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I used to adhere to a fanatic belief system and I have a deep sympathy for others caught up in them. And so, while I am happy to speak out strongly about how damaging those beliefs can be, I feel really uncomfortable when the people within them are mocked.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

They are real people, and their beliefs feel real and valid and powerful to them. The response should be firm, but ultimately compassionate. They are not Other, they are us.

9:03 PM · Mar 19, 2018

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nytimes.com/2018/03/09/opi

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Hopefully, the facts will steer many of them. Others will be lost inside their heads. Believing a fallacy, something you’ve been taught for as long as you can remember is a tough thing to let go of, much like “the Truman show” or “the matrix”.

@jayzmax

Mar 19, 2018

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@Aella_Girl

Mocking ideas, if done well, can be an effective way to expose contradictions. Mocking their proponents is unfailingly counterproductive. youtube.com/watch?v=r2ybup

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Great point. Difference of opinion is not personal division.

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I loved that last line “they’re not others, they’re us”

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Mocking people's beliefs is cruel particularly if it is out of a sense of superiority or correctness.Compassion can become patronizing and generate backlash. People using backward/repressive systems to constrain others should be fought against.

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You're the best ☄️

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I kind of see your point, but in many circumstances, such mockery is also an appropriate emotional response towards a previous display of social agression by said "Mind-Infected" individuals. I get your compassion for misguided fanatics, (1/2)

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In other words, treat them as our fantasizing children or our schizophrenic nephew or our hallucinating druggie girlfriend. Easy. Compassionate Condescension is my middle name.