Skeptic Project

After a few months of soul searching and much thought, I've made the decision to resign as Oklahoma chapter coordinator of The Zeitgeist Movement.

I don't post in the forums too often, but I felt that since this will be my last thread here that I'd share my reasons for resigning.

The Zeitgeist films are the reason why I became involved in activism. I was 15 years old when I watched the first film and the most important thing I got out of Zeitgeist: The Movie was how to question; to question not just the topics covered in the films but everything. If people in this world would ask more questions about everything, even things that seem sacred and unquestionable, we would live in a much better world. When I watched the first film for the first time, I realized the power of questioning.

Now I am 18 years old. I've been a part of the movement since the website was launched. I became the Oklahoma coordinator for the movement almost exactly a year ago from today. It's funny how much people can change in 12 months isn't it?

Since then, the Oklahoma chapter has expanded to over 400 people. We've passed out approximately 2000 DVDs of the films and fliers, shown the films in theaters and libraries across the state, and I gave a two hour presentation about the movement in March for Z-DAY. We've held dozens of meetings with the sub-chapters, workers unions, Anarchists, artists, etc, and I've met some very extraordinary people.

I'm not resigning because of anything the movement has done. I'm leaving because of how I've changed as an activist. I feel as though the movement and myself are no longer on the same page in terms of activism and philosophy. In a way, I've grown a part from the movement.

This was not an easy decision to make. I've invested so much time and hard work into this movement and it's hard to walk away from all that I've accomplished here. Although I'm leaving, I will never forget the things I've learned and the people I've met while I've been here.

So where am I going from here? Well in the course of meeting with activists on and offline over the past year, I've gained a lot of different insight and perspective that I wouldn't have gotten other wise if I remained in my little TZM bubble. Most notably is a number of conversations with radical environmentalist and author Derrick Jensen. Ironically, I found out about his books in the Team Speak bot room where recordings of different lectures are played. I don't know if that's still up or not, but that's how I first found out about him.

In a nutshell, I read his books and I emailed him. We talked about the movement, nature, activism, resistance, philosophy, etc. I started studying Anarchist philosophy, and that's why I am an Anarchist today. My current philosophy and outlook on life is no longer compatible with the movement's. That's one reason why I'm leaving.

Another reason I'm leaving is because it seems as though there are more "fans" of the films here than there are "activists". There are too many people who become emotionally attached to the movement and are often very malicious online to others who don't agree with TZM's solution. For a movements who calls for people to be more open minded, there are a lot of individuals here who are not very open minded at all. They latched on to an idea and defend it to the death and simply recite lines from the films as though it's the gospel. Just because you memorized quotes doesn't mean you know what it means. Jensen himself told myself and a peer of mine that some of the supporters of the movement are "insane". I don't agree with this with my experience here, but this is was his impression after talking with movement supporters.

I've began engaging in new forms of activism. If you guys recalled back in February, Anonymous hacked into HBGary Federal and obtained all of their corporate emails. Since then, I've been a part of a team of former Anonymous members in going through these emails and we've revealed criminal activity within this firm, it's partners, and the Justice Department. This resulted in the resignation of HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr among other things. This has also sparked a federal investigation into the firm. Over the past few weeks, we've been working with journalists from Vanity Fair, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian to expose these corporate and government criminals.

This post is already long and I can already see the thread on Conspiracy Science titled "Zeitard Resigns from TZM", so I'll close with this.

My favorite line from the Zeitgeist films is that we need to become experts at changing our minds. Well, I've changed mine for a number of reasons. Mainly because I want to be in a higher gear of activism than TZM is currently engaged in. I'm a huge proponent of direct action, and TZM is more of a passive movement. I want to be in frontline activism and not on the sidelines passing out DVDs. I feel that I'm capable of more than that, so I'm going to stick my neck out there and try to achieve my full potential. Like so far, I've joined a Food Not Bombs chapter in my town and we make and pass out free food to the community. Not just to the homeless, but everyone who passes by.

Always remember that there are people with different worldviews that are not compatible with yours. Instead of shooting them down, I learned more about them so I can understand them before I make a judgement. In the process, I changed. I'm not the same person as I was a year ago, and I won't be the same person a year from now because we do live in an emergent culture.

Thanks for the ride guys. As I leave this chapter, a new chapter in my life begins. I'm going to college in the fall to become a journalist/writer. A new start in a new city.

Remember that there are other activists out there, and we can all learn something from each other, but always be prepared to change your mind.

Take care,

Ryan Nelson

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=263&id=340126&Itemid=100114&lang=en#340126

Since he gave us a shout out, it seemed only right to repost it.

He got something right, TZM is a little bubble that attracts morons and discourages opposition of any kind. He's still a kid, perhaps someone should inform him that anarchism has more rules than he believes.

Well Evil Elvis, if it's New Left anarchism, the rules are "do whatever you want, except this massive list of things that offend all of us in small ways, because we're pretentious douche bags." Thankfully, being raised in an anarchist house hold, it was essentially all Old Left, it was about the overall philosophy and real-world application, not whittling everything down to "activism" and believing not shopping at Wal-Mart and protesting "corporations" is going to bring about some sort of revolution.

I've never met a New Left anarchist that actually considered the future, it was just some fantasy about rejecting the status quo and grabbing on to much anti-capitalist stupidity as you can. Meanwhile fighting against globalization and using the fucking Internet to do it, hurr globalization.

Q. I just got a stolen credit-card—I'm gonna order a bunch of your stuff with it and stick it to the man! That's a good idea, right?

Your heart is in the right place, but like most people, you don't know who gets screwed when you use stolen credit (or debit) cards. Contrary to popular belief, only ONE party eats the loss from fraudulent credit cards: the merchant. Not the credit card holder and not the bank. Just us. And not only do we lose the entire amount of the purchase we also get charged ridiculous service charges for having a fraudulent card used at our store (which means, that the bank actually MAKES money off of the fraud). As a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, even the smallest loss can put a serious strain on our finances, so, please please please don't use stolen credit cards on our site. Thanks!

So basically they don't want you to buy shit with stolen credit cards because they have to pay for it. Otherwise, its a great idea!

What a bunch of selfish idiots.

Well, at least he figured out that TZM doesn't do jackshit, I give him props for that. Too bad he's getting into radical environmentalism. I consider myself an environmentalist and I hate the environmentalist movement because they're a bunch of non-skeptical selfish morons who don't understand science for shit, and seem to think fighting 'the man' will do more for the environment than actually figuring out real solutions to environmental issues, which is what I want. And the worst ones are the ones who do 'direct action' by fighting with cops and setting things on fire.

I'm a environmentalist by eating more meat and eating less plants

The zealots don't seem to care for his decision one bit.

I can kind of relate to this guy. He's trying to understand and change the world.

He just needs to pull his head out of his ass and understand he's not the only green, starry-eyed young'n what has tried making the world better.

Also, skepticism.

And those green starry-eyed young'ns coming from working class families?

Too busy trying to escape the Socially Darwinist system of class.

:3