I stole the title of this post from a 2010 article in a now frozen website. It started like this:
The continued expansion of the internet has brought with it a surge in information, analysis, opinion and insight. At the same time the vast mental and social freedom in cyberspace has manifested an exponentially growing forum for self-expression – which ends up serving as virtual playgrounds for the human ego. This complex cyber landscape exists concurrently with accelerating real crises in energy, the economy, and the environment. Thus at the same time that the overall fabric of our social arrangement is shifting, the internet has become an odd melting pot for scientists and preachers, altruists and hucksters, knights and clowns alike. Perhaps I’ve been slow to notice it, but it seems to me that as time passes, on the discussion topics that really matter, the clowns are starting to dominate. Of course, as the goings on in our country more and more resemble a circus, it is no wonder that clowns are rising to the top of many discussions.
At that time it was one of the only 3 places I follow online. Now I have MGTOW in that place. I simply got tired of the internet for the same reasons presented on the above quote. The level of discussion on subjects is very low, and very frequently the arguments are reduced to name-calling. And its getting worst.
I once participated in a forums of international politics, right after 9/11 and during the iraq war. Interesting times! At that time I realized that I was not equipped for that kind of debate. Afterwards, and in many real life situations, I realized that I was also not equipped for discussions.
The last straw was in my work, when I was arguing with a boss from “the opposition”. He was going all over the place. A friend of mine stated:”take it easy, with so many arrows that I cannot see the indians”. To my dismal, the guy was embarrassed and confessed that it was a debating technique.
I felt like an unprepared kid. I was in a sincere and open debate of ideas and the guy was using techniques to win over arguments. That lead me to take 3 online courses on debates, arguing and verbal conflicts.
The training did not solve my problems, but at least it showed me clearly my “faults” and the issues with debate.
The greatest fault I have is to consider the other person’s point of view and to require reason, facts and logic as the debate tools. Most debates (online or offline) have nothing to do with considering different points of view but rather asserting your own. And the tools are usually social or emotional abuse.
Youtube videos and commentaries are the greatest example of this. My kids are permanently there, and I watched my young one becoming a SJW. It works like a gigantic peer pressure infantile playground. If you say something you get a lot of abuse by people that are against it, usually with the complex reasoning “you are a ****”.
What does this have to do with MGTOW? Let us consider the “be this guy” picture. We go “our own way” when everybody is thinking and acting one way and we conclude that it is not for us. We do so despite social or emotional pressure from everybody else. The number of people that follow the same road is simply not important.
If a “different way” suddenly becomes the “normal way”, then it stops being different, doesn’t it? And then you get a reversal of positions, where the shamming goes for those that dare to divert from the new generally accepted norm.
In the end, I conclude, it is all about human nature. We are not intellectual creatures, but rather instinctive, social and emotional creatures. We treat our ideas like a property and aggressiveness is the response to anybody messing with it.
I recognize this in myself. I am finally learning to let go the urge to “debate” outside this site. I am counting the number of replies I do not give as a measure of my success. Some of the replies are already written when I think:what is the point? Do I want to be the serious guy in the middle of a clown fest? Or do I want to become a clown myself?
Stealth and ghost… It is the only reasonable solution.
ILiveAgain 3 years, 8 months ago.
