Why 4channers are obssed with gnosticism?

[Lazy Printer]

Its seems that this overlaps with some political beliefs, its a alternative to fedora atheism?

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Cool lore and autism. Everything a growing boy needs.

 

[Whatevermancer]

Well that's a different philosophical question because God is beyond time and space. If you had a time machine, but refused to change the past, would this mean that you're conceding to the flow of fate and free will didn't exist in the past?

If I could go back to the past and watch history unfold exactly like we know it's supposed to, I could probably say that the people have no free will, cause they have no other option but to play out the predetermined scenario. If the history changed without my interference, that's a whole other story, though.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

Because its cool

 

[DoNotFeedTheSneed]

their lives seem like prison because they never leave their rooms so they just fall into it naturally

 

[Ducks Sorted in a Row]

world-denying beliefs are very attractive when your life fucking sucks.

 

[gagabobo1997]

Dope lore and memes
Same reason people are into hyperborea stuff. Cool edits

 

[Aquarius]

First, let’s define what we are talking about:

1. Who are “4channers”?​

4channers are, obviously, the users of 4chan. Duh. However, you asked this question in 2024. Anyone who is still on 4chan regularly in 2024 is a retard. These are people who are willing to tolerate the /tttt/ and /pony/ boards, massive time limits before you can post, time limits after you post, incessant fucking captchas, etc. The site is all but unusable now, and has become a victim of its own notoriety. And that’s without getting into Moot leaving and all the behinds-the-scenes stuff. It just sucks, and so do all the people on it, nowadays.
God fucking forbid anyone without a paid membership try to /storytime/ some comic, or artist’s oeuvre, or a bunch of high-res cactus photos, or whatever.

The fact that they’re on that site in the current year means they’re either children or cunts. That means that the answer to your question is generally going to concern the superficial. Children and idiots on the Internet don’t spend a lot of time reading Valentinus. The things that draw them to this particular subject are social (ex. Cool older brother) and aesthetic because those are superficial things for immature minds. I think that several other people who posted in this thread before me were correct when they listed the visual clichés of gnostic memes rather than the subject itself.

People who nailed it:

It's deep, man. You wouldn't get it.

It actually is this. JRPGs and anime constantly crib from some weird idea of pop-Gnosticism that never really existed.

Because Jesus slayed a dragon and killed a kid.

It's a great meme and allows neckbeards to dip their toes back into Christianity

Cool lore and autism.

Because its cool

Same reason people are into hyperborea stuff. Cool edits

However, as cynical as I am, I don’t doubt that there are some clever gnostics somewhere in all of this. They could be the ones making infographics, those who dispense them, former 4chan posters, IRL friends, etc. There really is a resurgence of interest in gnosticism, both in the academy and amongst lowbrow shitposters like ourselves. Just because the majority of these 4chan users are dumb doesn’t mean that there aren’t smart people hanging out somewhere - even if it’s just in a private chat that gets leaked to 4chan. So, why would the last 4chan user with an operating frontal lobe take an interest in gnosticism?

People who got it right but, like, in a different way:

They are obsessed with tranime and tranime is gnosticism in digital form

Gnosticism offers a good explanation for why an all-loving God allows suffering to exist.

their lives seem like prison because they never leave their rooms

world-denying beliefs are very attractive when your life fucking sucks.

Gnosticism is appealing for people who are fucking losers, and for whom life is painful and humiliating. 4chan remains the home of /r9k/, a fetid black pit of misery. People can study gnosticism for academic reasons, but you don’t become a gnostic unless you are genuinely emotionally affected by these ideas. Gnosticism appeals to people who, whether you think it’s reasonable or not, consider life pretty shitty.

2. What is Gnosticism?​

Gnosticism, at it’s most simplistic, boils down to these main ideas:

• The material world fucking sucks.
• This is because the material world was created by some dick demigod called the “Demiurge”, who is both a dick and also stupid.
• There is a real, and loving God in the monotheistic sense (pleroma). The demiurge is way beneath this actual God in terms of power and understanding - the demiurge might even be dumb enough to think he is the one and only God.

