#RisingClan homework

[clangenrising]

I recently watched this amazing video by saraz discussing narcissism and pop psychology and I think it makes a lot of great points that are relevant to the discussion I had on this blog a while ago about my villains and personality disorders. I highly recommend you watch it! Feel free to tell me what you think in the notes of this post too!

[clangenrising]

Now I try and look for nuance in many writings I come by, trying to analyze the story and the characters... but there are times when I just feel some undying hatred for those in the city, despite knowing that there are a few—if not many—who do not approve of the society that they were born in.

It's harder to look past the characters who easily take the lives of others with such ease. But then again, they were probably fed the wrong information and told horrible falsehoods that make them believe that the murder of the "savage" clan cats is somehow justified, when in fact they just killed a child that had so much ahead of her and took the life of a mother that still had many more things to laugh about with her daughters and teach them.

There are (hopefully) more cats like Schmidt, Luna, and Jo that'll be able to help change a few of the perspectives within the city. I don't have any theories as to how the city dwellers would've known (?) to attack during the gathering, but I'm sure Sardine or another may have merely been speaking to Mystique, which ended up in her mentioning the gathering and perhaps in a fit of sorts, mentioned the fact that she had children back by the clans. I'd like to think that she didn't just willingly spew out all the information that Sardine needed for his barrage... she didn't want to be a mother in the first place, so why would she intentionally help bring them back?

Anyway! Just wanted to share my thought process/thoughts. Love you're writing!

(Formerly known as Vonmunin/Vonrozen, I just have a very indecisive mind when it comes to online aliases, but we change as we grow right?)

Thanks for making study breaks entertaining!

You're definitely not in the wrong to hate Sardine and his gang. As much as I think trying to empathize with fascists and see them as real people and understand why they are the way they are is important, it definitely never means that you have to like them or excuse the harm they do or not punch them in the face when necessary.

I think the important thing is to let yourself get angry but make sure you're never dehumanizing them into a totally evil Other. That's where we get into dangerous territory. Dehumanization always leads to bad things, no matter who is being dehumanized.

If you'd like to try empathizing with hateful, violent people who may have been taken advantage of or lied to by more powerful fascists, I recommend this video from The Alt Right Playbook called "How to Radicalize A Normie."

Or this one which is a bit more in depth, "Isolation, Engulfment, and Pain: Why the Alt Right is Like an Abusive Relationship"

These videos are some of my favorite things on the internet and they really helped me understand how most alt righters are (or at least start out as) victims of other fascists. Really, I strongly urge all of you to watch.

As for Mystique, I think the last piece we saw her in where Sardine reached out to her shows that she is in a very vulnerable place and he is willing and able to manipulate her while she's in that state. She says out loud "I'm not going to help you kill them all" or something like that, so it stands to reason, whatever information she gave she gave under false pretenses.