#Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame

[queersatanic]

How to spot when you're in a cult

How to recognize that you’re in a cult seems so obvious and therefore unnecessary to ask that most people never even bother to do so.

Consequently, it should not be a surprise so many people continue to find themselves in cults and not realize it till years later, if at all.

Let’s get a quick, short definition out of the way, borrowed from the French Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors:

"A cult is an organized group or a solitary person whose purpose is to dominate cult members by using psychological manipulation and pressure strategies."

A couple of misconceptions: we are not talking about New Religious Movements (NREs)—at least not exclusively. To begin with, those are not necessarily cults, and more importantly, cults are not exclusively "religious" movements.

From Heaven's Gate to Scientology to for-profit face-to-face canvassing, you cannot rely on the self-description of an organization to accurately describe what it does, and like with NXIVM, it usually isn't the supernatural or religious aspects that are actually problematic.

A cult may never have explicitly supernatural or spiritual aspects; they may define themselves by their strict adherence to materialism, even. Thus, if those are the red flags you're looking for, you're not going to notice when no one is talking about god, reincarnation, or quantum pseudoscience.

Cults are a normal part of modern society, not something only at the fringe.

Considering the likely audience of this, it may be tempting to say, “No gods, no masters,” or “obviously capitalism is a cult.”

But this is a feature that appears within the radical, anticapitalist left as well.

The abusiveness of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) or Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), of Bob Avakian's Revolutionary Communist Party USA, or Gazi Kodzo's Black Hammer organization and its rapid turn toward failed Colorado commune and predation of unhoused people in Atlanta — it is not just “those people” who can fall into this. A Maoist transbian polycule with a central node who controls the sex lives of her partners while leading the “self-crit” sessions — this is only tangentially the faults of capitalism.

No one is immune from this, no one is safe. Because while cults can express themselves in all of these various ways, they are not only taking advantage of the weakest or worst of us; they don’t even always take us in our weakest or worst moments.

Cults also will, like a cordyceps fungus, repurpose your strengths and talent to their own ends. Your incredible intelligence and reasoning abilities will be turned to explaining why you should continue to support this particular cult despite all evidence to the contrary. Your empathy will make you care about others still in the cult that leaving it would mean leaving behind. You will convince yourself that reform is possible and you just need to go through the proper channels that the abusers just happen also to control.

To review: a cult can like anything and anyone can find themselves in one.

But most cults by their nature do not lead with the weirdest shit first. Some go as far as to have front companies recruiting people to one thing, then slowly introduce this other thing when a target is thought suitable and their defenses are down.

For most people, there won’t be a clear, sudden indicator because they will be surrounded by others who treat these power dynamics as normal and good. Peer pressure is not just something middle schoolers fall victim to but something all of us experience.

Even if you leave, all that does is reinforce the survivor bias and culture of those who remain, feeding the narratives of exclusivity, elitism, and persecution to keep members cleaved from the outside.

Back to the question: how do you spot that you’re in a cult?

It’s crucial that you actually bother to ask. It’s crucial that you have the humility to assess your surroundings, your choices, and be willing to walk away from stuff you’ve invested in when you realize your mistake, sunk costs be damned.

There are various guides you can use, but a pretty robust if still subjective one is Isaac Bonewits’ Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF), rating 18 categories to score from one-to-10.

There are others. ABCDEF works best for new religious movements; Gwen Snyder taking business cults to task highlighted some issues Bonewits did not.

Certainly, neither person is themself infallible. Consider both nothing more than starting points.

So far, we haven’t talked much about anarchist groups or dynamics, and you may assume that’s because we are not power worshipers, fascists, Marxist-Leninists, so our praxis inoculates us.

That is bunk.

It is true that anarchist critiques of hierarchy apply to cults as well. An anarchist may not always be able to recognize a hierarchy, but we ought to have a good idea of our response when we do.

Yet anarchists are not immune from becoming cult leaders. Those who exploit others this way are not uniquely evil or a different species from us. A cult leader may be wholly sincere and actually believe they are just that special, that irreplaceable.

