The Beginning of Stupidity
When Tribalism Goes Completely Wrong
I’ve been part of many tribes. Goths, Metalheads, Comic Book Fans, Tabletop RPGers, and the list goes on and on and on and there are groups that I don’t talk about to this day so what does any of that have to do with a CD that goes back to the days when I was a young, hapless 19-year-old? I share that story and so much more here and I encourage you to not only read it but also to watch the eye-opening video I posted at the end. I also share another story before that where you can see that kind of danger I’m going to discuss in this article and, while my stories are just smaller versions of that, they’re essential because they do apply to a larger microcosm.
No, I won’t be sharing the stories of the days of the Panic again. Those are known. We can move on from there. If looking at it from the standpoint of how tribalism can go wrong, then there are a number of YouTube videos, articles, etc out there.
I really want to focus on today because it’s reared it’s ugly head again. What else is new, it’s been that way for a long while now.
I’m the guy that, while I’ve had tribes, I’ve always just kind of retreated into places of occasional solitude so I could step away for awhile, zoom out if you will.
The end result is normally the same, I go off on my own again. It could be for a number of reasons but the common thread is that eventually, I’m just another face in a group and the group will eventually start the downward spiral of purity. The questions cannot be asked, objections shall be kept to thyself and then, you’re welcome and valued.
It’s when questions stop and a dogmatic approach to the group’s thoughts turn into bumper stickers, repetitive slogans, t-shirts and outward expressions of “You’re Not One of My Tribe” that things begin to become dangerous.
That’s not an exaggeration, that’s fact.
Here are some examples that I’ve personally witnessed.
Yep, I’m picking on the Q+ crowd right now. If you think I mean people that have an alternative sexual lifestyle, no. That’s none of my business. I’m talking about people who read so much more into the Q posts from several years ago that they start forming delusions and acting as such that have nothing at all to do with the actual posts themselves and I’ve seen that first-hand.
It’s a cult. I can prove this. I’ve gone into Telegram chats and simply asked objective questions. The evidence presented had enough reasonable doubt for me that, from the perspective of a juror, it’s circumstantial at best. I watched people older than me get absolutely fuck angry with me for daring to ask these questions and the purpose behind it was simple: I was giving them a fair shake but they had to be at least somewhat intellectually honest. If they could do that, if they could argue their case dispassionately, then they were golden.
Instead, I was told to “just really think about it” and “those who know can’t sleep.” Well I’m a raging insomniac, personally but…what does that do to point to knowledge of any kind?
To cut a long story short, you’ll be bombarded with sound bytes and bumper-sticker logic when they can convince so much more that criminal wrongdoing can be proven for some politicians and it’s so much easier than this fantasy that’s interesting but unprovable as of yet.
If you’re one of the types that took the Q posts and started digging around and actually found documented, provable wrongdoing and criminal activity and can put it down to the point where you could convince me if I were a juror, I have no fault with that but that’s not what we’re discussing here, is it?
If your church is telling you that “We’re the good guys and everyone else is evil” congratulations, you’re in a cult. Try to question it. Seriously. Ask those question on your mind and I guarantee you you’ll be booted before you know it.
Make no mistake, you’re going to suffer for not buying the collective delusion, whatever that looks like. You’ll have standing reduced. You’ll have people condescending to you as though you’re a child.
When the Tribe becomes the Cult, you no longer matter even if your reasoning is sound.
Still happens to me to this day. When such happens, I vacate. It’s not an airport and I’m not going to announce my departure, I’m just gone. I know when my stock price drops, even if there’s good reason to do so and if the group can’t see that then I simply de-list myself.
Such an incident happened to me last year. Since then, it’s been discovered that USAID (funded by the tax money they unceremoniously tore out of my damn pay and then demanded more on top of that) targeted gaming groups for “extremism.” What did they do to “combat extremism?” Well if you grew up during the Panic a lot of the tactics were easily recognized. Sorry…it was “disinformation” they were looking to combat and let’s face a fact, they were simply shutting down any and all channels. They were circling wagons around people who had no interest in their supposed “protections.”
Like any cultish behavior, “it was for your own good.”
If you’re not American, I want you to put yourself in that position. You aren’t screaming that it’s a conspiracy, you just know that deep down inside, games should be games and players should be able to talk trash to each other. It’s what we do. I’ll be the first to admit there are games I won’t play because I suck at them and since there’s really no way to actually get better and I’m just low-hanging fruit for the XP Collector on the server, I’m not going to spend my time getting frustrated. I’m going to do something I enjoy instead.
The government I pay and then demanded more of my money and everyone else’s decided that was not an option and spread their cult right into the groups in order to cause complete and total discord. Might have heard of it, it was called GamerGate. While that covers video games, it spread into tabletop as well. Anyone not getting down with the “Nu Ways Evil Book of Rules” were ostracized, ruined, chased up every hill, down every dead-end street.
Personally, having been through similar and worse, that’s wrong to me. I can’t let that go. I won’t let that slide.
Everyone will just have to understand.
I lost so much over it.
…and I would do it again…and again…and again. If anyone is seeking apologies, I invite you to go down to your local corner store and purchase a lottery ticket because your chances of winning are far greater.
Politics has also become cultish. Side…that doesn’t matter. Both have purity spirals once they get a good foothold into power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and, over the last quarter century, that’s become apparent.
