The results of the community poll: What to do with content featuring speakers who have been revealed to be problematic?
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. It’s been a heavy week as it is.
We sent out a poll last asking what to do with content that included people that are considered to be challenging.
86 of you responded. Many more than I expected. And I received no small amount of emails, and had a bunch of conversations as well.
The results, from my perspective, were heartening. 83+% of you voted to keep the content. Most of them did want various kinds of disclaimers, which we put up.
There was an overwhelming call to engage in more conversation and discussion around difficult topics. It was clear that you want to talk about these things, you don’t want them erased or swept under the rug.
Many people came forward as being vehemently against cancel culture, which I thought was fascinating. Someone gave me a bunch of resources that I’ve only been able to skim the surface of, but collected in a pinterest board. You can look at those here.
Some folks cautioned about portraying a one sided view, trying these folks in the court of public opinion without their responses and statement. We’ve included their responses.
I also want to know that I’ve heard those of you who have deep concerns the content. I understand that it may be painful to some of you to see people’s videos and talks up on various platforms, knowing that they have perhaps harmed you, your loved ones, or the greater community. There are no easy answers.
So there is a varied response, and it’s a lot to synthesize.
From my long time study of Robert Anton Wilson’s Prometheus Rising, I’ve learned that Intelligence is the ability to absorb, synthesize, and transmit information. Hence, my preference to add more information to the equation, and figure out how to sit with it all, and how to engage with my feelings around it, and be comfortable in complexity, and even confusion, and give myself the time to sort it out. I’m happy to see that most of you share this sentiment. We need to leard how to hold the difficult things.
People also started to come forward with stories of their own, and expressed a desire to have more spaces to unpack and heal from abuse they have endured, both in and out of psychedelic spaces. Our team has started talking to Katherine of The Psychedelic Survivors Project and Laura Mae Northrup, of the Inside Eyes Podcast, and is figuring out how to best create more resources for you to heal in a community setting. We will have offerings for you soon.
We’ll also continue to explore these topics in our upcoming conferences.
Unicorn Chaser
Here is what i’ve been listening to and watching to clear my head.
Billy Strings playing the Grateful Dead
