Oddbean

I've noticed there's a certain class of person, whose beliefs are optimized for social and professional convenience, who looks with pity and judgment on me and my family for holding in their view suboptimal ones. They have meticulously configured their world views to fit in rather than to look for what’s true. They see as true what’s socially and professionally convenient and have no regard for whether it checks out in reality or for first principles. Or put differently, “reality” to them IS the social and professional reality. Beliefs are simply tools to navigate that optimally, and my tools are (and they are actually right about this) woefully, *tragically* suboptimal for that purpose. They wonder — “what happened to him?” And they laugh about all the “conspiracy theories” and “right-wing tropes” for which I have fallen. Because like them, I too am an educated laptop-class person, I know a lot of these people. And because they are in my social circles (mostly via my wife), I have largely tolerated them. But I’m getting sick of it. I have no ill-will toward them, but I am tired of buying into the frame that what they are doing is somehow “normal”. It’s not normal to deny reality, to believe lies, to believe the people who lied to your repeatedly, to cut yourself off from good information in order to maintain a narrative, to think emotionally rather than rationally, to use your reasoning to defend the indefensible beliefs you hold, to download talking points uncritically. It’s not just bizarre but I’m starting to think it’s actually pathological. . . . I watched some videos by Matthias Desmet on Mass Formation Psychosis during the “pandemic” and he points out that MFP isn’t what you might think, like people running naked through the streets during a manic episode. It’s more that they narrow the parameters of their worldviews so tightly as a mechanism for coping with the extreme anxiety, and they do not deviate from those narrow lanes. And that’s what it really is — psychosis. All these “normal” people feeling sorry for you because you are not optimizing for fiat social and professional advancement are actually in a state of psychosis. You can humor them, assume they’re just pretending for a bit out of convenience, but after a while, you realize they’re in much deeper than that, and you’re not sure if they’re coming back. . . . I used to think I could persuade people via reasoning of my point of view and if they had a good counterargument I might learn something, evolve my thinking. But now I realize that really does not apply to a large swath of the population who are downloading their views from some outsourced sense-making machine to which they’ve pledged their fealty. There is no conversation to be had, no real exchange of ideas possible. And as such there is sadly no value in maintaining the relationship, either.

They are stuck in the matrix and don’t realize it. You have escaped and can see beyond their worldview. They have cognitive dissonance when you confront them with inconvenient facts. The rare person will reevaluate their beliefs but large majority won’t. It’s a fork in the road for them and most will take the direction they were already on and drift away from you. You will naturally gravitate towards others who have changed their perspective and gain new friends and allies. No need to feel bad or look back.

I’m from Sweden. The level of brainwashing the public is subjected to there is simply unbelievable. And the brainwashed people have no interest in dirty their brains with truth. In their brains the world is about to succumb to ”climate change” if we don’t institute global communism through UN, WHO etc. In their brains Trump is not only stupid and evil, he is also gonna steal the Americans’ DEMOCRACY. Etc. Etc. It’s like a giant zombie sect. Thank God I have two young grown up kids, daughter and son, who both prioritize the truth! If they were on the brainwashed side I would be really sad.

Keep your dialogue with your daughter living! A couple of years ago my daughter who is a designer and artist started to show signs of(at least that was my interpretation) ”climate emergency angst” but she’s intelligent and open for rational reasoning. So I reasoned with her and she never bought the hysteria. And then she got very interested in Jordan Peterson’s books and podcasts and that further strengthened her in her ambition to live a life in truth which initially can be more cumbersome but in the long term is much more ”energy effective”; you don’t waste your precious time and energy with trying to please others and you don’t have to keep track of all your little lies so to speak.

The best way to produce a kid who can think for themselves and loves learning and seeking the truth is to homeschool them. I don't understand people who don't love to read. I don't understand people who don't seek the truth. I don't understand people who blindly repeat what they are told with out verifying.

Ayn Rand called this Social Metaphysics. Exactly this: nostr:nevent1qqsdx22qdr9lyq0v3v683egjsn6j72txfgz2rx29tgwp5968uk0555gppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgsx45lz5dyp3v2neq0533v0gnj3n8nmflydhcmczzsqph8rey9hwsqrqsqqqqqp6hc9x5

Recently I met a person like this, who was spamming conversation with some NPC bulshit. After that, I thought that perhaps an effective strategy would be to use subtle mocking and ridicule in order to make her recosider, since she clearly demonstrated that she is susceptible to social approval/disaproval as opposed to reason. To me this does not come naturally and feels dirty, but it might be the best move when arguments are not enough.

It's sad to see. My childhood best friend, who I'm still close to but drifting from, has decided to go full NPC. One of the most intelligent people I know (Rhodes scholar + doctorate) regularly repeats The Economist to me, and doesn't see how his job of investing in "green energy" has made him a zealot of the regime (laughed at me for having a copy of Fossil Future). Main thing I've noticed about him over the years is that his fiat success has been tied to his ability to navigate new social domains. It's an aptitude for taking on new sets of socially acceptable beliefs. The most sadly comic moment of the last few years was when he asked me (2021) to help advise him on some shitcoin startup his company was considering investing in - after years of dismissing me imploring him to look closer at Bitcoin, he was suddenly an expert and proudly showing off his chance to invest in a project who's pitch was that they'd invented a new coin that solved the energy and centralisation issues of Bitcoin 🤡