If you are an anarchist, you should always be thinking about and planning for your replacement. You will die one day. You may be disabled before that, or jailed before that, or "canceled"; don't think you are not capable of being an abuser, including in ways that meant almost nothing to you but everything to who you hurt.

Anything you're doing should not rely solely on you to not fail. The group you are part of should not require one person, you or anyone else, who is so essential that others are tempted to give them a pass because the work is so important and they are so valuable to the work.

Having said all this, is the vaccination against hierarchical cult abuses a panacea against all abuses? Clearly not.

A cult is one kind of hierarchy.

It is often starkly hierarchical and dangerous but not the only way for an organization or group dynamics to be abusive. We have to work very hard to guard ourselves against these, too; that is anarchism.

We need collective action from non-blood relations willing to work together and help one another. We need to radically re-imagine and embody different ways of living, different possibilities of seeing the world. The taboos of the status quo are not extant always because they serve most of us or benefit any but a few.

And still, attempts to create alternatives to what we have inherited are not guaranteed to be improvements, and in our desperation at the state of the world or just our own lives, we can pursue groups—usually new groups—that lack the protective guardrails erected by necessity to keep a collective functioning since, without them, the group implodes.

How do you spot you're in a cult?

Think about what power is and who has it, and never stop looking or talking to other people about what you see.

Interrogate yourself, don't make excuses for your friends, and kill your heroes so you can meet real people worth knowing.

[cheddargoblin]

Hey, i hoard a lot of tools, and maybe they'll help you guys too.

The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame

A site for self-evaluating how dangerous and cult-like any particular group is. Unconsenting Media A database to check if any movie or show has some form of potentially triggering sexually explicit material. And, as a palette cleanser from those other two, A Site full of Kawaii Faces so you can easily go (✿◠‿◠). Do what you want with them, always use an adblocker, have fun people.

[thegodwhocums]

Notes on opening up full moon Agdistis offerings to a wider circle of participants 🌕👹🍶

Group Ritual

Tell the story

Make offerings

Teach the couplet

Prompt participants to think of something that has been weighing them down that they want to offer

Turn lights down, play music, invite them to move as they want to move

Offer time to share experience if they want to

Food

Basic! Approachable! Effective!

We want:

other people to do ritual with

to share the knowledge that has helped us

Agdistis wants:

more people using the couplet to feed them

good outcomes for those in their [TGNC] lineage

to have their story told

Warning signs for the bad kind of cult:

The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (version 2.6)

[tonya-the-chicken]

Is lov/plf a cult?

No, I don’t think neither of these are cults. They are in their own ways dysfunctional and dangerous to society but I wouldn’t call them cults... Of course, we don’t see that much of PLF so I can’t be so sure about them?... They definitely have some traits but not enough IMO

I mean, I read through The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (or if you can’t view pdf) and I don’t see many similarities with what cults are...

[shinyprincesspanda]

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ISAAC BONEWITS

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ISAAC BONEWITS

Isaac Bonewits was a well-respected, influential & sometimes a controversial leader in the modern Paganism movement in American.  A pagan, priest, author, scholar, bard and activist, in 1983 he co-founded Ar nDraiocht Fein:  A Druid Fellowship (or ADF), one of if not the largest druid organisations in USA; having groves in every state & associated members all around the world.

“Phillip…

[redrikki]

I like to joke about how the Jedi are actually just a messed up space cult, but let’s take a look at that claim, shall we? The International Cult Studies Association defines a cult as “an ideological organization held together by charismatic relations and demanding total commitment.” Sounds like the Jedi to me. Cults can vary widely in terms of the degree of control they exert over their members. The greater the degree of internal control, the higher the risk of physical or psychological harm to members. The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame is a handy 18-factor frame work for identifying just how controlling, and thus how potentially dangerous, any cult-like group is. Each factor is evaluated on a sliding scale with 1 as low and 10 as high. Groups which score highly in five or more factors can be classified as potentially dangerous cults.

[padawanlost]

a-crack-in-the-universe replied to your quote “My mind tells me I should feel empathy for Anakin, but my instinct...”