To cite an example, vaccines. There are people who are anti-vaxx. I’m among them. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stand in your way of getting them. I’m just never taking another shot as long as I live and I’m going to do everything I can to never take one. I’m also very much pro-choice in the matter. While someone may sit there and tell me “there’s mountains of scientific evidence that shows they’re safe and effective” they often leave out that Japan began to carefully consider their vaccination schedule for infants under two years of age.
Immunization policy in Japan underwent scrutiny. Authorities and organizations emphasized the need for a balance between ensuring safety and protecting public health. Discussions began on improving vaccine safety surveillance and educating parents about the importance of vaccinations. The temporary suspension sparked a broader conversation about the role of vaccines in child health.
This is established fact but look at the differing approaches. They wanted parents informed about what was in those things and why, leaving the choice to the parents, encouraged, not mandated. They took a more nuanced, sensible approach to the shot schedule
Here, it’s a much different story, it’s mandated and there are a multitude more shots, some of them in a series well-before the child is even two years old. The budding immune system is left bombarded and by what? Well, “oh it’s just this MMR shot.” Well, what’s in it? “Oh don’t worry, we’ve done this for decades.”
Just Trust Me, Bro Syndrome. Do parents get to read the inserts? I worked in a pharmacy and was told that there was nothing for me to read…as I was mandated to get that dumbass shot which did fuck all. I’ve had COVID twice since then and no, there’s no way you can prove to me that the shot reduced the time or the symptoms because viruses mutate and the only thing you may be “protecting” yourself from is the last few strains prior to the current mutation. That simple biological fact is left completely out.
If you’re not allowed to question it, it’s not science, it’s dogma.
It’s not misinformation or disinformation that is dangerous, it’s a lack of transparency.
In short, it’s stupidity. Being bombarded by bumper-sticker slogans, t-shirts and zero nuance is where all of this leads and is it really a surprise? When we can’t talk with each other anymore, when we just kick people to the curb, when we de-value and even dehumanize and count people as “other” is it any wonder we’re in the state we’re in where the idiotic and the stupid are not only protected but now being counted as the living force we must all join in complete purity, otherwise, we’re not people and should not be counted as such and not to worry, we all “deserve it.”
Something that starts out as reasonable becomes fanatical, unquestionable and dogmatic.
If you’re not honest and transparent, the speculation and whispers will eventually start to grow and the more they grow, the more those at the top can count on the erosion of trust at best to the destruction of it entirely at worst.
Look, even today, this article isn’t going to reach the amount of people it needs to reach. The algorithm can’t profit from sense and reason, it can’t keep you engaged that way. The algorithm and those who control it absolutely will not tolerate you becoming a critical, individual thinker, opting to make you pop claws and bare fangs. To have a differing opinion is to become a threat to someone else, even if you don’t actually hold any views that would result in their harm.
The stupidity is real, folks and on top of that, we have algorithms working against us. The fear machine keeps churning and people are stoked like embers in a fire to erupt and get down to do a boogaloo right then and there. If you really want to know why I think they’re pushing for 15-Minute cities, I can tell you. It’s eradication, plain and simple. What happens when you can’t find solitude for a second? What happens when you can’t break away from the group to inspect it and understand it from afar so that you can navigate your way through them better? You snap. Driving people to that point is the exact goal. You’re to snap and go full Bill Foster from Falling Down, you collapse under the weight or you’re so tired you just go along to get along…but you’re still tired, still stressed, still depressed, still purposeless. You’re a mindless drone in a machine that no doubt, politicians that have forgotten their place will do everything to rule you as your better.
And they’ll dress it up with such beautiful sentiments like “We need to let nature reclaim these areas.”
Yep, terrible things wrapped up in beautiful language. It’s a lot like getting a beautifully-wrapped, carefully-ribboned gift and opening it up to find a decades-old Big Mac that hasn’t broken down and decomposed yet.
This is when tribalism goes completely wrong. When there’s no transparency, just orders from on high. When there’s no nuance but “just trust me, bro.” When there’s no support in your individual life and the group doesn’t bother with the whys, wheres, whos, hows, etc, that’s when it’s not tribalism, it’s a cult.
Eventually, we should all be zooming out occasionally. Take those mental vacations where you need to and if you can get yourself out physically, even better because if you’re going to look at your situation, you need to do it from a distance.
Look, when the stupidity begins to target you, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. There’s no defense against the stupid who genuinely function under the delusion that they’re “the good guys” and you’re the “bad guy.” Once that happens, it’s pretty much a done deal.
Dietrich Bonhoffer ended up in a German prison in WWII because he pointed out, logically and rationally why National Socialism wouldn’t work. He called it what it was; a cult. There was no dissention allowed in the least, no questions. You did as you were told or you faced severe consequences and repercussions. During his time in prison he wrote letters detailing how it wasn’t a lack of education, it was the disregard of it. Even though the philosophy of the state went against everything the individual knew, the collective was turned against them.
He was executed days before Allied forces liberated those camps. His treatises cost him his life.
People today think of themselves as Bonhoffer but, as I pointed out in my last article on The Raven’s Nest, they’re anything but. Seriously read about the man and see if anything he said then rings true today. Reflection is also something lost in the spirit of the chase, here but it’s needed so that we can continue to avoid certain pitfalls that would not help us in any way.
About his intelligence no man should be boastful,
rather cautious of mind;
when a wise and silent man comes to a homestead
seldom does shame befall the wary;
for no more trustworthy a friend can any man get
than a store of common wisdom.
-Havamal, Stanza 6