Online Satanism; the glorious circle jerking. | Forum

Thanks for the suggestion Anna, I have looked at it once, but at the time I was coming up to a lot of stress and didn't have the time to dedicate to in-depth discussions. May have to pay it another visit :)
I think regarding disagreement leading to an argument, that is the way of most online interaction. Most Satanists don't seem to be relaxed enough. For example, you may be having a chat with a friend and disagree on politics or a new law, but you can chat about it, disagree, debate, learn etc. without having to argue and fall out. 

I've sadly known people in left-wing activism who de-friend at will because someone has a differing opinion to themselves.
   

Frater, I completely agree with your first point.

Social media is both a blessing and a curse. It has the capability to connect so many people and share huge amounts of knowledge and information. However it is mostly used for videos of cats sitting in boxes.

Do you think it is the internet itself or other factors? I'd say the internet has the power to strengthen and spread Satanism, although it's only vaguely doing that now.

I think La Vey dying, Gilmore taking over the church, the emergence of TST has a lot more to do with it than the internet, which realistically is only a tool.

If the owner and administrators are militaries,  that will be the way they will treat their members,  like it's done in the army. They will bull them. 

If they are philosophers,  they will ask their members to write deep,  very deep posts. 

If they are university graduates on  Literature , they will demand long, long,  long essays and posts,  they will give assignments to write books, to keep diaries, etc. 

If they are  rich people,  they will demand servitude and loyalty to their site,  they will pay very good to their members and in return their servants have to obey at all time their internal laws. 

The list could continue with the different university graduates on different fields of education or with those that have none education or those who come from the religions of the world....... 

Every single Satanic individual or group in the Internet who is the owner of that particular site puts his-her-its own set of  lines, rules,  laws,  policies, and so on which have to be followed or obey by those who consider to be members or followers of that Internet site. 

Now, every individual is free to be member of that paticular Satanic site, if that person is intelligent enough to consider the benefits for such a person she or he will support that site, if not,  it is very simple "GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE  AND START HIS -HER  OWN "

I have left various groups which I have described above in this original post as having 'circle-jerking' or another irritating/useless behaviour.
Re starting your own, surely you have to weigh up your needs again? I don't think the catch all can be "GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE  AND START HIS -HER  OWN ". You have to weigh up what you want from a community. I am not interested in going down any of the routes in which you have shared ideology and follow a set reading list. Things like the TST/CoS and such don't interest me. What I'm interested in, is having a good natter, learning the odd thing, discussing books and ideas and making friends. SIN has allowed me to do this and I've made some awesome real life and online friends.

So I don't think you need to necessarily start your own, just know what you want out of them and use them effectively :) Otherwise you just end up with what we have; the vast spammage of inferior online satanic groups.

Perhaps the best way to get the most out of online interactions in forums is to develop the ability to ignore those people that are not beneficial to your personal taste.

There are definitely those that have a mind set that they feel very strongly about and will not budge on their opinions.  This is not a bad thing necessarily,  until they can't control themselves and have to lash out at anyone who doesn't share their EXACT point of view.

On the other side of the spectrum there are those individuals who come up with a perspective that they feel very strongly about,  and view everyone who disagree with them as "attacking them," and not just their views.

Both of these individuals tend to be similar,  except for how they respond to criticism.  The first one will lash out non stop,  at first attempting to make an argument supporting their point of view,  but then eventually will have a melt down and end up talking about your mother and how ugly you are, and maybe even what a stupid post you made ten years ago, about  a totally different subject.

The later individual is the one that gets "butt hurt,"  when their philosophy and beliefs are not viewed by anyone as an eye opening, and glorious new way of seeing things,  the the individual believes it to be.

They try to argue the same idea, in many different ways,  and if they still are not supported by others, then it's the others that are just too blind and a lost cause,  at which point they pick up their toys and go home,  while telling anyone who will listen, how they were mistreated, disrespected by a bunch of blind, ignorant, circle jerking bullies.

However, if one sticks around at just about any Satanic site for some time,  they will find individuals that they can relate to as well as those who might disagree with them, but still maintain common courtesy.

(Some of my closest Satanic associations online started out as what some might call heated discussions, and a few fun jabs, until we either agreed, or decided that perhaps we are both assholes, but in different ways, and realized that we still shared a common ground.  Even if it was just being a glorious asshole in our own special way).

One way to figure out if you will ever fit in anywhere, is to ask yourself if you might be able to discover something new at some point about your ideas,  and will you be able to adjust your belief system if it is simply unrealistic and cannot stand up to scrutiny;  or if you are only attempting to recruit people to your side,  and be a teacher prophet of some great wisdom that you've come up with after reading a few books (that you assume no one else has read before), and maybe doing a bit of self reflection and discovered some great truth that no one could have possibly thought of before.

If you go to sites to share wisdom and be the great Prophet of Satanism,  then you will likely be disillusioned everywhere you go, or be mocked out of the place.   

That is unless you are truly some great Satanic Prophet.   There may be one out there, but in over 20 years that I've recognized myself as a Satanist,  I haven't seen anyone that even comes close to that.

So until that great PUBA comes along, the best thing we can hope for is to chew on shit together and or figure things out to ourselves, and occasionally throw any idea out there, and see if it floats or sinks.