Mundi is a Jedi and has children?? Were they the result of casual sex or what? And it's smart to fear what Anakin might become one day, but the trouble is that the Jedi don't do anything about it.

If i remember correctly, his specie had a low birth rate or something like that so the Council allowed him to have a family to ensure survival. He had 7 wives and 5 children. But, you know, he was a member of the Council and he TRIED not to get too attached to his family so it was okay.

According to The Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame:

Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain

[thewebofslime]

Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010[1]) was an American Neo-Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. He was a public speaker, liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founder of the Neopagan organizations Ár nDraíocht Féin and the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League. Born in Royal Oak, Michigan, Bonewits had been heavily involved in occultism since the 1960s. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early years 2.2 1970s - author and editor 2.3 1980s - founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin 2.4 Musician and activist 3 Personal life 4 Controversy 5 Illness and death 6 Contributions to Neopaganism 7 Bibliography 8 Discography 8.1 Music 8.2 Spoken word 8.3 Panel discussions 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links Early life and education[edit] Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949 in Royal Oak, Michigan, as the fourth of five children. His mother and father were Roman Catholics.[2] Spending much of his childhood in Ferndale, he was moved at age 12 to San Clemente, California, where he spent a short time in a Catholic high school before he went back to public school to graduate from high school a year early. He enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1966; he graduated from the university in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in Magic,[3] perhaps becoming the first[1] and only person known to have ever received any kind of academic degree in Magic from an accredited university. Career[edit] Early years[edit] Isaac Bonewits (right) at Camp Ramblewood. In 1966, while enrolled at UC Berkeley, Bonewits joined the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA). Bonewits was ordained as a Neo-druid priest in 1969. During this period, the 18-year-old Bonewits was also recruited by the Church of Satan,[2] but left due to political and philosophical conflicts with Anton LaVey. During his stint in the Church of Satan, Bonewits appeared in some scenes of the 1970 documentary Satanis: The Devil's Mass.[4] Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts that the rituals in Satanis were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.[5] 1970s - author and editor[edit] His first book, Real Magic, was published in 1972. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as the editor of Gnostica magazine in Minnesota (published by Llewellyn Publications). He established an offshoot group of the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) called the Schismatic Druids of North America, and helped create a group called the Hasidic Druids of North America (despite, in his words, his "lifelong status as a gentile"). He also founded the short-lived Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), an early Pagan civil rights group.[2] In 1976, Bonewits moved back to Berkeley and rejoined his original grove there, now part of the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA). He was later elected Archdruid of the Berkeley Grove.[2] 1980s - founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin[edit] Throughout his life Bonewits had varying degrees of involvement with occult groups including Gardnerian Wicca and the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (a Wiccan organization not to be confused with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn).[6] Bonewits was a regular presenter at Neopagan conferences and festivals all over the US, as well as attending gaming conventions in the Bay Area. He promoted his book 'Authentic Thaumaturgy' to gamers as a way of organizing Dungeons and Dragons games and to give a background to games of Magic: the Gathering. In 1983, Bonewits founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (also known as "A Druid Fellowship" or ADF), which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization.[2] Although illness curtailed many of his activities and travels for a time, he remained Archdruid of ADF until 1996. In that year, he resigned from the position of Archdruid but retained the lifelong title of ADF Archdruid Emeritus. Musician and activist[edit] A songwriter, singer, and recording artist, he produced two CDs of pagan music and numerous recorded lectures and panel discussions, produced and distributed by the Association for Consciousness Exploration. He lived in Rockland County, New York, and was a member of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS). Bonewits encouraged charity programs to help Neopagan seniors,[7] and in January 2006 was the keynote speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.