Misnagdim and you

Three hundred years ago, there a fight took place amongst the best and the brightest of our Sages. Some fought it believing that they're fighting the same war that was waged against Sabbateans and Frankists yimach shemom. Yet, some fought it because they knew they had nothing to do with Sabbateans or Frankists and the changes they were about to bring were changes for the good.

As in all schisms, the main front of this war was in the minds of the people, first and foremost the young generation that was supposed to "carry the torch". Most fought honestly and with full heart, for them it was a מחלוקת לשם שמים ; and for them everything is now peacefully resolved. But some fought dirty; the Propaganda war that had an interesting implication fruits of which we have to deal with to this day.

The worse detractors of Chassidism managed to create some persistent labels, stereotypes, that took on a life of their own. "Chassidim don't learn", "Chassidim davenen late", "Chassidim worship Rebbes with gleaming eyes", "C. don't question authority" et cetera ad nauseum. That in and of itself wouldn't be a problem with anyone. Problem began when people who identify themselves as "Chassidim" turned this into a self-fulfilling profecy, by living up to the low standards the propagandisten of yesteryear have invented.

This disease doesn't manifest itself in presence of a real leader; it's the absence of such that creates fertile ground of all kinds of fantasies that originated on the other side. In general, people who define themselves as an "anti-something" are vulnerable to this sort of flawed thought process. For example, this guy defined himself as an "anti" to another currently-defunct pseudo-intellectual loser (he did have a point from time to time, but that doesn't change the general picture) and since, he tries to live up to every stereotype and every image of a single-track minded imbecile that was ever conjured by the hateful chroniclers of our times.