Sometimes there’s a bunch of other demigods between the demiurge and The God, like this chick, Sofia, or Wisdom, who accidentally creates the demiurge by being arrogant, for example. That’s where you get into all these bonkers charts naming the different aeons. At it’s core, gnosticism is what this user’s meme says:

View attachment 5948614

Because gnosticism is more of a philosophical approach than a singular school, it manifests in different religions. You have Jewish gnosticism, Muslim gnosticism, Christian gnostics like the Cathars, etc. You could have a pretty standard “secular” agnostic viewpoint and still apply gnostic principles (ex. “How do I know God is good”?). You can also apply it to any Christian denomination by going “what if the God of the Old Testament was evil but Jesus was still the good guy and also the crucifixion was actually gnosis and represents escaping the material world of suck for God’s divine realm”. Bong rip.

Gnosticism has appeared multiple times in multiple cultures across time and space. Gnosticism is not a singular school but a large cohort of spiritual people coming to the same critical conclusion about the material world. Sometimes this is in conjunction with one another, and sometimes it appears convergently.

3. Answering Your Question:​

Why do 4channers obsess over gnosticism? Because it’s cool, and most 4channers are superficial baby children. For the few that do develop a sincere interest, it is either academic or a genuine psychological experience. For the latter, this psychological experience usually has something to do with the pessimism inherent to gnosticism.

If your life sucks, saying that this world doesn’t count and isn’t real is consoling. What’s worse, breaking your leg in a video game or real life? Saying that the world doesn’t exist helps one cope with a world that isn’t ideal. If you’re never had sex and never gone outside, it can be easy to declare oneself some sort of chaste superguru (who smokes weed and masturbates). If you’re not losing anything in the dissolution of the world but stuff that blows, then who cares? It appeals to the 4chan user’s apathy and need to feel smarter than everyone else.

 

[Moths]

Alright boys I think this one is answered lets pack it up. good hustle @Aquarius

 

[KingNothing]

Decades of media either adapted or ripped off from Philip K. Dick

 

[X Prime]

Aquarius is correct, however I maintain his entire post can be boiled down to what I said, and those who develop genuine academic interest are rare.

Tranime game enjoyers really think that gnostic shit is deep because it's in Xenosaga, Shin Megami Tensei, etc. I guarantee these are where most of them are first exposed to it. Hell it's even in Western games like Legacy of Kain starting with Soul Reaver, but at least Kain isn't quite as fucking obvious about it.

 

[Aquarius]

Tranime game enjoyers really think that gnostic shit is deep because it's in Xenosaga, Shin Megami Tensei, etc

Sort of like Evangelion and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Or Evangelion and Jewish esotericism. Japanese people will throw in some Western esoterica to spice things up, not unlike the way Westerners will get tattoos of Chinese characters they cannot read. It makes stuff look cool but is entirely superficial.

 

[Waifu Days]

I have no critique of gnosticism. Mouth breathers on the Internet are smug pseudo intellectuals that deserve my scorn... and not much else.
Sing along if you know the words.

 

[Max Caulfield]

Christianity teaches

Quirky how every time Gnosticism gets brought up the Christian Dogs get rabid.

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

Who let the dogs out?

Who who who who

 

[FeatherPlucker]

YouTube is also filled with occultism and gnostic propaganda right now. I assume there is big money behind pushing it on that population right now. I assume it’s because it (indirectly) promotes transhumanism.

 

[Prokhor Zakharov]

It's easier to do the right thing when evil is all around you.

That doesn't really track.

The only religion that would struggle with the problem of evil is Islam

Why is that? Islam is evil.

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

That doesn't really track.

If you're surrounded by evil, even the slightest good deed would be noticable for miles. It's one thing to drive a man stand up after he slipped on some ice; it's another thing to help a man to his feet while he's getting beat up by ten thugs at once.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

4chan is too easy to manipulate these days with bots, moderator meddling, and discord astroturfs that there is no reason to believe any opinion on it is genuine.

 

[Prokhor Zakharov]

If you're surrounded by evil, even the slightest good deed would be noticable for miles. It's one thing to drive a man stand up after he slipped on some ice; it's another thing to help a man to his feet while he's getting beat up by ten thugs at once.

Given human social psychology it is way harder to go against the group than to just do the wrong thing. See Nazi Germany for a good example.

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

See Nazi Germany for a good example.

Oskar Schindler would've been yet another exploitative corporate fat cat, had he not lived under a regime where his actions ended up saving 1200 people from extermination camps. He wasn't a good person; he was morally bankrupt and yet he still managed to find redemption in a sea of evil.