[8] Personal life[edit] Bonewits was married five times. He was married to Rusty Elliot from 1973 to 1976. His second wife was Selene Kumin Vega, followed by marriage to Sally Eaton (1980 to 1985). His fourth wife was author Deborah Lipp, from 1988 to 1998. On July 23, 2004, he was married in a handfasting ceremony to a former vice-president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Phaedra Heyman Bonewits. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Lipp, although they had been separated for several years. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31, 2007, making them legally married.[2][9] Bonewits' only child, Arthur Shaffrey Lipp-Bonewits, was born to Deborah Lipp in 1990.[2] Controversy[edit] In 2017, Moira Greyland, the daughter of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter H. Breen, published a book entitled "The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon". In it she recounts a harrowing tale of a childhood with two parents who sexually abused both her and her brother. She also writes about Isaac Bonewits asking her mother's permission to have sex with her when she was 6 years old, telling her mother that another girl her age who lived in his commune "had sex with all the men there" and was "free" and "uninhibited".[10] Illness and death[edit] In 1990, Bonewits was diagnosed with Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. The illness was a factor in his eventual resignation from the position of Archdruid of the ADF. On October 25, 2009, Bonewits was diagnosed with a rare form of colon cancer,[11] for which he underwent treatment. He died at home, on August 12, 2010, surrounded by his family.[1] Contributions to Neopaganism[edit] In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his "Laws of Magic." These "laws" are synthesized from a multitude of belief systems from around the world to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Many interrelationships exist, and some belief systems are subsets of others. This work was chosen by Dennis Wheatley in the 1970s to be part of his publishing project 'Library of the Occult'. Bonewits also coined much of the modern terminology used to articulate the themes and issues that affect the North American Neopagan community. Pioneered the modern usage of the terms "thealogy," "Paleo-Paganism," "Meso-Paganism," and numerous other retronyms. Possibly coined the term "Pagan Reconstructionism," though the communities in question would later diverge from his initial meaning.[12][13] Founded Ar nDraiocht Fein, which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Developed the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF). Coined the phrase "Never Again the Burning."[14] Critiqued the Burning Times / Old Religion Murray thesis (in Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca). Bibliography[edit] Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic. (1972, 1979, 1989) Weiser Books ISBN 0-87728-688-4 The Druid Chronicles (Evolved). (1976 Drunemeton Press, 2005 Drynemetum Press) (With Selene Kumin Vega, Rusty Elliot, and Arlynde d'Loughlan) Authentic Thaumaturgy. (With others) (1978, 1998) Steve Jackson Games ISBN 1-55634-360-4 Rites of Worship: A Neopagan Approach. (2003) Earth Religions Press ISBN 1-59405-501-7 OP Witchcraft: A Concise Guide or Which Witch Is Which?. (2003) Earth Religions Press ISBN 1-59405-500-9 The Pagan Man: Priests, Warriors, Hunters, and Drummers. (2005) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2697-1, ISBN 978-0-8065-2697-3 Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca. (2006) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2711-0, ISBN 978-0-8065-2711-6 Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism. (2006) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2710-2, ISBN 978-0-8065-2710-9 Real Energy: Systems, Spirits, And Substances to Heal, Change, And Grow. (2007) New Leaf ISBN 1-56414-904-8, ISBN 978-1-56414-904-6. Co-authored with Phaedra Bonewits. Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work. (2007) Llewellyn ISBN 0-7387-1199-3, ISBN 978-0-7387-1199-7 Discography[edit] Music[edit] Be Pagan Once Again! – Isaac Bonewits & Friends (including Ian Corrigan, Victoria Ganger, and Todd Alan) (CD) (ACE/ADF) Avalon is Rising! – Real Magic (CD)(ACE/ADF) Spoken word[edit] The Structure of Craft Ritual (ACE) A Magician Prepares (ACE) Programming Magical Ritual: Top-Down Liturgical Design (ACE) Druidism: Ancient & Modern (ACE) How Does Magic Work? (ACE) Rituals That Work (ACE) Sexual Magic & Magical Sex (with Deborah Lipp) (ACE) Making Fun of Religion (with Deborah Lipp) (ACE) Panel discussions[edit] The Magickal Movement: Present & Future (with Margot Adler, Selena Fox, and Robert Anton Wilson) (ACE) Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick (with AmyLee, Selena Fox, Jeff Rosenbaum and Robert Anton Wilson) (ACE)

[monsterqueers]

So I debated a long time about making this post(its been in my drafts for over a year, oops), but I feel like its necessary as ive yet to see a post like it in my time on this site, so here you go;

Red Flags To Watch Out For, Tumblr Edition

Disclaimer- These are not necessarily abusive behaviors on their own, but if a person checks many of them, they may be a toxic/dangerous person to be around.

