“I want to have a unique political ideology because I’m a really smart and clever person with a lot of interesting ideas in my brain, so I’ve decided to become a contrarian by being a monarchist and because most people have no idea how to even begin to engage with those arguments without just being confused, I’ll take that as victories when I talk to people”
people who are like “well, maybe fascism and communism and capitalism are bad, and we need to think of something new to save humanity from XYZ” tend to be drawn to these kinds of things I find.
a key part of growing up as a politically aware person, particularly in the West where these kinds of weird things can spread due to lack of material demands, is realizing that you’re not actually that clever, let alone inherently superior to others, and that most political ideologies and ideas relevant to current conditions have already been thought up and written down because there’s been so many people to think them and we’ve been in this godsforsaken stage of capitalism a century longer than we should have been
Brilliantly put. People in the west are told implicitly or explicitly, that they, as an individual are important. So they assume their ideas are both original and correct, because they are the main character. And people are taught that intelligence is an innate quality, something you’re born with, rather than a skill. So anyone who gets their ideas challenged will take it personally, as they see it as an attack on them, the important individual and on their intelligence.
Nothing screams “I was that wannabe edgy kid in high school who was actually just really cringy.” more than someone who says they are a “Monarchist.”
“I want to have a unique political ideology because I’m a really smart and clever person with a lot of interesting ideas in my brain, so I’ve decided to become a contrarian by being a monarchist and because most people have no idea how to even begin to engage with those arguments without just being confused, I’ll take that as victories when I talk to people”
people who are like “well, maybe fascism and communism and capitalism are bad, and we need to think of something new to save humanity from XYZ” tend to be drawn to these kinds of things I find.
a key part of growing up as a politically aware person, particularly in the West where these kinds of weird things can spread due to lack of material demands, is realizing that you’re not actually that clever, let alone inherently superior to others, and that most political ideologies and ideas relevant to current conditions have already been thought up and written down because there’s been so many people to think them and we’ve been in this godsforsaken stage of capitalism a century longer than we should have been
Brilliantly put. People in the west are told implicitly or explicitly, that they, as an individual are important. So they assume their ideas are both original and correct, because they are the main character. And people are taught that intelligence is an innate quality, something you’re born with, rather than a skill. So anyone who gets their ideas challenged will take it personally, as they see it as an attack on them, the important individual and on their intelligence.