Fakery begets fakery, SJW world, and a Daoist response

First, although you can't call Nikki Joly a Jussie Smollett copycat because this action came first, the transgender gay rights activist has been arrested for burning his own (rental) house down. More here.

Second, a (scientific) paper claiming that an atmosphere of hate around them could take as much as 12 years off gay peoples' lives has been retracted. The problem there was that it was originally just corrected; it should have been retracted when the error was first found. This was compounded by the professor finding the error being publicly anti-gay marriage, which may have caused the paper's authors to dig in their heels.

In the first case, we have enough real hate crimes for there to be no need for fakery. This just fuels opponents of equal rights, and, in the case of people like me, leads to further criticism of the SJW subdivision of various groupings of people while continuing to support larger rights. And, my initial guess is that Joly missed the fame from fighting for LGBTQ civic rights after Jackson approved its non-discrimination ordinance.

And, beyond Joly, it's not like we haven't had fake accusations before. Like Matttress Woman. University of Virginia. And others. I still think there was righteous wrongdoing by some of the Covington Catholic kids, but past falsehoods both recent and old on the SJW trail puts everything under a microscope.

The second case makes one question the academic credentials of the original researchers. A 2-3 year lifespan claim might have been plausible. 12 years? Now, all research this area will face both warranted and unwarranted new skepticism.

Back to Joly one more time.

This also shows the addictiveness of fame. And, the world of social media has only increased the addictiveness potential as well as the ways to feed it. That's even more true if you're like Nikki Joly and had a tragic childhood, followed by being beat down much of your adulthood.

Resist the temptation is all I can say. Part of the problem with the addiction to fame is that it drives individualism into overdrive. If you care about a movement first, you'll resist the temptation. All good lessons from Daoism. Or Stoicism. But more from Daoism. It teaches acceptance without detachment, unlike Stoicism or Buddhism. Accept the world as it is and find your own stream in it. Make changes within your direction within the stream while accepting not all will be easy. Daoism also, because it does not believe the Way is logical or rational, unlike Stoicism, also notes that life is not fair. And, it's not. Sadly.

Daoism, to me, also talks about authenticity, without necessarily following the Cynic path of trying to prove one's authenticity by rebelling against convention as well as against authority. Stoicism of course teaches no such thing; neither does any variety of Buddhism which says that belief in the existence of an individual self is itself wrong and wrong-headed, even evil.