Please also refer to general abuse, bullying, and cult red flag lists to accompany this.

If you would like to add more red flags that I have forgotten to this list, feel free to do so!

General Evasive Behaviors

Excessive changing of urls

While changing ones url just happens on this site, this person is changing their url every other month or more and never returning to their previous ones- often with little warning or explanation. 

Does it feel like they are running from something or someone with all the changes or trying to confuse people who knew their name before? Is the url long or nonsensical? Does the change coincide with any kind of drama, falling out, or vagueposting?

NOTE- this is also employed by survivors trying to get away from abusers

Frequently making new blogs and trashing the old ones

Changing blogs happens. Sometimes the old one was mired in a Brand, or someone just wants a fresh start. This person, however, remakes multiple times a year and frequently deletes their old blogs.

Are you ‘mutuals’ who talk frequently but they never tell you when they switch blogs and then act like nothing happened? Do they do this specifically after drama/wank happens? Does it seem like they are trying to purge their name of evidence of their identity or actions through this behavior?

NOTE- this is also employed by survivors trying to get away from abusers

Deleting large portions of their blog often

Again, it happens naturally, but this person is excessively removing more than half the things they post -frequently purging their personal posts and conversations despite much of their content being those things. They may also change the content of their about pages radically multiple times a month.

Does every ‘blog cleanup’ always end in them deleting everything but some images, maybe some generic ‘reblog to slap a terf’-esque sj posts, and some fandom even though they talk or argue with other people very often and make personal posts daily? Do they do this after any kind of drama happens?

General Aggressive Behaviors

Claiming to ‘love the discourse/drama’

People who show this trait by itself, unlike many of the others on this list, usually ARE toxic or dangerous. Straight up avoid these people for your safety and/or comfort.

They delight in causing strife and ‘punishing’ people, treating intracommunity discussions like a fun game to win or as a badge of honor -as though they are a better person than others because they ‘fight the nasty xyz group’(usually meaning sending hate all day).

Do they seem to enjoy lashing out at people in discussion? Do they encourage their followers or mutuals to attack people they are arguing with? Do they treat social justice as a way to get glory and notes rather than a serious discussion? Do they seem to desperately claw for more people to harass and rant about/at- regularly trawling tags that squick/trigger them to find new people to ‘discourse’ with? Do they refuse to tag any of these arguments?

Most of their personal posts are negatively flavored or standoffish

While many people vent on their blogs, this person seems to be venting exclusively to get notes. All/most of their negative personal posts have a variation of ‘lms’ on them or they frequently post vague messages about people never liking their personal posts.

Do they constantly ‘vague’ people? Do they make regular posts about how people aren’t cooperating with their ten-step follow/unfollow directions? Are these constantly stressful posts rarely tagged or put under a cut even though they tag everything else? Does all of this seem geared more towards getting notes and manipulating people into giving constant emotional labor than to express their feelings?

Reacts to people asking questions with rude, cruel, or inappropriate responses.

This person is dismissive at best to people making innocent inquiries and clarification questions- at worst they spew psuedo-sexual harassment, suicide bating, and insults as a ‘joke’.

Do they constantly use ‘tumblr insults’(ie, barely disguised ‘socially acceptable’ suicide bait or sexual harassment) like ‘Piss your pants!’ or ‘Go choke!’ on people who question them? Is this ‘mean’ persona seemingly geared towards trying to get notes for being ’funny-mean’?

