Humanis honoribus amicis: Pulling all the threads together

[xp_trance]

 After several days of research, all results are presented and action needs to be taken.

 

"So this is basically what we are looking at: Friends of Humanity, working together with five different groups, namely The Sapiens Foundation, The Right, Divine Will: Church of Humanity, Humanity First and Homines Verendi." Hope quickly wrote out the various names on the white board, linking them with quick arrows.

"My kingdom for some red string," Doug muttered.  "Divine Will, The Right...could they sound any more like neo-feudalists?" he asked.  "No.  None more 'rules for thee but not for me'," he answered the rhetorical question.  "And ugh, the overuse of 'humanity' in all those names, just to make it clear where the in-group and out-group line lies."  He hated most when his cynicism was proven right.

"I think what scares me the most is that all seem to be currently engaged in the same plan, namely trying to push anti-mutant laws through the Pennsylvania government. And that they are supported in this by the Friends of Humanity." Hope simply explained. "Except for the Humanity First, but they do make a very nice stick to reinforce said plan. I imagine no one wants to be listed on this website and invite the consequences of that.

 "You might find one or two politicians who would take their inclusion on a list like this as some kind of badge of honor, but they're not going to be significant movers and shakers. That kind of fear is hard for us to fight against, it's the insidious type of thing that leaves people worried about their futures and willing to do anything to avoid it." Sue pointed out.

 “There are a lot of egos involved in the leadership of those groups,” said Emma, mildly. “I’d be surprised they managed to find enough common ground to overcome those egos, except of course, for the fact that it comes down to hating and fearing us.” Emma’s golden eyebrow flickered upwards in disdain. “I guess they’re at least honest about their outright bigotry, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t sad, pathetic excuses for the humanity they so revere.”

Doug nodded, acknowledging Emma's point.  "And that is why fascists must always have an 'other' to focus hate on, because without that to provide cover for their agenda, it is much harder to maintain control over the larger population.  Take that away and the wheels start to fall off pretty rapidly."

"It does give us an idea of where to hit them though. Big ego's, fragile relationships between the groups... I bet with a few of the right pushes the new found friendship between the Friends of Humanity and the other groups would cool quickly. And standing alone, the local groups pose far less of a risk." Hope thought out loud.  

“I’d normally suggest I just go in and rearrange a few thought processes, but I think this runs deeper than that,” said Emma. “There’s no point fiddling with a few key minds if they’ve already engaged enough of the minions to keep the ties between the groups going. I think taking steps to make them decide to break ties without any overt telepathic interference would be best.”

"Even if you went in and changed their minds, the idea is out there and it's building momentum, we need to do more than just stop them, we need to make the idea so laughable, so reviled that it looses any weight that it's built up, otherwise someone else will just jump into that bandwagon," Sue noted.

"You cannot kill an idea, especially one that is as widespread and semi-accepted as this ideology." Hope quickly countered. "At least not quickly with the means available here. For now we need to focus on killing the initiatives themselves, starting with disrupting the working relationships."

"Bigotry is fueled by hate and fear, and even if we ever achieve fully automated luxury gay space communism, I somehow doubt we'll ever be free of those two impulses."  Again, as had been the case for much of this, Doug's cynicism showed through.  "But in the meantime, divide and conquer."  Creating infighting in the ranks of one's foes was a time-honored maxim of conflict.  "If they're busy fighting each other, they don't have energy or resources to use on us."

"I have a few options of how we could do that. How about I share those plans and we go from there?" Hope rose, digging out her laptop and quickly connecting it with the small beamer. "Sue, if you could get the screen down?" While her smirking girlfriend moved, Hope hit the lights.

"Now, since we have had the most time to look into the Sapiens Foundation, I will start there. I am particularly interested in their spokesperson, Ayame Inoue and we have had just enough of a chance to do a deep dive on her, including as full a psychological profile as possible. It reveals a few interesting things.

"I should have brought some popcorn," Sue grouched good-naturedly as she sat back in her chair and grinned, "Oh, do go on, I'm all aquiver to hear about the skeletons they all have hidden in their closets."