Agree. When dealing with those actors on Substack who are suspect, look at their past posts. Those who write articles can be more easily vetted - like Medical Truth Podcast - genuinely freedom-oriented. Those commenters who do not write can hide their true beliefs/allegiances easily and are more suspect.
In politics, controlled opposition takes the form of the rare politician that appears to promote freedom while actually participating in the massive political system that controls us. I think the reason controlled oppositional actors are allowed to exist is that it keeps alive the belief that the system is good if only the right people are elected. They also serve to distract, redirect and drain valuable energy from people trying to create non-political change.
I am new to the intactivist space and feel saddened that controlled opposition is probably going on here as well as politics. It is partly for this reason that I am not more active. I don't even know what to do for fear I will just waste my time or make things worse.
A friend commented recently in utter confusion "I don't understand...how can anyone be FOR the cutting of baby genitals"? I had no answer for her.
Hi Harris. This is really long, I hope it's not too much to take the time to read. Sharing some ideas, want you to feel that you aren’t speaking into a void, and hoping that you can reciprocate. From one budding activist to another
I too am new to intactivism, and I completely understand this paralysis. It is such a crazy issue that it boggles the mind that it even exists, let alone now and for as long as it has. It seems very difficult to talk to people about this when most are just so ignorant and emotionally unequipped to listen that you sometimes have to take an hour of calmly explaining basic concepts to establish the beginnings of common-sense concession, and reassure them that your intentions are from a place of genuine concern and not hostility.
At the moment, I am volunteering with NLI (Next Level Intactivism) which is a small group focused on media outreach campaigns on this issue, particularly in support of the Bloodstained Men during their tours (though NLI is not affiliated with BSM). I was introduced to NLI completely by chance, but the reason I decided that working with them was worthwhile was thanks to the combination of the work being low-risk, time-flexible, but most importantly, NLI has produced real results and helped get reporters onto dozens of BSM events to this point. It differs from social media "activism" in that you don't need a captive audience for your time to be worthwhile (the news outlets that report on the issue are doing it for you), and you have the potential to immediately access neutral audiences on a large scale. I have been working with them for a few months and am convinced that it is a good way for me to spend my time on this issue.
I believe the most important thing by far for each of us is to find a way to speak publicly, which I have regrettably failed to do so far. When there are real men and boys with names, faces and voices speaking out against this atrocity to people they know IRL, people can understand that there are actual victims; if boys and men remain hidden or in denial, this will go on forever. I think as long as you have basic human decency, you shouldn't try to tailor your language too much to a certain standard. Everyone has their own voice and emotional expression and as long as you treat people well, I don't think you should try to mold yourself into something perfect or sexy. People need to see all the angles against this practice. To this end I have considered starting a Youtube channel or something of the sort, since it should require less emotional energy than regular street activism.
I think good ol' fashioned street activism is the root of what makes the most change happen. I fully intend to partake in it myself, though emotionally I don't feel quite prepared yet (I think I'm getting there), and also, it is very hard to find people to join with. There are almost no regular street activists at this point besides BSM that I am aware of, but I want to make a real and persistent effort to gather other like-minded folks in the region to create a small protest group. There will have to be many brave guys who are willing to go out on the street and interface with strangers on their own. And yes, it's natural that a lot of these efforts will be fruitless. There is no sure-fire way to directly access an audience that will be receptive to your message, and then actually take action themselves. When you speak to people on the issue, you should make it clear what you would like them to do to help, and if the interactions are cordial, try to remain in contact with them.
Young men, who ought to be the absolutely most important demographic here, and who should be the most incensed and horrified, are underrepresented in our movement. I speculate the horror of it and the feeling of helplessness are the primary reasons most people aligned with our cause never take it to the streets or to other public forums. And a lot of guys see it as one event that happened and not a recurring or systemic oppression or abuse, in the way that BLM activists talk about police brutality, or feminists talk about patriarchy. Changing this mindset is of the utmost importance, but it can be hard for people to see this issue that way. This aspect of Children’s Justice is to my understanding the main value in the rhetoric and the most important instrument for change therein.
I speculate the "promise" of manual restoration or Foregen can help to change the mindset of men, and give them a reason to work hard on the issue, as maybe the situation isn't entirely helpless after all. Although I will say I've had the impression that the vast majority of restorers or restored are not engaged in activism, and a lot of them try to use restoring purely as a cope or escape and may be made more docile because of it. If you take at face value that potentially hundreds of thousands are restoring or have restored, then it seems most of them are not consistent activists, certainly not of the street variety.
It's always sad to see guys online ranting about the issue in bubbles for years under aliases, never really doing anything. There are quite enough of them to make real change happen if they had the conditions in their personal lives to do everything they can think of. Unfortunately, our society is constructed in such a way that stifles the sort of deep emotional work and resources you need to take something like this to the forefront of your life in a healthy way.
If you were circumcised against your will, and have even a passible relationship with your parents, I would encourage you to talk to them about this issue and your experience in depth if you haven't already. If you have never spoken to them about it, there will be a lot of things you can't have known about their attitudes or perceptions, and they will not understand a major source of your suffering. It doesn't matter whether you want to forgive your parents or not, establishing understanding with your own flesh and blood is extremely important. Because you are an extension of them. You will not be able to properly recover your strength and speak out if you can't talk to your parents about it frankly, and listen to them.
I spoke to my parents individually as they have been divorced for most of my life. Because of my family situation I didn't have to think about this, but I imagine speaking to each of them 1 on 1 is the way to go.
I still don't really understand how anyone can be for the cutting of babies and children, and I wish I had more insight, but I will say that talking to my parents, as well as trying to study trauma in general, has been illuminating. My parents were/are not strongly "for" it, but they were totally clueless as to how it could be an issue. The overarching theme in their case was that they wanted to be trusting, and so they didn't have the strength or foresight to question it. It was mostly as simple as they ran away with the prevailing culture.
My dad wanted to trust his "Judeo-Christian values" and "family tradition" (ironically, he was not at all religious when I was young, even discouraging my mother from reading us the Bible; on top of that, he admitted an hour into our first conversation that he had no idea whether his mostly non-religious father was circumcised or why he himself ended up being cut. His father was born on a farm in WV in the 1930's to a large, non-Jewish family; the odds that he was cut aren't very great). My mom wanted to trust my dad, who insisted there was nothing wrong with it and that there was no decision to be made; she wanted to trust her father, who had "problems with his foreskin" and wished that he had been circumcised as an infant. Perhaps most importantly, they both wanted to trust the “doctors” that did this to everyone they knew, and no doubt would encourage it to be done to my brother and I. Her only inhibition was the instinct that it could be painful; the “doctor” assuaged her fears with relative ease, according to her anecdote. Both of my parents are in medicine themselves.
In other words, it's an aspect of blind faith born out of trauma; appreciating the reality of betrayal is extremely painful, and most people deal with it by either viewing life as nothing more than a series of risks that you have to take, and choose to "trust" everyone with parallel identities and plights to their own; to this end, one naturally has to learn to distrust themselves, as my mother denied her own instinct for the preservation of her newborn. If one is to acknowledge the horrible reality, they begin to doubt their sanity; then they go back to doubting their own experience to retain sanity. This is called repression, and I have experienced it a lot these last several years.
The alternative is to never trust anyone and be a paranoid mess. That has been me for a long time. I want to find the middle path.
I spoke to them calmly for some time and it wasn't hard for them to acquire a certain level of understanding. Because all of the facts make it perfectly clear that it's a harm. And when you explain the conflicting information and experiences at play, you can help them to see that they are victims the same as you. Maybe it doesn't sink in enough for them to deeply ponder it, but when you force them to take the time to sit and listen, and speak until you are done speaking, whilst listening to them as well, they have to think in that moment.
It could be made easier by the fact that I am their flesh and blood and not a stranger; therein lies one of the ultimate challenges of activism. Establishing trust and understanding.
If you don't mind me asking, could you share what state/region you are in? I need to find relatively nearby activists for future organizing potential. I live in northeast Georgia.
Thanks for the very thoughtful reply. I will contemplate what you have said over time since I want to do something.
Feel free to reach out directly at harris515@protonmail.com. I live in the central virginia area. I might be coming to Atlanta for a conference in August so there may be a chance to meet in person.
It also perpetuates the illusion of choice. The new opiate of the demoralized plebe. Children's Health Defense is controlled opposition as they censor and remove anyone who questions RFK jr. about his stances. Radically pro-choice, he somehow never gets asked the question. He is courting the right and if you make that observation CHD bans your account permanently. He is NOT what he says he is.
When dealing with those actors on Substack who are suspect, look at their past posts. Those who write articles can be more easily vetted - like Medical Truth Podcast - genuinely freedom-oriented. Those commenters who do not write can hide their true beliefs/allegiances easily and are more suspect.
I think there is a danger in worrying too much about micromanaging the people in your own movement (this is what many intactivists are preoccupied with doing; go on Twitter and behold the hormonal shitstorms of so called "activists" at each others' throats), and thus not spending energy on doing your own work. People are generally untrusting and most people are balancing multiple interests or have conflicted and thus tenuous convictions, which can lead to a lot of finger-pointing that may not really be pragmatic. There is a lot of that going in the intactivist movement, some of it quite obvious and some of it more subtle, but it seems that for the most part, the average person aligned with our cause feels that half of the people in the movement aren't acting in the best interests of the movement despite their stated intent.
The vast majority of the conversations I see in this movement and also other issues/movements, particularly in social media bubbles, are a series of shouting matches, nail-biting and anxiety about the intentions of the people around them. While sometimes one can make a very compelling case that an individual or group is not acting in the best interests of the movement, I see an overarching failure of people to effectively communicate, and their accusations remain no more than just that, and are unactionable, whilst the conflicts completely hamstring everyone involved and wear them out before they ever leave social media and interface with neutral audiences. The duty of each activist is to remain focused, and to practice communicating more selectively and only engaging with rhetoric or strategy that is actionable.
It is easy to figure out who controlled opposition is! 1.) Look at who or what they were associated with in the past and 2.) Follow the money!
Very astute. I agree.
Justus, my father always said, if you sleep with the pigs, you will wake up smelling like a pig!
Agree. When dealing with those actors on Substack who are suspect, look at their past posts. Those who write articles can be more easily vetted - like Medical Truth Podcast - genuinely freedom-oriented. Those commenters who do not write can hide their true beliefs/allegiances easily and are more suspect.
I would say that the Biden's Obama's Clinton's are controlled opposition. But they don't even hide
How about this famous Presidential statement, "I am losing my patience with you!"
Everything is under their (elite psychopaths) control, who are just playing games with us, as their SLAVES/PAWNS in the Game..
In politics, controlled opposition takes the form of the rare politician that appears to promote freedom while actually participating in the massive political system that controls us. I think the reason controlled oppositional actors are allowed to exist is that it keeps alive the belief that the system is good if only the right people are elected. They also serve to distract, redirect and drain valuable energy from people trying to create non-political change.
I am new to the intactivist space and feel saddened that controlled opposition is probably going on here as well as politics. It is partly for this reason that I am not more active. I don't even know what to do for fear I will just waste my time or make things worse.
A friend commented recently in utter confusion "I don't understand...how can anyone be FOR the cutting of baby genitals"? I had no answer for her.
Hi Harris. This is really long, I hope it's not too much to take the time to read. Sharing some ideas, want you to feel that you aren’t speaking into a void, and hoping that you can reciprocate. From one budding activist to another
I too am new to intactivism, and I completely understand this paralysis. It is such a crazy issue that it boggles the mind that it even exists, let alone now and for as long as it has. It seems very difficult to talk to people about this when most are just so ignorant and emotionally unequipped to listen that you sometimes have to take an hour of calmly explaining basic concepts to establish the beginnings of common-sense concession, and reassure them that your intentions are from a place of genuine concern and not hostility.
At the moment, I am volunteering with NLI (Next Level Intactivism) which is a small group focused on media outreach campaigns on this issue, particularly in support of the Bloodstained Men during their tours (though NLI is not affiliated with BSM). I was introduced to NLI completely by chance, but the reason I decided that working with them was worthwhile was thanks to the combination of the work being low-risk, time-flexible, but most importantly, NLI has produced real results and helped get reporters onto dozens of BSM events to this point. It differs from social media "activism" in that you don't need a captive audience for your time to be worthwhile (the news outlets that report on the issue are doing it for you), and you have the potential to immediately access neutral audiences on a large scale. I have been working with them for a few months and am convinced that it is a good way for me to spend my time on this issue.
I believe the most important thing by far for each of us is to find a way to speak publicly, which I have regrettably failed to do so far. When there are real men and boys with names, faces and voices speaking out against this atrocity to people they know IRL, people can understand that there are actual victims; if boys and men remain hidden or in denial, this will go on forever. I think as long as you have basic human decency, you shouldn't try to tailor your language too much to a certain standard. Everyone has their own voice and emotional expression and as long as you treat people well, I don't think you should try to mold yourself into something perfect or sexy. People need to see all the angles against this practice. To this end I have considered starting a Youtube channel or something of the sort, since it should require less emotional energy than regular street activism.
I think good ol' fashioned street activism is the root of what makes the most change happen. I fully intend to partake in it myself, though emotionally I don't feel quite prepared yet (I think I'm getting there), and also, it is very hard to find people to join with. There are almost no regular street activists at this point besides BSM that I am aware of, but I want to make a real and persistent effort to gather other like-minded folks in the region to create a small protest group. There will have to be many brave guys who are willing to go out on the street and interface with strangers on their own. And yes, it's natural that a lot of these efforts will be fruitless. There is no sure-fire way to directly access an audience that will be receptive to your message, and then actually take action themselves. When you speak to people on the issue, you should make it clear what you would like them to do to help, and if the interactions are cordial, try to remain in contact with them.
Young men, who ought to be the absolutely most important demographic here, and who should be the most incensed and horrified, are underrepresented in our movement. I speculate the horror of it and the feeling of helplessness are the primary reasons most people aligned with our cause never take it to the streets or to other public forums. And a lot of guys see it as one event that happened and not a recurring or systemic oppression or abuse, in the way that BLM activists talk about police brutality, or feminists talk about patriarchy. Changing this mindset is of the utmost importance, but it can be hard for people to see this issue that way. This aspect of Children’s Justice is to my understanding the main value in the rhetoric and the most important instrument for change therein.
I speculate the "promise" of manual restoration or Foregen can help to change the mindset of men, and give them a reason to work hard on the issue, as maybe the situation isn't entirely helpless after all. Although I will say I've had the impression that the vast majority of restorers or restored are not engaged in activism, and a lot of them try to use restoring purely as a cope or escape and may be made more docile because of it. If you take at face value that potentially hundreds of thousands are restoring or have restored, then it seems most of them are not consistent activists, certainly not of the street variety.
It's always sad to see guys online ranting about the issue in bubbles for years under aliases, never really doing anything. There are quite enough of them to make real change happen if they had the conditions in their personal lives to do everything they can think of. Unfortunately, our society is constructed in such a way that stifles the sort of deep emotional work and resources you need to take something like this to the forefront of your life in a healthy way.
If you were circumcised against your will, and have even a passible relationship with your parents, I would encourage you to talk to them about this issue and your experience in depth if you haven't already. If you have never spoken to them about it, there will be a lot of things you can't have known about their attitudes or perceptions, and they will not understand a major source of your suffering. It doesn't matter whether you want to forgive your parents or not, establishing understanding with your own flesh and blood is extremely important. Because you are an extension of them. You will not be able to properly recover your strength and speak out if you can't talk to your parents about it frankly, and listen to them.
I spoke to my parents individually as they have been divorced for most of my life. Because of my family situation I didn't have to think about this, but I imagine speaking to each of them 1 on 1 is the way to go.
I still don't really understand how anyone can be for the cutting of babies and children, and I wish I had more insight, but I will say that talking to my parents, as well as trying to study trauma in general, has been illuminating. My parents were/are not strongly "for" it, but they were totally clueless as to how it could be an issue. The overarching theme in their case was that they wanted to be trusting, and so they didn't have the strength or foresight to question it. It was mostly as simple as they ran away with the prevailing culture.
My dad wanted to trust his "Judeo-Christian values" and "family tradition" (ironically, he was not at all religious when I was young, even discouraging my mother from reading us the Bible; on top of that, he admitted an hour into our first conversation that he had no idea whether his mostly non-religious father was circumcised or why he himself ended up being cut. His father was born on a farm in WV in the 1930's to a large, non-Jewish family; the odds that he was cut aren't very great). My mom wanted to trust my dad, who insisted there was nothing wrong with it and that there was no decision to be made; she wanted to trust her father, who had "problems with his foreskin" and wished that he had been circumcised as an infant. Perhaps most importantly, they both wanted to trust the “doctors” that did this to everyone they knew, and no doubt would encourage it to be done to my brother and I. Her only inhibition was the instinct that it could be painful; the “doctor” assuaged her fears with relative ease, according to her anecdote. Both of my parents are in medicine themselves.
In other words, it's an aspect of blind faith born out of trauma; appreciating the reality of betrayal is extremely painful, and most people deal with it by either viewing life as nothing more than a series of risks that you have to take, and choose to "trust" everyone with parallel identities and plights to their own; to this end, one naturally has to learn to distrust themselves, as my mother denied her own instinct for the preservation of her newborn. If one is to acknowledge the horrible reality, they begin to doubt their sanity; then they go back to doubting their own experience to retain sanity. This is called repression, and I have experienced it a lot these last several years.
The alternative is to never trust anyone and be a paranoid mess. That has been me for a long time. I want to find the middle path.
I spoke to them calmly for some time and it wasn't hard for them to acquire a certain level of understanding. Because all of the facts make it perfectly clear that it's a harm. And when you explain the conflicting information and experiences at play, you can help them to see that they are victims the same as you. Maybe it doesn't sink in enough for them to deeply ponder it, but when you force them to take the time to sit and listen, and speak until you are done speaking, whilst listening to them as well, they have to think in that moment.
It could be made easier by the fact that I am their flesh and blood and not a stranger; therein lies one of the ultimate challenges of activism. Establishing trust and understanding.
If you don't mind me asking, could you share what state/region you are in? I need to find relatively nearby activists for future organizing potential. I live in northeast Georgia.
Thanks for the very thoughtful reply. I will contemplate what you have said over time since I want to do something.
Feel free to reach out directly at harris515@protonmail.com. I live in the central virginia area. I might be coming to Atlanta for a conference in August so there may be a chance to meet in person.
It also perpetuates the illusion of choice. The new opiate of the demoralized plebe. Children's Health Defense is controlled opposition as they censor and remove anyone who questions RFK jr. about his stances. Radically pro-choice, he somehow never gets asked the question. He is courting the right and if you make that observation CHD bans your account permanently. He is NOT what he says he is.
When dealing with those actors on Substack who are suspect, look at their past posts. Those who write articles can be more easily vetted - like Medical Truth Podcast - genuinely freedom-oriented. Those commenters who do not write can hide their true beliefs/allegiances easily and are more suspect.
I have seen people who fit Mr. Marotta's agendas.
I think there is a danger in worrying too much about micromanaging the people in your own movement (this is what many intactivists are preoccupied with doing; go on Twitter and behold the hormonal shitstorms of so called "activists" at each others' throats), and thus not spending energy on doing your own work. People are generally untrusting and most people are balancing multiple interests or have conflicted and thus tenuous convictions, which can lead to a lot of finger-pointing that may not really be pragmatic. There is a lot of that going in the intactivist movement, some of it quite obvious and some of it more subtle, but it seems that for the most part, the average person aligned with our cause feels that half of the people in the movement aren't acting in the best interests of the movement despite their stated intent.
The vast majority of the conversations I see in this movement and also other issues/movements, particularly in social media bubbles, are a series of shouting matches, nail-biting and anxiety about the intentions of the people around them. While sometimes one can make a very compelling case that an individual or group is not acting in the best interests of the movement, I see an overarching failure of people to effectively communicate, and their accusations remain no more than just that, and are unactionable, whilst the conflicts completely hamstring everyone involved and wear them out before they ever leave social media and interface with neutral audiences. The duty of each activist is to remain focused, and to practice communicating more selectively and only engaging with rhetoric or strategy that is actionable.
Here we go again, another secret operation which is so far out into the open that few can see it.