Image credit: Anita O Pinion, ZVIR! Zorro’s Visual Impact Rebellion!

This website is to help members make the most of our Critical Awareness, Diversity & True Democracy Discussions FB group, which is quite different from others on Facebook.

Please be sure to get the lay of the land by reading our About section, our Rules, and our Posting and Commenting Guidelines. This way your comments can be helpful and supportive and there will be no need for you to wonder why your potential post is still ‘pending,’ or ‘declined.’

All the above documents are under the Group Docs menu item at the top of site.

In the About section we explain why we are selective, choosing posts that we believe are relevant to our always shifting, changing and evolving focus, and potentially elicit interesting conversations in the comments.

Posts in this group are not organized in chronological order, unless you specify this in your own FB account that you want the most recent posts at the top.

There are three dots associated with each Post and Comment, through which you can edit your own posts and comments.

Through the three dots is where you can also call for moderation, if you believe a comment is out of order or in violation of our rules.

Be sure to occasionally check our announcements and notices, which will be in the “Featured” area/tab.

Equating people with other mammals, cursing, words like “rapist” (unless convicted), using otherwise acceptable terms as epithets, energetically, culturally and/or schematically violent language, and especially any threats or calls to HARM life, the earth, persons or property will be DELETED.

No matter how eloquent and informative the rest of your comment may be, if it includes derogatory language, violence, untoward references, or cursing, it’s out.

Repeated offenses will be cause for removal and blocking from the group.

These are some difficult subjects being discussed in our group right now. But more than that we are a group whose very purpose is just that, to discuss difficult things, social, environmental and political subjects, world affairs, history as it affects and informs our current circumstances, and sooo much more that we humans and all life on our planet are up against, in some very challenging and major ways, NOW.

Another way to say it might be that with all our many different perspectives the purpose of this group most of all is to support a collective seeking for deeper shared understandings, higher levels of awareness and greater common ground in what are some very difficult times.

What brought many of us here, and gives us such a powerful starting place, is our common love and appreciation for Heather Cox Richardson’s writings.

In the midst of all this some people may want to believe there is censorship going on. But we are neither a media outlet nor the government, just a private FB group with some particular purposes, foci and intentions. And a lot of this needs to remain undefined so our many themes and conversations can shift, change, come, go, and most importantly evolve over time.

It takes a lot to moderate, administrate and support such a group as this in remaining the very great group that it is. So please do understand that debating with individual members about HOW the group is being administrated, moderated, or what is acceptable or not acceptable, is simply NOT possible.

For additional understanding, please do read the documents you were asked to read upon joining, which again can be found here: https://www.rogueresist.org/group-docs/

On a laptop or desktop computer if you want to see all the posts from our group in your personal feed, along with their comments, you will need to frequently and regularly click the “Most Recent” selection or icon in the side menu. Facebook will keep returning it to their algorithms, in their efforts to decide (control) for us what we want to see, hear and say from and to each other. There may be a similar selection on phones. Feel free to comment here if you know where…

Thank you, and WELCOME.

Admin.
🙏🏽 Read More “Hello All Members”

5 comments

  1. I am looking forward to hearing other people’s perspectives and points of view. I hope to be able to join in and provide either encouragement or my own perspective on issues from time to time, and to learn from the answers I get. I am looking forward to it.

    Reply

  2. Thanks so much for ALL that you’ve done and are doing, John, to make this group soar.

    Reply

  3. This is quite an undertaking. Thanks for doing it! My desire is to learn from others. Hopefully I will be able to share my own insights and knowledge. We can all learn to be better from each other.

    Reply

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Critical Awareness, Diversity & True Democracy Discussions

MEMBERSHIP ACCEPTANCE is dependent on READING this ABOUT section, our POSTING and COMMENTING GUIDELINES and our RULES, and then ANSWERING THREE QUESTIONS while joining, to ensure you are in the right place and not a bot.

ONCE YOU ARE A MEMBER you may submit a post at any time. Only the best posts are approved. We value quality over quantity. This is a place to slow down and dive in, not scroll and scan.

We review posts and comments on an irregular and frequent basis. Disruptive, disrespectful, rude and/or violent comments will be deleted, and, if repeated or egregious enough, result in you being removed and permanently blocked from the group.

We encourage inviting friends to the group, but do so with consideration and discrimination. Please be somewhat confident they will be in accord with the group’s description, purposes and rules.

Also encourage your friends to answer all three questions, which makes for easier administration. This will also direct them to the necessary reads.

Group Rules, this About section, and our Posting and Commenting Guidelines are now all collected together in one place- https://www.rogueresist.org/group-docs/

Here are some other important things to know about this group.

