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Educator abuse- "a new sense of self"

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Hopalong:
I hear the trauma and anxiety, Posh. I know it's real and I'm so sorry you're going through a bout. I hope you'll be able to substitute a different class.

I wonder if you could talk to yourself as a friend in the meantime, in ways that tell you are safe. You are strong. You do not have to "believe in" a version of teaching that is upsetting to you. You might be extra kind to yourself, and acknowledge that this has made you feel fragile. (I had to learn to talk to myself tenderly.)

I hope you might be able believe that you are stronger than you know, and that probably this man, or this unconventional prof, is not evil. He may just have an academic ego (flip that and it's insecurity) and have had his head stuffed with concepts that don't make sense for you. I don't know if what's been happening in the world plays into it, but he might be "wrong" but sincerely believe he is helping, or doing good. He might desperately want to make things better but be going about it the wrong way. Fear works both ways sometimes.

Meanwhile, you have the right to accept or reject whatever knowledge he's trying to impart. You do NOT have to agree or accept or be changed by it. Likewise, though, you shouldn't have to fight in terror to survive just...words.

I believe you won't find yourself being hypnotized or brainwashed by an odd or even repellent professor. I think you are highly intelligent and can filter what comes in, and eject what you want out. I imagine looking at him with his mouth moving and using a little mantra: Yap, yap, yap. You have no pants on. (When I used to have panic attacks I would use all sorts of inner "tapes" to calm myself.) Some were ridiculous, some were just simple: I am safe, I am okay, I'm going to take deep breaths now and trust that this is only an anxiety or panic symptom. I know what it is, it's not going to kill me, and I know it will pass. Other times, if it got too bad, I would find therapy and have someone kind and wise help me be stronger than I could be at that time on my own.

If filtering feels overwhelming, then you need an ally. Where could you find someone who is professional, who does understand psychology, and might be able to help you sort through this experience so you can leave it behind?

You're entitled to feel what you feel but also to have help, and peace. You deserve it.

hugs
Hops

Meh:
Thanks for the thoughts Hops. I know you look on the lighter brighter side of things. For myself I depend on skepticism and gloominess and I like me this way because I'm afraid of being in denial of evil. I told a couple friends what was going on at my school, one of them called me, an old coworker, we had a nice boring conversation about her plans for a home remodel. Chit chat about the comforting mundane aspects of life is nice it calms a person down.

In class what I am learning is how to control people's minds, how to control people's voices. I'm learning how to suppress people. I've been obsessing about the methods because the content is based of off premises that are not 100% true. The rhetoric in this class is censoring. Restrictive Rhetoric to create more limited rhetoric to disseminate ideas. It's no surprise the ENGLISH department is super sketchy. Obviously this is power. I know what is going on.

Thoughts are enforced in this class through a process of shaming, framing, name calling, word associations and leadership, selective suppression, and maybe the metadata logic of all the content. It's a full control system, they don't like people to leave their process of thought and there is a specific process of shame for those who do not disseminate and intellectually leave their thought-cult. I know maybe you don't get it but I see all the shame techniques. Isn't that a great system for a dictator and a mental case. All in the name of raising consciousness you know a term borrowed from the hippy yoga culture. Induce a new reality. I'm just proud of myself for resisting it. I did a yoga teacher program long time back but THAT didn't scare the hell out of me.

There is a reason why I feel afraid and controlled. It's because the instructor is forming people who will repeat his political ideas 100%.

The assignments are a type of grooming and punishment through language. There are some resources on how language can punish people, it's quite interesting.

I see evil and I feel the evil. I guess I wanted to be the "witness" in the class, the person who was not part of the collective. But I'm not the leader/instructor LOL

If I read about political radicalization process that is what I see. I don't agree with the politics. The class has 100% one sided content, it's unusual for a long course. One long program all reinforcing the same ideas over and over and over. Group identification, identity-group grievances, a clear enemy and it's all a recipe for how to treat the enemy.

I mean we have group grievance here at this site but we aren't a political movement tasked with infiltrating corporate America.

yada yada yada and so on

Be more chill I tell myself, as if. 






