This has been happening at 12 Steps https://unherd.com/2023/05/how-alcoholics-anonymous-lost-its-way/ for awhile. And I’m sad to report that the recovery organization I’ve served as a facilitator with since 2014 (SMART Recovery)has also been derailed from our mission, after making the unforgivably foolish decision to elevate our first DEI coordinator-a man who’d only been a facilitator at the local level, from 2017 to 2020-to the office of Executive Director in 2022. Once there, he wasted no time pulling the sort underhanded jackassery that’s by now rote among Woke Warriors of all stripes, by sending out the following newsletter, encouraging every SMART meeting on the planet to forego rationality and empiricism, in favor of embracing idiocy and prejudice:

"Considering Power Dynamics in Our Meetings

First in a series of a communications about Empowerment from Executive Director Pete Rubinas

Power dynamics exist any time human beings gather in community with one another, and our self-management mutual support group meetings are no exception. Noticing and attending to the power dynamics that exist in our meetings is critical as facilitators. Not doing so is a barrier to empowerment that we should all be concerned about if we want our meetings to be safe places for all participants to pursue their recovery journeys.

What do we mean by power? In this context, we are referring to the real and perceived agency that one has over one’s own life and circumstances. There are a variety of factors that help to determine the relative power that an individual perceives in a given situation. Consider these examples:

Accumulated Recovery Time

Closeness to the Facilitator

Financial Security

Relationship Security

Education Level

Gender

Gender Identity

Sexual Orientation

Race

Age

Physical Health and Ability

Mental Health and Ability

History of Trauma

While there are no absolutes as we consider the relative

power of individuals in our meetings, we generally learn enough about participants to be able to recognize when an interpersonal situation is occurring between individuals that are not equally “powerful” at that time. It is crucial in those situations that we, the trained facilitators, intervene as necessary to reinforce the agency of the less powerful party to describe their experiences in their terms without judgment from other group members. If a participant is new to the group, we should assume that they are at a relative power disadvantage simply as a newcomer.

Telling new or less powerful participants to use a SMART tool or how to use a SMART tool in response to a share is NOT what we are trained to do when a participant shares something vulnerable with the group. Instead, we should validate the person’s experience, ask how the group can provide support, and use our motivational interviewing skills to explore the share with the participant if they are interested in doing so. If a fellow participant, especially a more powerful participant, invalidates a person’s share, we should remind them that we don’t give direct advice in SMART Recovery and proceed with the steps above.

SMART Recovery is an incredible tool for empowerment when it’s implemented in a way that respects that not every person is starting off on a level power playing field. I hope that you’ll join me in reflecting on this topic with an open mind in the spirit of continuous improvement and wanting SMART Recovery to not just be accessible to all, but also empowering for all. Peace, Pete Rubinas (he/him/his)"

I’ll put forth a point by point refutation of this nonsense a bit later. For now though, I’m curious:

Has anyone else been to a support group lately, only to discover that everyone present is hesitating to say much of anything, for fear that they’ll be labelled “problematic”? Has anyone found that the discussion frequently isn’t even focused on the most effective ways of resisting our addictive urges, and instead veers off into babbling about Privilege/Systems Of Power/Structural Injustices/Marginalized People/Toxic Masculinity?