General Isolating And Controlling Behaviors

They have a cult, or a cult-like circle of friends/followers

While some people have a dedicated network of friends and acquaintances, for these people, networking is Serious Business. They tout their friend circle as an exclusive club and advertise themselves with frequent promos, aiming to ‘collect’ as many friends as possible. They have a strong ‘mutuals’ culture- they feel the only reason to follow people on tumblr is to have ‘mutuals’ and much of their activity on the site is geared towards getting more mutuals and guilt-tripping people into staying in their circle. These groups frequently make joint efforts in drama/wank and pressure followers to join in- unstated that you will become ‘cool’ and viable to join the inner group if you just do enough for them.

Does this mutuals circle have a significant moral crusade or spiritual element? Do they have a formal name(ex- something like ‘Twice-Born Elven Society Of Earth’ or ‘The Great Canadian ���Were Pack’ or ‘Tumblr Cleanup Club’) that feels kind of pretentious or all-encompassing, as though they speak for everyone in their demographic? Do they frequently ask followers to ‘recruit’ for them or pressure you to reblog their moral crusade/spiritual-related posts?

Refer to the Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Evaluation Frame(http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html) if this sounds at all familiar.

Excessively long following instructions

While having restrictions is fine, this person has so many instructions and restrictions they might as well just not have a tumblr. Not only that, but their list has many relatively harmless things paired with actually bad things, the position of which implies both are equally bad(eg- has ‘no terfs or people who reblog anime’ or ‘no homophobes or non men who ship m/m’ as one Whole bullet point). They may also have a multiple-step process you must go through to ‘prove’ you read it, with social shaming or a block as punishment if you don’t, despite not stating any of this in their mobile bio.

Do they effectively forbid you from freely unfollowing under the pain of callouts and anon hate? Do their byfs contain radfem dogwhistles? Do they seem not to distinguish between things like ‘person with a kink’ and ‘following/liking from a dedicated nsfw blog’? Do their byfs have a vague enough wording despite the length that things like ‘homophobes’ could mean ‘trans or BPQ+ people’? Does this byf update frequently and without warning- forcing people to stalk their blog weekly to make sure they are still Acceptable?

NOTE- BYFs are fine. Some are just unhealthy for both the user and the follower, and many behaviors surrounding them are likewise toxic

Forbids you from interacting even indirectly with certain kinds of people

Similar to the one above, but more specific, this flag involves the user forbidding you to interact with, reblog posts mentioning, or following certain groups of otherwise harmless people- even if it was an honest mistake. They will frequently lash out in anger if you cannot name the history of every person you reblog, wether you follow them or not.

Does this user seem to want to limit your ability to get information outside of an approved ‘bubble’? Does this user make callouts of people who so much as ‘like’ a post that is otherwise harmless for someone on this list? Does it feel like reblogging from anyone but them and their circle is dangerous or that you must trust their judgement always if they tell you a user/group is bad without ever giving proof?

Otherkin Related

Switching IDs/Kintypes often

While some people may have an unstable identity and use the incorrect definition of otherkin when they should be using ‘copinglink’ or are still questioning and not sure of their Alterhuman Identity yet, these people are the epitome of ‘ID culture’. Not only are they working on an incorrect definition of what otherkind and fictionkind are, but they refuse to be politely educated on the correct ones or shown to a community that would work better for them and may even become aggressive and hateful towards you for it.

Do they have 10+ anime characters -who all have a similar aesthetic- on their ‘kinlist’ and keep adding more? Do they drop most of these a few months later? Is this person very aggressive about ‘doubles’ or force followers to never interact with them? Do they call people ‘fakes’ frequently?  Do they police fandom on what headcanons, aus, or ships are ‘allowed’ in their source?

Sets themselves up as a ‘kin of authority’ in something 

These people think they know everything there is to know about a nonhuman identity and only they can answer your questions.

Do they assert that their theory on why and how otherkinity works is the Only theory(ex- ‘otherkin are spiritual only and only occur when someone was supposed to be put in an animal body! All others aren’t otherkin!’)? Do they claim they can tell you what your kintype is- often due to some spiritual power they claim to have? Do they instruct their followers to attack people who say otherwise or do so personally? Do they sound like a cult leader? Do they excessively grill people(ie- effectively requiring a 10 page essay full of just the right ‘proof’ for them to consider you ‘valid’)?