 

Meh:
"The process of transformation requires the simultaneous and reciprocating processes of objectifying and acting"

So I am being objectified in this class due to how the instructor has put people into categories, our identities have been simplified. These are the things I see happening in this class. A process of dehumanizing people. The violability is especially bothersome to me. It's very odd that a school would teach a process that dehumanizes people through a process of objectification. In the guise of doing good....

"According to Martha Nussbaum, a person is objectified if one or more of the following properties are applied to them:[2]

Instrumentality – treating the person as a tool for another's purposes
Denial of autonomy – treating the person as lacking in autonomy or self-determination
Inertness – treating the person as lacking in agency or activity
Fungibility – treating the person as interchangeable with (other) objects
Violability – treating the person as lacking in boundary integrity and violable, "as something that it is permissible to break up, smash, break into."
Ownership – treating the person as though they can be owned, bought, or sold
Denial of subjectivity – treating the person as though there is no need for concern for their experiences or feelings
Rae Langton proposed three more properties to be added to Nussbaum's list:[3]

Reduction to body – the treatment of a person as identified with their body, or body parts
Reduction to appearance – the treatment of a person primarily in terms of how they look, or how they appear to the senses
Silencing – the treatment of a person as if they are silent, lacking the capacity to speak"

HOW is this a legitimate teaching process.... Objectification is part of critical consciousness. ??

Basically my instructor and school are abusing me.. under the guise of "GOOD" but ultimately they are creating a political group...

Sorry I know I keep obsessing about it. This is just another oppressive political movement.

There is no reason why I should be used as a tool for someone else's goal while harming me.

THIS is an example of how academics are nuts. I know I feel an increase of don't give a crap about your rights because my rights are being violated etc. HAHAHA

There are humane alternatives to this and that is why I don't believe this is the GOOD it claims to be. It is a victimizing process.

sKePTiKal:
Well, I think you can skip the class Mouse. You've just completed all the "learning" possible from the material and simply come to a different conclusion than the professors. YOUR conclusion. One based on your previous experiences, the emotions of which were triggered when coming into contact with the same thing dressed up in currently fashionable clothes. Higher Ed is guilty of having a lot of "follow the leader" trends - and not all profs do it well or respect the limitations on their position. And I sure don't have to tell you how some faculty see students, do I? (Certainly not as "people". Admin staff can be treated even worse.)

In this experience, your anxiety and fears did their job - helped you recognize the same old abuse in a different form. I hope the other "rhetoric" classes utilize different theories, but perhaps different profs with different approaches into it will help you study this emotionally difficult material. My familiarity with it, is from the deprogramming side for cults. And it helps to know the ways that people form cults, and the basic motivations that a cult seems to fulfill for people, and the emotional "governance" of same. My interest started when I was pretty young because Charles Manson was all over the news. Then, there was Jim Jones; and some of the various "gurus".

Whether there are political ideas at the root of the intent to form a cult or not - the techniques used are harmful to a person, one way or another. Some people more than others; and in different ways and in different degrees. Deprogramming borrows an awful lot from real therapy.

And while trying to force a person into a chosen belief-system isn't technically illegal - I find it morally wrong, because it requires Person A to believe they have the right to make Persons B, C & D think, feel, believe and behave as they are told to. The example I usually use, is the belief that African Americans are somehow biologically inferior; incapable of intelligence, and that therefore justifies slavery. Many people believe that's morally wrong these days. But so is the reverse. That's what MLK was trying to convey in his quote about judging people on their character, not skin. (As I understood it then and now.)

In any case, one wouldn't begin even an advanced class with this material in this context. You'd go over how basic beliefs are formed, how language supports that via rhetoric, the nuts & bolts of what rhetoric IS and what it's purpose in human interaction is. BEFORE you get to mass population uses - like advertising jingles, etc.

EVERYONE remembers that Oscar Meyer makes B-A-L-O-G-N-A, right? Same techniques, applied for a different intent.

Hopalong:
B-O-L-O-G-N-A

:)

Hops

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