✅ Posting guidelines are strictly enforced, and we often remind folks to read them. We also suggest reading the guidelines and observing the feed for a while, before your first post. https://www.rogueresist.org/group-docs/

✅ Our aim is to curate new posts that add to our collective understandings, which raises the bar here considerably.

✅ This is NOT a place to commiserate or vent.

✅ If the above sounds like a breath of fresh air to you – you’re our sort of people. 😊

✅ You are more than welcome to comment, learn, and take full advantage of the many resources we have and ARE, collectively, for as long as you wish, and for as long as you, you guessed it, stick to our guidelines. 😊

✅ We believe that learning alone is not enough, that we must also engage and interact with each other in some better, deeper and more informed ways. We hope you share our belief.

We need to have all our voices heard. Accordingly, we aim for regular posts and interactions that are intended to inspire us to do just that: learn how to use our voices and take action to effect the changes we’d like to see in our country.

We sincerely hope you will engage.

Thank you for reading, and we hope to welcome you. 🙏🏽🌻 Read More “About”

Critical Awareness, Diversity & True Democracy Discussions

1- Current Affairs, Relevant History, Insight

Post submissions should be offerings that add new, helpful, and/or different insights and perspectives to our group’s overall and always evolving understandings, conversations and discussions. We ask you to consider including some of your own thoughts, words and/or insight if you are sharing a news article. We are not just “news.”

2- Reputable sources, information and links please

You don’t have to fact check everything you say or in an article you submit or include, but it is incumbent upon you to make sure that what you say or link to is reasonably reliable and/or true. Misinformation is NOT allowed and can be cause for removal and blocking from the group.

3- Keep it classy folks

No rants, memes, gifs, etc. No unhelpful insults about anyone. Our bar is higher. Comments should illuminate, inform and evoke thoughtful exchanges. Cursing is highly discouraged and can get your comment deleted. Acronyms of cursing and rudeness are also not acceptable.

4- No Petitions/Campaigns/Promotions/Spam

Please no posts for campaigns, petitions, email sign ups, self promotion, garnering web traffic, spam or irrelevant links. If you believe you have an exception post it and we’ll review it.

Sock puppets, trolls and bots, immediately upon discovery, will be removed and blocked from the group.  

Every comment has three dots associated with it, where moderation can be flagged whenever and wherever it is needed. On a phone those dots are at the upper right.

5- RESPECT PRIVACY-ZERO TOLERANCE

Posts here do not have a ‘share’ button. You MUST ask permission from whoever is the writer to share ANY original content. You must also ask if they wish to be credited or anonymous. Please be honorable on this matter.

6- Be Kind and Courteous

This rule goes without saying, but just in case … We’re all in this together to create a welcoming and friendly environment. Let’s treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness, consideration and courtesy is required.

7- You MUST Read the Posting & Commenting Guidelines

To do this GO TO https://www.rogueresist.org/posting/ and https://www.rogueresist.org/commenting/ 

Note that most posts don’t make the cut. If you’ve never read these guidelines, there is no way you’d know why. We challenge ourselves and others to raise the bar, and curate posts accordingly.

8- NO Violence, Illegal Activities, Deception

It should go without saying, but because of recent comments by people who should know better here it is:

Promoting violence, firearms, illegal activity, deceptive practices, misinformation, disinformation, divisiveness, or ANYTHING similar, may be cause for permanent removal from the group.

Every comment has three dots associated with it that appear when it is hovered over, where moderation can be flagged. On a phone those dots are at the upper right.

9- NO Discrimination

Should again go without saying, but because of some recent comments here is another rule:

Racist, xenophobic, ethnophobic, transphobic, homophobic, misogynist, anti‐semitic, all forms of religious discrimination, sexism in all its forms, ableism, stereotyping, and ALL other forms of discrimination, purposeful alienation and/or divisiveness mentioned or not mentioned, are NOT permitted, and can be cause for swift removal and blocking from the group.

10- Report content to group admins, NOT to Facebook

If you encounter an unkind, obscene or spam post or comment, please tag an admin or moderator. If you want to report content, report to group admins, NOT to Facebook. If our members report to Facebook, the group risks being deprioritized and eventually deleted! Read More “Rules”

Critical Awareness, Diversity & True Democracy Discussions

We welcome posts that are:

  1. Thoughtful posts that relate contemporary events and politics to historical events.
  2. Well-researched and otherwise thoughtful posts.
  3. Your own thoughts, observations and efforts to understand what is happening in our country and the world today.
  4. Linked-to resources, readings, articles, essays, news items and commentaries that offer additional info and further depth.
  5. In other words, things new and fresh related to current affairs, common and collective concerns, and overarching topics.

