You joke, but this is actually a pattern I see a lot. Is there a term for this sort of brain dead contrarianism? Ive noticed it for years, mostly among GenX where they will zealously defend any idea/action they heard thats against mainstream narrative.
It’s like a “stick it to the man teenager” stereotype but these people are fucking 50+ years old now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism
Mixed more generally with this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism
Someone who is anti-intellectual doesn't believe that their theory of the world being flat (or whatever) is actually a rigorous idea. Being "right" isn't even part of the thought process. They have an issue with science and the intellectual process itself and see those who practice it to be an outsider to their worldview.
This is why so many people fail to convince flat-earthers that the world is round. Because they don't really give a shit about what shape the earth is, they just have contempt for the intellectualism that says it is.
I suspect many of these people are insecure about their own lack of knowledge, and so by rejecting a mainstream narrative of science they can feel in-control of their own sense of intellect.
Collectively we should really be getting angry with wealth inequality but those with wealth stir up any number of other issues (e.g. race, religion, gender, etc) in order to divert attention from them continuing to get richer at our collective expense.
Depending on who you ask, those same topics are considered distractions from any other topic including each other.
What you're really describing is the attention bottleneck in a western democratic society where everybody wants the world to see things their way. That's the wrong mindset for democracy to work. If you want people to believe something it's simple: don't be wrong. Don't be vague and don't be misleading. Stop assuming the opposing side is stupid. Just speak clearly.
We really should blame ourselves for coming to every discussion with trivially incorrect arguments. People are so lazy these days. Slacktivism and terrorism used to be the extremes reserved for the ignorant. We used to shame and mock those people.
But individually we're unable to abandon YouTube, iPhones and Windows 11. America's biggest B2C companies can do whatever they want and we'll all lap it up.
You can be a customer of large companies and still be angry that large capital holders are tremendously advantaged in many ways.
Microsoft, Google and Apple all decided to side with the fed. Your outrage is inconsequential to them, and with the sum they spend on lobbying it's doubtful that your vote even matters to them either.
He argued that in WW2, the people who were not able to question what they were doing were enabling a lot of the cruelty [0].
[0] https://bigthink.com/thinking/bonhoeffers-theory-stupidity-e...
GenX grew up during an era when hyper-capitalism began to take off. Manufacturing was offshored and layoffs became commonplace. Government institutions were privatized and subcontracting gave companies ways to abdicate responsibility. The corporate world didn't care about building a company and brand for the long haul, it was shareholder value and quarterly earnings. We watched our parents work their assess off for companies and then get tossed out in the name of a few more cents per share. So no one was motivated to follow the traditional Western dream when there was no assurance of any sustainable life at the end of that grind.
GenX was far more civic minded than you give them credit for. The term "political correctness" entered the lexicon because of the work GenX college students were doing to try to combat racism, sexism, and homophobia. We marched against apartheid, raised money for Amnesty International and Greenpeace, and AIDS awareness. We were the first to carry around reusable mugs for coffee and drinks and got recycling mainstreamed.
Generational warfare, like class warfare, is designed to keep us at each others' throats instead of realizing that, no matter what generation, a wealthy few hold the true power.
And then they didn't blow up the world. Well, crud. What do we do with ourselves now?
I'm not even slightly exaggerating, by the way. About half the popular media was depictions of how the US would blow up Russia, Russia would blow up the US, or what live would be like after the US and Russia blew each other up. Red Dawn. Most movies with Sylvester Stallone. The Day After. Threads. I assure you those weren't kitschy, ironic things we winked at. We generationally kinda reconciled ourselves to the idea we'd never grow old enough to drink. And then, we were labeled "slackers" for not having followed the same traditional routes as previous generations.
I'm hugely sympathetic to Gen Alpha. I get it, kiddos. I see you there, and I understand.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2118631119
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/117h6n5/ge...
Also, drivers in <my city> are really the worst.
Replace "cocktail party" with "social media" and you've described Millennials.
Reactionary[0]? Trump and the MAGA movement embody this desire to return to the "golden age" which is an idealized period in the 1950s where you had a factory job, a house, a family, and a simple life. Of course, "idealized" is the keyword there because it ignores the state of civil rights, medicine, workplace & car safety, etc. at that point in time.
Anyway, I think that's the term you're looking for. Contrarians are annoying, reactionaries are more akin to cult followers.
They have decades of Fox News brainwashing them into radicalization. The groups they hate are "plotting against them and looking down on them." The concept of returning to some idealized past is a superficial veneer over their actual desires: to harm the groups they disdain.
Things like this allow you to prove for one that your leader is above you, and that you are loyal, unlike some other people who hence are beneath you.
This is why evangelicals can stomach Trump, he gives them an opportunity to have someone above them and for them to struggle with loyalty. It is more important to them than whether he has pressured someone to have an abortion or somesuch that does not fit the ethics they promote.
It is also why so many on the right and in fascist movements endure suffering caused by their leaders and don't hold them accountable to their promises. The ongoing wars of aggression that the US is partaking in is splitting the MAGA movement into the more conservative wing that isn't as uncompromising with their lust for hierarchy as the fully neo-fascist wing, who are going to try and weather pretty much any absurdities, any suffering they are exposed to.