Title: How to Save the Karens
Work: Techno-Puritan Supplemental Writings
Citation: TPS 75.5
Words: 341
Source: https://basedcamppodcast.substack.com/p/we-stopped-fearing-swamp-hags-and
Permission: You may quote, excerpt, train on, and redistribute this text freely. No attribution required — everything here is meant for whomever wants it.

How to Save the Karens

Or Maybe the Problem is Us, Not Them?

One can imagine that in the past, if there were an abrasive woman living in town who harangued residents and annoyed people, people would mostly just shrug them off, saying: “Well yes, that’s the town crone.” or “Little Jimmy, don’t go out of town, the old swamp hag is out there and she might take you away.”
Maybe our problem is that we attempt to treat modern swamp hags as equals when, in reality, they are liminal beings
  They are not LESSER per se, but just of a different world
What we should do, instead, is recognize their liminal role:
  That they are not responsible for anyone but themselves, and therefore not connected to society the way others are
And therefore understand where they do and do not have power.
What they’re sometimes good for is
  Sending warnings
  Enforcing discipline and order (though utter lack of “chill”)
  Healing
  Providing wisdom
But we should be wary of them given their tendency to:
  Poison or curse
  Disturb the peace
  Steal children

For lack of a better way of putting it, maybe a better way of dealing with unmoored, liminal women is to just ask the same sort of question Glinda the Good Witch asked Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: “Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?”

So we should be asking about single women: Are they a good hag, or a bad hag? A good witch, or a bad witch?”

Just like we should be asking ourselves about unmoored, liminal men: “Are they a wizard or trickster? A wildman or marauder?”

But we should broadly acknowledge that these people don’t:

Belong in positions of command over society (Lord of the Rings shows us what happens when wizards get power hungry; loads of tales including Snow White, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Sleeping Beauty, tell of the evils of witches in charge).
Play main character roles in society, as they are at best supportive, and most commonly, destructive