>>9319
Basically, as I said before, I was young and naive back then. I did not fully understand politics or where exactly I stood. I wasn't a hardcore SJW tier leftist, but I was basically a wishy washy Centrist/Moderate, which meant I de facto drank the mainstream left Kool-Aid.
The three other core members of the kindred I started were people I met in school. Two of them started out affably enough, but showed their true colors later. The third one I should've known better from the start.
The first two, when I first met them, were extremely friendly to the point they would practically offer the shirts off their back. A little too friendly I would later realize in retrospect. They turned out to be Narcissists. At first they would tell harmless "Big Fish Stories" that could be politely nodded to, but eventually those stories gave way to pathological lying that also entailed telling lies about others to get people to turn against each other.
They were also ex-Wiccans who still carried that baggage, and were also heavily into the SCA stuff. It was pretty obvious to me upon introspection that they were into Heathenry for the narcissistic image of being "Vikings" and "outsiders" and pissing off mommy and daddy. Also they claimed to be "Conservative" through all this.
I eventually got fed up with their pathological lying when it got to the point that it was affecting others, and confronted them on this three separate occassions, in which they just doubled down with more lies. After their third chance, I figured "three strikes" and kicked them to the curb.
The third one was a particularly charismatic narcissist, who fancied himself a Burroughs/Hunter S. Thompsonesque "psychonautical" user of substances. I bought his schtick for awhile, but eventually woke up to the fact that he was just a lost soul and a Hippie drug abuser. Things went south between us when I kicked the first two to the curb. He tried to bring others into the fold, who were just other fucking dirty hippies of various stripes with their Wiccan/pseudo-Buddhism/New Age admixture worldview horseshit baggage.
I reached a breaking point with his self-destructive tendencies (drug abuse, alcoholism, theft, etc.), and decided to lead an intervention for him. He just doubled down, and the other hippies he associated with turned against me.
The main lessons to take away are:
1. Be wary of people who are way too nice to you too soon. They are usually Narcissists trying to sink their psychological and emotional hooks into you as quickly as possible so that you find it all the more difficult to kick them out of your life when you wake up to their bullshit.
2. Be wary of ex-Wiccans and those who are a little too deep into SCA stuff. The ex-Wiccans tend to be those going through a rebellious "fuck you mom and dad!" phase, and can unwittingly carry over Wiccan worldview baggage into Heathenry. SCA enthusiasts in general are often more in love with the image of being "Vikings" then they are with the more esoteric and practical application of the Heathen worldview in the modern world. Not all ex-Wiccans and SCA types are bad, but should still merit extra screening due to the commonality of the characteristics outlined.
3. In addition to being young and naive, I literally started the aforementioned kindred mere months after first getting into Heathenry. Wait until you have some experience and maturity under your belt before starting a kindred.
And finally…
4. Just say no to Hippies.