That’s what we want. If we like what you’ve personally written it may get posted right away or you may get a request from us to edit your post and resubmit, to make it more relevant or interesting. If this happens we hope you will take us up on the challenge.

What we do NOT welcome are:

  1. Posts that amount to “here’s exactly what so and so said, but in my own words.” UNLESS you include historical or new information, and/or your personal comments or analysis.
  2. Posts about or related to every conceivable political event that happened on a particular day or news cycle. We can all read about those elsewhere. This is a big one. We are NOT a “news” outlet. Most of us pay attention to the news already or we wouldn’t be here
    1. Yes, various “bad actors” do multiple outrageous things every single day. The fact that certain truths exist, regardless of which side a truth may seem to favor, does not warrant a constant barrage of the same news, different headline.
    2. Second is simply: Not every news item, article, essay or commentary belongs in, or is relevant to our foci and intentions as a group. See our “About” section. We have to be selective.
  3. Sometimes your post is indeed very interesting and relevant, but there is a similar recent post or one in the queue that we feel is a better representation or submission of that particular news item/topic.
  4. If we decline your post for any reason, something may be going on in the background that you’re unaware of. In such a case we encourage you to stay tuned and/or perhaps reconsider your submission as a comment under a post with a related topic.
  5. Posts discussing conspiracy theories”” – even if you disagree with the theory and want to discuss your disagreement. A conspiracy theory is an unsupported belief “that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.” A video on YouTube is not evidence. These posts hurt our ranking on Facebook and make it more difficult for us to be found.
  6. Posts that – while perhaps interesting and even perhaps relevant- are either introduced in a way, or include a link that we believe may only invite outrage, rants, and/or may provoke more emotional rather than reasoned and illuminating discussions.

Having outlined what we don’t want, there will be exceptions, and occasions when we approve a post that might fall outside of a strict interpretation of the rules.

  • Exceptions could be an opinion that is particularly well-written, an attachment to a link that is unique or worth reading, or a post we believe may stimulate interesting discussions in the comments. These are posts that also may invite emotion and anger, but are worth our time to moderate more heavily.

There are situations in which the official listed “RULES” of the group are not sufficient to explain a notification that your post was declined.

Accordingly, please refer to the following for a possible reason:

  1. A link is great. We would like more though. Edit your comments to give more context and relevance to history, politics, current events and affairs, etc. Tell us more about the actual content in the link and why it matters or how it’s related.
  2. Would be much better if you’d Include your personal analysis of the situation/news item you’re sharing (and it’s okay if you find out in discussion that you’re not entirely correct.) Do you have any sources/citations? If so include them (and/or relevant links), and if not, please include the statement that you do not. Can you find a historical angle to make this more relevant?
  3. Do you think you can edit this to make it less inflammatory or less likely to invite a lot of outrage, rants, or emotional responses in comments?
  4. Please edit your post to correct the obvious spelling and grammatical errors.
  5. Please edit to insert line breaks every few lines, where the thought shifts a bit perhaps, as it’s straining for most people to read one big chunk of text on a device. Sorry..
  6. Please edit to have only the original source link.
  7. We agree, but can you create something out of this that is more than a fervent wish?
  8. Please attach the web link to the item/article you reference, and resubmit.
  9. Your question is so great that it will be addressed in an admin created post, and you will be tagged in it. We’d like feedback from other members as well.
  10. Great commentary but this link was posted too recently, so please search for relevant keywords and enter your perspective on that post as a comment.
  11. We really do appreciate your hi/thanks/intro very much. We have an occasional ‘welcome’ thread for new members like you to say hello. Stay tuned! We just simply cannot fill the feed with these.
  12. We love poems, music, hopeful messages and memes too, but this group limits our content to politics, current affairs and history. You may post these types of things as comments. There will be select exceptions to this.
  13. This has been discussed, and you can tag someone from that thread if necessary.
  14. We ask that you please use the internet to search the answer/how-to of your question.
  15. Please reach out via messenger to one of the admins as your issue requires a longer and personalized response.
  16. This link is old news. Unless you can attach updates/personal analysis of why it’s relevant now and make it original, we cannot accept it.
  17. Your link says “CONTENT NOT AVAILABLE”. Please make sure this isn’t an error, and/or that it isn’t a false news item.

Occasionally we are questioned about free speech or academic freedom, usually when we’ve declined a post.

First, we are not the government. You are entitled to protection under the law if you believe the government has censored your speech. We’re just a private Facebook group with a special interest. We’re not attempting to censor anyone’s ideas or opinions. It’s as simple as this: not all opinions or ideas are relevant or meet the standard we wish to uphold.

