Dahaarkan said:
If you read jack's post history you will understand the level of his psyche when he goes into his dreams of micro managing people's lives as a dictator. Herein lies the root of the issue with the off mod mafia, and this is not to say that these people have ill will or a desire to damage others.
This is the mental state of some of these people, the belief that they know everything, and that their word is law. Jack is blatant in this, wears his arrogance like a badge of honor. Others are more subtle, but when pushed will still display the same levels of insanely inflated ego, like at one point one professed the right to dictate what is and isn't satanic as if he is Satan himself.
Simply overwhelming levels of ego and arrogance to a point they believe they know what's best for everybody at all times. They feed each other's delusions, and will attempt to destroy anyone who doesn't feed these, or worse calls them out on such stupidity. Some of them have improved dramatically on this, others simply got worse.
The ranting and dictating rabbi behavior, holier than thou attitude is rapidly becoming the standard. I suppose we will only begin to truly address the problem when forum activity grinds to a halt. Neither clergy nor the gods, or even SATAN HIMSELF, intrude in people's lives to micro manage and dictate everything they should do, how they should think, and how they should live. But the off mod mafia presumes to have the right to do this. And will go to extreme lengths to force their views and beliefs on others.
I understand your decision to leave and even encourage it for a while for your mental health. I appreciate your support but would have discouraged you from getting involved because you'll be a target forever now.
This isn't your responsibility and not your problem, so relax. I'm sure you have better things to focus on than these people. Good luck out there man.
Reading this, I think the ego baiting is actually what is becoming excessive.
Thinking about it, what seems to be happening is everyone has their ego, and many people struggle to give space to each other's ego and opinion, going both ways. Which causes arguments between people, as one ego feels "threatened" (for a lack of a better word) by another.
Why use such dividing terms as "off mod mafia"?
I see no indication of any such "mafia" behavior. Plenty of people who are off mod disagree with each other and discuss various things, running into the same issues from time to that that those who are on mod do.
This whole "off mod mafia" thing appears to be something in your own mind, a sort of imaginary situation where the off mod people are one big clique which goes against all the moderated people. Quite strange if you ask me.
People who are off mod are simply people who post decently enough to where moderation isn't required.
There are definitely people who are still on mod that could very well be off mod already, and likely they will slowly be placed off mod as HP HoodedCobra verifies this.
If one posts regularly, doesn't generally cause issue on the forum, doesn't break forum rules and posts reasonable things (that includes arguments which may by others be considered as ego-inflated, as these are in the end just topics of discussion and nothing more), one is eligible to be off mod as far as I know.
People can and should freely discuss things. If one disagrees with what another posts, regardless if said person is off mod or not, or even if they are a Guardian or even HP HoodedCobra himself, one is always free to bring this up and discuss it or talk about it.
I personally think most of these issues lie in the fact a lot of people just do not give space to others to voice their opinions, and because a bunch of people are extremely closed minded and stuck in their own opinions believing them to be right and as a result unable to consider other angles of thought on matters.
This too goes both ways. Then too it seems many people take arguments very personally, or make it very personal all the time, which is what causes friction between people.
That again comes down to not giving space to each other to express your thoughts and opinions on matters. Making everything personal and opinionated is what causes the majority of issues.
Rather than that the pursuit of fact is more important and should be first and foremost on any point of discussion.
On practically all subjects an objective consensus can reached regardless of personal opinions on the matter.
This is what should be pursued when discussion is engaged on a subject, to avoid personal arguments and friction between members and also to avoid repeated arguments on the same subjects over and over again.
Division between members due to differing opinions is quite harmful to the unity of our group as a whole.
So long the arguments are reasonable, everyone should have the space to express themselves without any harsh criticism directed against them, and even if it's not reasonable the arguments should be refuted as objectively and impartially as possible to avoid emotions from getting out of control.
Mutual respect for members who have been around for a long time, regardless of different opinions is also desired. At least the courtesy of respect should be given even during disagreements, to avoid actual drama or division between members here.
Lastly on this, I feel personally that it is unreasonable to judge a person harshly based purely on their past post history alone, as the past self does not always reflect the present self.
Jack for example has definitely improved over the time he spend here on that dictating tendency he had.
Since you brought this up:
"Others are more subtle, but when pushed will still display the same levels of insanely inflated ego, like at one point one professed the right to dictate what is and isn't satanic as if he is Satan himself."
I feel like I should explain myself here since it appears this had come across quite differently than how I intended.
Believe it or not, when I wrote that to you, I didn't do so out of any ego-driven desire, neither was it said out of any inflated sense of self worth, nor do I mean to push any belief on others through this. Rather, I am very aware of my exact worth and where exactly I stand.
Through my understanding of Spiritual Satanism, and my ability to communicate with the Gods, to tune into their wisdom and understanding, I can judge objectively in most cases what is in tune with them or not. That is merely what I meant with it.
This is something others can do as well, some can do it better than me. I do not consider this any special, neither do I consider myself very great for this.
I consider it a fairly normal ability that you'd expect most SS to have, but in practice it does show it is currently a minority who are able to do this at a reasonable level of capability.
At the time I wrote it, in my eyes it felt as simply making a statement, I had not fully considered how it would be interpreted by others.
On the point of dictating to others, your perspective is important. I am aware I too have a tendency to push things too directly on others.
Finding the balance between offering advice and leaving people to their devices, letting them do as they will, is not always easy, especially if to you the picture is crystal clear and you know if the person does not heed your advice they will do grave mistakes upon themselves.
For others it may be different, however for me, when I push my thoughts on a matter, I do it because it is painful to see others make significant mistakes or waste a lot of time, energy, effort, etc, on doing things that will only cause harm in the long run when there are better courses of action they can take, or better things to spend their time and energy on.
You may ask, how am I certain other things are better or not? Isn't it just an opinion? To this I can say in most cases, it is not merely an opinion.
I am nowhere near like the Gods, or even like the clergy in my understanding, but I can still see and feel a lot more than the average person or even the average SS. You may call me arrogant for saying this, but is it really arrogance if it is true?
Based on what I see and know I write advice to others, and when I write advice I always do my best to verify that it is objectively correct and true. Therefore, when I write advice I do not write it as an opinion, but as a fact, though I am not always right on everything even if I try to be.
If later I find I was wrong or someone corrects me I'm the first to admit my mistake and I am very grateful for the correction made by another person.
Personally I do not see where there is excessive ego there. If there is, then I want to know since I too seek to improve my conduct and communication to be of better help to people and if greater benefit to the JoS.
Hail Satan!