essential understanding - Kafkatrapping

Thu Dec 3 12:05:16 PST 2015

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On 12/02/2015 08:30 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:

[ ... ]

> One very notable pathology is a form of argument that, reduced
> to essence, runs like this: “Your refusal to acknowledge that
> you are guilty of {sin,racism,sexism, homophobia,oppression…}
> confirms that you are guilty of {sin,racism,sexism,
> homophobia,oppression…}.” I’ve been presented with enough
> instances of this recently that I’ve decided that it needs a
> name. I call this general style of argument “kafkatrapping”,
> and the above the Model A kafkatrap. In this essay, I will show
> that 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. I will also attempt to show that kafkatrapping is so
> self-destructive to the causes that employ it that change
> activists should root it out of their own speech and thoughts.
> 
> My reference, of course, is to Franz Kafka’s “The Trial”, in
> which the protagonist Josef K. is accused of crimes the nature
> of which are never actually specified, and enmeshed in a
> process designed to degrade, humiliate, and destroy him whether
> or not he has in fact committed any crime at all.

[ ... ]

"Kafkatrapping" a.k.a. guilt tripping by advocates of various
social and economic reform agendas is a losing strategy.  Among
naive followers attracted to activist causes, it encourages
contempt and hostility toward audiences they must reach and
influence in order to achieve their movement's goals.  Guilt
tripping may persuade some weak minded outsiders to submissively
fall in line with the movement's agenda, but reliably alienates
opinion leaders and non-aligned activists whose support is
necessary for the movement's growth and success.  Effective
activist leaders focus on building mutually supportive
relationships with their audiences; paid infiltrators, careerists
and volunteer egomaniacs focus on dividing their audiences into
mutually hostile armed camps.

Guilt tripping is elitism.  It makes the ignorant conformist
follower feel superior, at the cost of alienating key audiences
whose support is essential for the movement's success.

The grievances of reform movements are always objections to the
abuse of power by those who have it.  Those who have power want to
keep it, and they are well positioned to employ political warfare
assets including helpful State Security services and the Public
Relations industry.  Their clandestine operators work to degrade
reform movement messaging, divide reform movement supporters, and
turn as much of the general public as possible against reform
movements.  Broadcast media outlets work to assure that the most
divisive messaging from a "movement" reaches the general public
first and loudest.  Consistent, persistent guilt trip messaging
from a reform movement reliably indicates the presence and
influence of actors inside the movement who are opposed to the
movement's stated objectives.

Effective political activists do not use or tolerate guilt
tripping, simply because it is counter productive.  Blanket
personal condemnation of one's fellow humans can and should be
called out whenever seen, on the basis that it is both factually
wrong and strategically "less than useless."