt.

You’re guilty until proven innocent.

Any accusation of guilt is all that is needed to condemn you.

Eric Raymond laid out various models of kafkatraps in his 2010 article which I’ll share here.

Note: Kafkatrapping can be used against any perceived “ist” or “ism” (racism, sexism, homophobia etc.) however I’ll simply use the word racism here in the interests of space.

Model A
“Your refusal to acknowledge that you are guilty of racism, confirms that you are guilty of racism”

Model C
“Even if you do not feel yourself to be guilty of racism, you are guilty because you have benefited from the racist behavior of others in the system”

Model D
“The act of demanding a definition of racism that can be consequentially checked and falsified proves you are racist”

Model L
“Your insistence on applying rational skepticism in evaluating assertions of pervasive racism itself demonstrates that you are racist”

Model M
“The act of arguing against the theory of anti-racism demonstrates that you are either racist, or do not understand the theory of anti-racism, and your argument can therefore be dismissed as either corrupt or incompetent”

Model P
“Even if you do not feel yourself to be guilty of racism, you are guilty because you have a privileged position in the racist system”

Model S
“Skepticism about any particular anecdotal account of racism, or any attempt to deny that the particular anecdote implies a systemic problem in which you are one of the guilty parties, is itself sufficient to establish your guilt”

Model T
“Designated victims of racism who question any part of the theory of racism demonstrate by doing so that they are not authentic members of the victim class, so their experience can be discounted and their thoughts dismissed as internalized racism”

Men’s rights activist Adam Kostakis has defined a ninth model of the kafka trap, Model J:

Model J
“Even if your innocence is proven in a court of law, this not only confirms your guilt; it also confirms the guilt of the legal system that found you innocent”

In summary:

“You are now trapped in a circular and unfalsifiable argument; no one who is accused can be innocent because the structure of kafkatrapping precludes that possibility.” – Wendy McElroy

Just accept the ‘facts’:

All white people are racist
It’s impossible for a black person to be racist
“Believe women” – or you’re a rape apologist
Gender is a social construct
There are no biological differences between men and women
You have white privilege – regardless of your circumstances
“All lives matter” – is hate speech
“Having shown how manipulative and psychologically abusive the kafkatrap is, it may seem almost superfluous to observe that it is logically fallacious as well. The particular species of fallacy is sometimes called “panchreston”, an argument from which anything can be deduced because it is not falsifiable. Notably, if the model A kafkatrap is true, the world is divided into two kinds of people: (a) those who admit they are guilty of thoughtcrime, and (b) those who are guilty of thoughtcrime because they will not admit to being guilty of thoughtcrime. No one can ever be innocent. The subject must be prevented from noticing that this logic convicts and impeaches the operator of the kafkatrap!” – Eric Raymond

How to deal with a kafka trap
If presented with a kafka trap don’t try to argue or deny it because your words will be twisted and used against you.

In fact, any attempt to argue, deny or defend yourself will be seen as proof of guilt, and SJW’s and trolls might say things like:

“Deny, Deny, Deny”

“There’s no smoke without fire”

“Me thinks thou dost protest too much”

My advice: Ignore it, and if possible put the shoe on the other foot and reverse the accusation. See how they like it.

“The kafkatrap is a form of argument that is so fallacious and manipulative that those subjected to it are entitled to reject it based entirely on the form of the argument, without reference to whatever particular sin or thoughtcrime is being alleged” – Eric Raymond

 

https://lifelessons.co/critical-thinking/kafkatrapping/The rest of the article is here. I will be reviewing some of the linguistic tricks mentioned in the article in future articles.