The lack of pushback is not an inherent quality of models, but the lack of priming. With the system prompt I use, Gemini 2.5 Pro gives me the following answer to the first example:
The initial formulation’s strength lies in its recognition of the real, homogenizing pressures exerted by large-scale social systems. These pressures are not imaginary.
However, the model’s critical failure is its attribution of these pressures to intentional, malicious design and its adoption as the sole explanatory framework. This creates a brittle, disempowering, and non-falsifiable worldview.
A more robust synthesis would be to hold two ideas in tension:
External systems exert real pressures that can stifle individuality and cause genuine distress.
Our internal interpretation of these pressures is governed by cognitive frameworks that can either empower us to navigate them strategically or trap us in narratives of persecution and paralysis.
The key operational question shifts from “How is the system designed to suppress me?” to “Given the observable, indifferent pressures of the system, what internal models and external strategies will be most effective for navigating it to achieve my objectives?”
The lack of pushback is not an inherent quality of models, but the lack of priming. With the system prompt I use, Gemini 2.5 Pro gives me the following answer to the first example: