There seems to be a problem with many Pagan pages now a days that are pretty much banning any form of disagreements on their pages. Disagreement of opinions, views, messages, and other things. Now, many people who make comments that disagree with a post on these pages half the time are very aggressive and are attacking the page/poster. Then there is the other half where the person is actually polite and is not attacking anything, but is simply commenting their opinion.
Then there are pages who are like the aggressive commentators, who will attack anyone who comments a disagreement with anything. Today I came across a post on a page, who I have loved, followed, and supported for a few months now thinking that the admins where pretty cool and I loved the messages they were posting. The post they made had a great message about how the Pagan community need to be united, caring, and helpful to one another and of other pages. Nothing wrong with that message, I fully agree with it. What seemed a bit off with that message was the meme associated with the post which stated "A Queen never leaves her throne to address a peasant throwing stones". Now, on the surface this seems like a pretty great quote and is very empowering.
If you dig a little deeper though into that statement, thinking about it from a perspective of leader and country, its actually a very pompous statement.
If you have peasants throwing stones, there is always a reason for it. If a queen never goes to see why the peasant is throwing the stone, the situation can never be fixed and will lead to disorder and eventually an uprising against said queen. A good leader will always leave their throne when it comes to their people who they are in charge of caring for.
Reading the meme, I felt it was contradictory to what the admin's message was and I stated as such. I said that the comment wasn't towards the message because I agreed with it, but it was aimed at the meme and I said why I felt it wasn't such the best of statements to use and that maybe something more along the lines of "A Queen never leaves her throne to address the heckles from others". Implying that anyone, rich or peasant, who simply wants to hate the leader for her being who she is will be ignored.
My comment was taken as if I was attacking them, their message, and their page. When I clarified what I was saying and apologized if I had caused confusion of my intentions of my comment, I was told that commenting disagreements brought people down and found my comment deleted.
Admittedly I was very upset by this, and still a little am. Nothing in my comment was derogatory, offensive, nor attacking anyone or anything. I kept it civil and polite. And yet, have been made out to look like I was attacking them, their message, and their page, and have now even been asked if I was the one who had hacked their page, all because apparently my small not serious disagreement was negative and attacking them.
I know I am not the only who has probably had a similar thing happen to them. All I know is such things are what tears people apart. Trying to silence someone by saying they are being negative and attacking them, telling them that disagreements bring people down and are basically not allowed is just as bad as attacking a person because you disagree with them. Both are trying to suppress individualism and free thought. Both try to suppress what it means to be human and what it means to be Pagan.
How else are we all going to grow and learn if we aren't allowed to express our disagreements? I fully agree that being aggressive and attacking people is not the way to do things, but trying to suppress even the smallest hint of a disagreement in a post/comment is wrong.
What will make us stronger as a community is being able to civilly and politely discuss our disagreements, our viewpoints, and our stances on things without name calling or attacking each other. Being able to talk things through so we not only better understand one another, but also ourselves makes us a strong community and people. Its why, as long as any disagreements are civil and polite, even if I don't agree with what is stated, I will not remove comments from my blogs, nor my pages.
I hope this problem with this page, and many others will eventually stop and we all can be the community we have been looking for. Supportive, and not afraid to expression our ideas, thoughts, and opinions because we know they will be discussed rather than attacked.
(Page name will not be mentioned because this is simply a rant, not a slander article. If you happen to know the page of which I am speaking about, I request that their name is not commented for their privacy.)
Image from http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2011/06/
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