Re: This place has turned into section 8

I don't know exactly who you were referring to in this post of yours, Trucker, but in my own defense:

Does my recent on-the-field work at B4U-Act's most recent workshop, where I showed my face and mentioned that I was a hebephile who was "out and proud" in a polite discussion with some very open-minded mental health professionals, exclude me (and all the other MAAs who were there as well) from your assertion that too many of us hide from the public?

And does my frequent advocation for a genuinely socialist society, which makes it very clear that I believe in the potential of the entire human race to build a much better and more free society if only they came to believe in their capacity to do so exclude me from your assertion that so many of us are misanthropes?

And in all fairness to everyone here, considering how we are routinely treated by the media, the government, and academia, as well as a large number of people in the general public who rely too much on the latter three institutions as their official source of information about us rather than doing their own thinking, is it any wonder that so many people in this community develop what appear to be misanthropic attitudes towards humanity? While it's true, as you say, that there are a good number of people out there who are what we call seekers and do not hate us and are willing to listen to us, the fact remains that the great majority of such open-minded people who are capable of thinking for themselves are NOT the ones who currently speak and write about us in the media, the government, and the halls of academia. Until those more open-minded people get over their fear and reluctance to speak out loudly on our behalf in large numbers, it's going to create the illusion in the minds of many of us, and to our enemies, that we are far more hated than we may actually be, and understandably so. I have no doubt that you do meet many people who do not actually hate us and are willing to consider our position during your many trips on the road, so how about asking those progressive-minded folks to start blogs on the Web and openly defend us, write letters to the government officials demanding better treatment of us and a stop to the incessant pool of hate legislation enacted towards us, and speak out in our favor in college classrooms? Until those people start doing so, they aren't much help to the community as a whole even if they do admirably offer support and a shoulder to those of us whom they happen to meet on an individual basis.

With that said, I do agree that misanthropy is a very negative attitude that is bad for the soul, and if anyone allows themselves to be engulfed by such feelings they become part of the world's problems, and not anything remotely resembling a solution.