Thread by @wokal_distance

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Woke person: "You're Racist"
You: "No I'm not"
Woke person: "That's what a racist would say!"

See that? That's a "Kafka Trap," and it's a strategy the woke often use when they want to call someone a racist, sexist, bigot, etc.

So, lets talk about Kafka Traps,

A thread🧵

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The purpose of a Kafka Trap is, as the name suggests, to Trap you in an accusation. The Kafka Trap works by rigging the conversation so that it doesn't matter how you deny an accusation, the accusers can still make you look guilty.

Let's look at how it works.

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The Kafka Trap has two simple steps:

1. The person using the Kafka Trap accuses you of something

2. When you deny the accusation, the person using the Kafka Trap will take your denial and twist in such a way that they can use it against you to make you look guilty.

4/
I like to call this "dirty cop logic" based off this example:

Cop: "You are under arrest for theft"
You: "I'm innocent"
Cop: "That's what a thief would say"
you: "But I didn't do it"
Cop: "Then tell us who did"
you: "I don't know"
Cop: "you're covering up for someone."

5/
Cop: "where's the cash?"
you: "I don't know"
Cop: "lying to an officer, that's more charges!"
you: "I want a Lawyer"
Cop: "If you're not guilty why do you need a lawyer?""

See how it works? No matter what you say the dirty cop twists it against you as proof you're guilty.

6/
Here, Ibram Kendi uses pretty much the same argument as the dirty cop. Someone identifies as 'not racist' and Kendi says: "They're essentially identifying in the same way as white supremacists."

In other words...

You: "I'm not racist
Kendi: "That's what a racist would say"

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As you can see, it's not that complicated, but it can be hard to catch in the moment when someone is doing it to you.

Many concepts the woke used are designed specifically to act as Kafka Traps, and many are subtle. We can't look at all of them, so lets look at the big one...

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The big Kafka Trap is of course *WHITE FRAGILITY* and it works like this:

The woke person accuses you of being either racism or complicit in racism. When you deny it or get upset they say your denial and anger is proof you have white fragility, and therefore you are racist.

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Even if you don'tt get upset when they call you racist, if you deny being a racist they'll say you're only denying that you're a racist to preserve your ego. Then they'll say the reason you need to preserve your ego is because you have a fragile ego due to white fragility.

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There's no way out of a Kafka Trap...which is the entire point. Kafka Traps exist only because they make it so you can't get out of the accusation that's been thrown at you.

The problem is, Kafka Traps are bad logic.

So now I'll explain EXACTLY why that is.

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The Kafka trap uses the denial of guilt as evidence of guilt.
It does this by setting you up so if you deny the accusation your denial is used as proof of your guilt. Look at the racism example:

You: "I'm not racist"
Woke person: "That's what a racist would say"

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In that example the argument is that racists always say "I'm not racist," therefore anyone who says "I'm not racist" must be one of the racists.

Of course this line of argument is deeply flawed because
PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY NOT RACIST WILL ALSO SAY "I'M NOT RACIST"

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This applies to the dirty cop Kafka Trap as well:

You: "I'm innocent"
Cop: "That's what a thief would say"

Here the argument is that guilty people always say "I'm innocent" so whoever says "I'm innocent" must be guilty.

Execpt that INNOCENT PEOPLE ALSO SAY "I'M INNOCENT"

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This all so applies to white fragility.

Woke person: "you're racist"
you: "That's isn't true"
Woke person: "you deny that you're racist because you have white fragility and are too fragile to face the truth."

I hope that we are all beginning to see the pattern...

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Yes, people who are fragile will not admit to anything, including being racist. You know who else will not admit to being racist?

PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT RACIST.

All Kafka traps will function in pretty much the same way:

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A Kafka Trap turns a denial of guilt into evidence of guilt by pathologizing and problematizing all the ways in which people defend themselves from accusations.

It does this in order to make it impossible for you to defend yourself. There is one simple way out...

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You ask them what would count as evidence that you are innocent. If they don't give you a realistic standard you know it's a Kafka Trap and you call it out.

When I call people out for using Kafka Traps, I use the dirty cop example because most people understand that one.

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However you do it, the goal is to show that the argument is a trap based in bad reasoning, unfair accusations, and dishonest tactics.

If you can show people how the Kafka Trap works, they see right through it immediately.

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I hope this has been helpful. Remember, when you get hit with a Kafka Trap it is easy to get flustered but if you can keep your head and remember how the arguments work you can show people that the argument used to accuse you is nonsense.

/fin