- Joined
- Dec 20, 2022
Let me begin by describing three very different, yet very similar, people:
The first guy watches cable news. He's had all his vaccines. He loves science yet seldom reads past the headlines that show up on his social media feed. When Twitter was Twitter, he had all the Ukraine, BLM, LGBT, etc. iconography in his bio. Now that it's X, he seldom uses it if at all. The extent of his political discourse is slogans and disparaging the unenlightened masses.
He is an NPC.
The next guy gets his news from some form of "alt-media." He hasn't had so much as a flu shot in his entire adult life. He has a distrust of "the experts" while accepting just about anything he reads on The Internet as long as it involves a conspiracy. He's most likely a racially conscious white guy.
He favors anonymous or pseudonymous platforms like 4chan or Telegram. The extent of his political discourse is slogans and disparaging the unenlightened masses.
He is an NPC.
Finally we have "just some guy." He doesn't spend much time online. He wakes up, goes to work, engages with the people he cares about, does his chores, and goes to bed. He has a vague tendency to agree with one of the two previous people. He certainly has a preference on who he wants to spend time around.
He probably has social media accounts on the major platforms for professional or social reasons but isn't particularly active. You won't often see him engaging in political discourse at all.
He is an NPC.
What causes this? Well it's not stupidity, believe it or not. Many of them are probably more intelligent than most "true thinkers."
What links these three is that they simply don't have the time, energy, or desire to put any meaningful thought on politics or philosophy or really much of anything that doesn't directly pertain to their personal wants, aspirations, and vices. Look no further than this site and how the majority of the community views this subsection to see this in action.
Most people don't actually give a shit. They'd rather focus their efforts on things they actually do give a shit about. Their political views are a reflection of the tribe they belong to and not a result of any meaningful research. Most of the research they do is the bare minimum required to affirm this position to other's who are similarly disinterested. Everything they believe, they do because they were told to by someone that they trust.
And it's a damn good strategy for most people.
As for the "true thinkers," those with the time, energy, and desire to meaningfully research the broad variety of topics that "politics" encompasses while carefully parsing out fact from fiction and critically examining who is to be trusted: they simply have nothing more productive they'd rather be doing with this time, energy, and drive. And unless there is some sort of professional reason for such pursuits, it's not any different from taking on video games or watching anime as a pastime. And it can be every bit as alienating when such interests reach socially inappropriate levels.
As for the media's place in all of this: NPC's have a nasty tendency of putting the cart before the horse here.
The right-wing NPC's are very explicit on their views of the media to a degree where it's easy to lampoon their conflation between "doing your own research" and "watching some guy's shitty YouTube video." So I'll just leave it at that.
The left is a bit more implicit, perhaps insidious. Their desire to inject gay nigger AIDS into all facets of pop culture and making places of prominence more "diverse" is a reflection of their impression that the average person is simply a sponge that soaks up whatever narrative they are fed. How many times have you heard/read the difference between sex and gender explained to you in exactly the same way? How many times have you seen histrionics about Russian collusion or misinformation? How may times have you been "ackchually'd" about the state of the economy?
They truly, honestly, believe that the reason dissidents exist at all is because they haven't been exposed to the right information. The only reason people don't trust the experts is because Fox News and evangelical preachers told them not to. If only niggers could see more black rocket surgeons on TV, they'd be motivated to stop smoking crack and raping all day.
They think culture is downstream from media to such a childishly exaggerated degree that they often don't know where to go next when "explaining" doesn't work.
The reality, of course, is that people will, and always did, seek out people from within their own tribe that they trust to give them the information they need to feel informed.
The media didn't tell them what tribe they should belong to. Their tribe told them what media to consume.
The first guy watches cable news. He's had all his vaccines. He loves science yet seldom reads past the headlines that show up on his social media feed. When Twitter was Twitter, he had all the Ukraine, BLM, LGBT, etc. iconography in his bio. Now that it's X, he seldom uses it if at all. The extent of his political discourse is slogans and disparaging the unenlightened masses.
He is an NPC.
The next guy gets his news from some form of "alt-media." He hasn't had so much as a flu shot in his entire adult life. He has a distrust of "the experts" while accepting just about anything he reads on The Internet as long as it involves a conspiracy. He's most likely a racially conscious white guy.
He favors anonymous or pseudonymous platforms like 4chan or Telegram. The extent of his political discourse is slogans and disparaging the unenlightened masses.
He is an NPC.
Finally we have "just some guy." He doesn't spend much time online. He wakes up, goes to work, engages with the people he cares about, does his chores, and goes to bed. He has a vague tendency to agree with one of the two previous people. He certainly has a preference on who he wants to spend time around.
He probably has social media accounts on the major platforms for professional or social reasons but isn't particularly active. You won't often see him engaging in political discourse at all.
He is an NPC.
What causes this? Well it's not stupidity, believe it or not. Many of them are probably more intelligent than most "true thinkers."
What links these three is that they simply don't have the time, energy, or desire to put any meaningful thought on politics or philosophy or really much of anything that doesn't directly pertain to their personal wants, aspirations, and vices. Look no further than this site and how the majority of the community views this subsection to see this in action.
Most people don't actually give a shit. They'd rather focus their efforts on things they actually do give a shit about. Their political views are a reflection of the tribe they belong to and not a result of any meaningful research. Most of the research they do is the bare minimum required to affirm this position to other's who are similarly disinterested. Everything they believe, they do because they were told to by someone that they trust.
And it's a damn good strategy for most people.
As for the "true thinkers," those with the time, energy, and desire to meaningfully research the broad variety of topics that "politics" encompasses while carefully parsing out fact from fiction and critically examining who is to be trusted: they simply have nothing more productive they'd rather be doing with this time, energy, and drive. And unless there is some sort of professional reason for such pursuits, it's not any different from taking on video games or watching anime as a pastime. And it can be every bit as alienating when such interests reach socially inappropriate levels.
As for the media's place in all of this: NPC's have a nasty tendency of putting the cart before the horse here.
The right-wing NPC's are very explicit on their views of the media to a degree where it's easy to lampoon their conflation between "doing your own research" and "watching some guy's shitty YouTube video." So I'll just leave it at that.
The left is a bit more implicit, perhaps insidious. Their desire to inject gay nigger AIDS into all facets of pop culture and making places of prominence more "diverse" is a reflection of their impression that the average person is simply a sponge that soaks up whatever narrative they are fed. How many times have you heard/read the difference between sex and gender explained to you in exactly the same way? How many times have you seen histrionics about Russian collusion or misinformation? How may times have you been "ackchually'd" about the state of the economy?
They truly, honestly, believe that the reason dissidents exist at all is because they haven't been exposed to the right information. The only reason people don't trust the experts is because Fox News and evangelical preachers told them not to. If only niggers could see more black rocket surgeons on TV, they'd be motivated to stop smoking crack and raping all day.
They think culture is downstream from media to such a childishly exaggerated degree that they often don't know where to go next when "explaining" doesn't work.
The reality, of course, is that people will, and always did, seek out people from within their own tribe that they trust to give them the information they need to feel informed.
The media didn't tell them what tribe they should belong to. Their tribe told them what media to consume.