Secondly, we’re also not an academic group. We aren’t going to judge you or give you a failing grade because you cited Wikipedia as a source. We do value the spirit of inquiry and discussion that’s a part of academic freedom, but even within the context of the academy decisions are made about what to publish. One journal rejects an article, but another accepts it. It’s a fact of life. If we’ve declined your post, you have other options. You can post it on your own Facebook page. You can start a blog. You can publish it on sites like Medium, which have thousands of readers.

Finally, we aren’t experts! We will make mistakes. There are only a few of us reading through the posts, and we get tired or distracted or make a bad judgment call. It happens. Feel free to call us out if you strongly believe that we’ve made a mistake. Make your case. We have corrected mistakes before.

**********************

Our intention is not to create hurdles for hurdles’ sake. On the contrary, this is an all-out effort to maintain a space that will adhere to a principle of “quality over quantity” of posts, that we believe is a breath of fresh air to a lot of folks. We hope you will enjoy learning and engaging with your sensibilities and intellect. It’s harder and harder to find those spaces these days, especially on social media. Read More “Posting Guidelines”

Critical Awareness, Diversity & True Democracy Discussions

We hope posts will spark good, respectful discussions in the comment threads.

What’s a good comment…

  1. One that seriously considers what the post offers.
  2. One that engages with how an idea is expressed (by OP, commenter, or article/essay/etc. link) and why it might be valid or not.
  3. One that offers additional resources or supporting ‘evidence’
  4. One that inquires or seeks more understanding from other members or from a member’s comment.
  5. One that expresses agreement/support and for which a simple ‘like” or “heart” or “hug” will not suffice, but rather, has something more to add.
  6. One that disagrees in thoughtful, intelligent and informed ways, and offers possible alternatives.

What’s NOT a good comment, and/or NOT a discussion...

We don’t like to delete comments. It’s not fun at all, and it’s a lot of work. So help us out, please.

While good comments are our aim, an average, boring, illogical or insubstantial comment is probably going to be OK. But only probably.

On the other hand any of the following will get your comment unceremoniously deleted.

  1. Heated debates? Sure. But ugly personal attacks on anyone for any reason will be deleted, and may be cause for removal from the group.
  2. Simple rants. Vulgar rants. Deliberately offensive rants/words. “Trump is a piece of sh*t” doesn’t advance anyone’s knowledge.
  3. Memes/GIF’s/Emojis and the like that are vulgar, tacky, insulting (to anyone), or could be offensive. This isn’t about personal taste, but rather sensibilities.
  4. Unsupported assertions. If you write “You’re wrong!”, support it with either a reasoned argument and/or good research. If you don’t have time, just come back later when you do .
  5. Conspiracy theories (or links to them).

Turning Comments “OFF”

Although we loathe exercising this option, we may disable comments on a post if:

  1. The post is ‘old news’, or comments become unproductive or redundant – 1
  2. The topic is such that debates become too inflammatory (usually a gentle reminder will be attempted first). We don’t always want to go one-by-one and delete every borderline inappropriate comment on such posts because any thoughtful or important responses to the offending comment will also get deleted. We don’t want to toss the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
  3. It is a post intended for submission into the ‘FILES’ tab and on which we don’t want a string of comments to appear.
  4. At times we may turn commenting off on our own ‘admin’ biz related posts to prevent hundreds of notifications that are going to garner a lot of well meaning comments such as, ‘“thank you.” We field hundreds of notifications as it is, and it’s too difficult to sift through and respond to these. Instead, a simple “like” or “heart” will suffice.
  5. We MAY also turn commenting off on a post that either has already, and/or we think may generate a ton of engagement overnight, or during any hours that there is no admin on duty. We have taken precautions to prevent this, but it can happen. In such a case, there will be a notice that will appear as the last comment, which will include information on when the comments will be turned back on.
  • 1 We see redundancy when there are so many comments on a post that members continue commenting similarly to what others have already expressed – with no awareness of the fact. It’s understandable, and we don’t expect you to keep track of what’s already been said amidst hundreds of comments. We do it for you, in exchange for your forgiveness if seeing that comments are turned off on a post frustrates you. And then also of course we don’t want ‘old news’ posts generating a comment from a new member that pops the thread back up to the top of feed.

We understand that this can be frustrating and we do try to minimize this admin option to turn off comments.

A primary reason we keep an eye on the number of comments that are generated on posts is we want to ensure that fresher posts are not prevented from appearing at the top of the newsfeed, for the sake of a few posts that are already full of redundancies and/or uninformative comments. Read More “Commenting Guidelines”