Despite being recent, this article feels like I could have read it before, and I don’t really agree with it overall, it’s written in like, a vague ‘bothsidesist’ voice, for giving examples more specific would make the article or author’s viewpoint appear too obviously slanted. (and you can write these articles in ways that respect their viewpoints more...) like for example, very commonly “anti-education” and “anti-science” are specific claims of corruption and mismanagement that people also believe spoil the entire group.
Because like, for me it’s very emotionally tempting for me to just believe that people with insane opposing views are just trying to be contrarian, except I’ve seen this accusation lobbed at people who I strongly agree with and came to that conclusion independently.
I think it’s really easy to turn popular opposing narratives for current worldviews into both an anti-”status quo” one. “My outgroup is pro status quo because look at all these popular influencers / richest man in the world / most popular podcast / current ruling government” vs. “My outgroup is pro status quo because all of these media outlets and news sites and education system / current ruling government, pushing the same opinion”.
I will say one true thing about this is how easy it is for this worldview to be a downward spiral of low-trust society, and the absolute lack of fiction trying to paint a better cooperative world. However from my personal experience, severe disillusionment of “The System” can never come from the rules themselves, because there are real people enforcing them. “The System” is not a physical entity. So close friends turned enemies, or bad events happening to friends, in which people bureaucratically and unempathetically cite rules from the system, over a long period of time, that is something that will definitely push you into a level of disgust.
This may also be a thing where, when an article like this is made about Some Mentality—as if it is an abstract element and not because you’ve personally seen this behavior and formed a pattern about it, like the “If you’ve never met any, it is hard to tell you how damaging their demeanour and behaviour can be.” line. I really don’t know if I have met any… even people I dislike this doesn’t feel like it quite fits their motives.
Ironically though, when I was a teenager I was more likely to be seen as a ‘contrarian’ on a far less meaningful scale, where I’d point out negative things like typos believing it was helpful to fix them, with little of my past self giving appreciation to good things, since I thought good things were a lot more obvious and agreed upon than I do now. I didn’t do the stereotypical teenager bad things though, and I still wonder if “they want to conform to friends and every adult around them is deeply uncool” is a more accurate descriptor of those people’s mindsets.
Despite being recent, this article feels like I could have read it before, and I don’t really agree with it overall, it’s written in like, a vague ‘bothsidesist’ voice, for giving examples more specific would make the article or author’s viewpoint appear too obviously slanted. (and you can write these articles in ways that respect their viewpoints more...) like for example, very commonly “anti-education” and “anti-science” are specific claims of corruption and mismanagement that people also believe spoil the entire group.
Because like, for me it’s very emotionally tempting for me to just believe that people with insane opposing views are just trying to be contrarian, except I’ve seen this accusation lobbed at people who I strongly agree with and came to that conclusion independently.
I think it’s really easy to turn popular opposing narratives for current worldviews into both an anti-”status quo” one. “My outgroup is pro status quo because look at all these popular influencers / richest man in the world / most popular podcast / current ruling government” vs. “My outgroup is pro status quo because all of these media outlets and news sites and education system / current ruling government, pushing the same opinion”.
I will say one true thing about this is how easy it is for this worldview to be a downward spiral of low-trust society, and the absolute lack of fiction trying to paint a better cooperative world. However from my personal experience, severe disillusionment of “The System” can never come from the rules themselves, because there are real people enforcing them. “The System” is not a physical entity. So close friends turned enemies, or bad events happening to friends, in which people bureaucratically and unempathetically cite rules from the system, over a long period of time, that is something that will definitely push you into a level of disgust.
This may also be a thing where, when an article like this is made about Some Mentality—as if it is an abstract element and not because you’ve personally seen this behavior and formed a pattern about it, like the “If you’ve never met any, it is hard to tell you how damaging their demeanour and behaviour can be.” line. I really don’t know if I have met any… even people I dislike this doesn’t feel like it quite fits their motives.
Ironically though, when I was a teenager I was more likely to be seen as a ‘contrarian’ on a far less meaningful scale, where I’d point out negative things like typos believing it was helpful to fix them, with little of my past self giving appreciation to good things, since I thought good things were a lot more obvious and agreed upon than I do now. I didn’t do the stereotypical teenager bad things though, and I still wonder if “they want to conform to friends and every adult around them is deeply uncool” is a more accurate descriptor of those people’s mindsets.