Frequently takes trolls seriously and reblogs from people who think they are real without using any critical thought.

These people claim to be fictionkind or otherkind, but will reblog obvious trolls like carrionkin, eggkin, and that one person who claimed they were Hitler in a past life.

Do they seem to be doing the anti-kin and troll’s work for them? Do they try to put down one ‘type’ of Alterhuman, as though they all act like that troll. Do they constantly act like an anti-kin despite claiming to be Alterhuman themselves?

SJ Blogging Related

Don’t practice what they preach

Pretty self explanatory, but they do things like reblog the ‘reblog to punch a terf!’ posts but still tout radfem beliefs and say ‘don’t be ableist!’ but encourage the bullying of the ‘weird loner kids’. These people are often cruel but turn around and say ‘abuse is wrong!’ They refuse to apply the social justice they claim they support.

Are a frequent user of The Ship Of Theseus

This video->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui-ArJRqEvU explains it better than I ever could.

Frequently makes and spreads callout posts

Callout posts have their place occasionally- provided they are something like ‘be careful of x person because they are genuinely dangerous’. However, this person spreads and makes callouts very frequently and with dubious sources.

Is the callout post pretty much just a ship war hidden under a Ship of Theseus (ie- calling someone a child predator for retweeting shippy art on twitter for a fandom they aren’t) ? Is the callout post largely easily faked screenshots and not links to archived posts or conversations? Have they made multiple of them, or spread multiple in a year? Are the callouts seemingly always for minority content creators and stated in a way to gain maximum outrage?

Fandom Related

Strongly encourages you to call them the fandom  ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ and to come to them for advice despite being relatively young

Do they constantly advertise themselves as the ‘fandom mom’ or ‘fandom dad’ here to protect everyone else? Are they barely an adult themselves but act like their followers should look up to them as an authority or parental figure? Do they interact heavily with their underage follower base in rps, fanfic, headcanons, or fanart circles despite condemning the same in other people? Do they advertise themselves as ‘actually minor safe’ and warn their followers off of ‘other nasty creepy adult fandom presences’ frequently?

Fear-mongers about other popular bloggers in fandom

Do they claim every person over the age of 25 in fandom is a potential child predator and only they are safe because they actually care about being ‘minor safe’ and being ‘pure’? Do they constantly reblog callout posts for ‘pedophilia’ that are just easily faked skype screenshots vaguely alluding to a paring involving two adults or something equally Not Provably Real CP Or Abuse Of A Real Child? Do they then use those callout posts to argue every adult(but them, if applicable) is a creepy monster?

Participates in ship wars, ‘tag bombs’ or insists on their ship being 100% definitely canon

Do they describe themselves as anti-’specific ship’, pro-’insert other ship’? as a major aspect of their identity? Do they frequently send hate to anyone who doesn’t ship their ship or ship a different ship? Do they participate in ‘tag bombs’ where they mass post hate, spam, and their ship in the rival ship’s tags? Do they try to argue that anyone who doesn’t ship their ship is an immoral, evil person? Do they insist that their ship is canon when it is not, in fact, blatantly confirmed within canon?

Tries to police/run the fandom

Also self-explanatory. These people act like they must ‘clean up’ and ‘organize’ fandom, and often believe that they only people who can. They slew hate to anyone who they dislike and try to dictate how others engage with the media even in the privacy of their own sub-communities or locked blogs. They may claim that you must only ship canon ships, or that you must only use a specific set of headcanons or that no erotica or gore is allowed to be made whatsoever to ‘protect the children’ even on sites and locked communities where children are disallowed.

Refuse to operate with tagging courtesy

These users will post graphic content and neither flag their blog, nor tag it with even a catchall ‘graphic’ or ‘viewer discretion advised’ tag. They will often post this content in the main tags without regard for the wellbeing of anyone else in the tag. When asked to please tag their mature content, they refuse, and may even post more of it just to prove a point.

[redrikki]

Not to make this about Star Wars, but, honestly, I make everything about Star Wars. Except for the sex stuff, the Jedi rank pretty high on dangerous cult behavior.