On Special Snowflake-ism, part II: The Cause

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Primates are pack-based animals, and there's no denying that humans are a form of primate.  Thing is, "the pack" in the brains of a primate has a finite size.  This has been referred to by others as "the monkey sphere", outside of which, you simply don't give a shit.

Now, given a world population of ~7.23 billion humans, and given (for example) a national population of 312 million humans, it is damn near impossible to think of the world or even your nation as your tribe.  Even the "patriotic" yahoos always take a moment to exclude those who aren't, in their opinion, "real Americans" (generally "everyone who doesn't agree with me on all things").

So naturally, humans go off looking for other criteria for a tribe.  In today's society, the easiest tribal banner to rally under is The Cause.  The Cause can be any number of things, but almost always requires a uniform of one kind or another.  Feminism, "militant transgenderism" (as demonstrated by #fuckcispeople, for example), teabaggerism, etc.

Some of these are not bad concepts in and of themselves, but the problem begins when The Cause is taken by its adherents as existing in a vacuum.  The sole criteria for being in the tribe is whether or not you adhere religiously to The Cause, and the only way to gain status in the tribe is to be the biggest whackjob in sight.  I will give two examples.

1.  Teabaggerism.  To be a proper teabagger now, you have to be the one sprinting farthest PAST the right wing and out into Crazytown, USA, population YOU.  If there's anyone else near you, you have FAILED and are probably some kind of crypto-liberal fifth-columnist. 

2.  Militant transgenderism.  To be in the tribe, you have to espouse the same exact hate used by those who indulge in "Gay panic".  That is to say, you not only CAN hate, you MUST hate, rationalizing that hate as fear-driven.  If you aren't spewing hate for those unlike yourself, then you're some kind of wishy-washy "cookie-seeker" or "ally" (said with a sneer, mind you).

In both cases, you can only be a special snowflake by being not only UNDER the blanket, but in the DEAD CENTER of the blanket, huffing the maximum atmospheric density of the tribe's farts.  It's not activism, it's narcissism.

And an outsider can see this from a mile away, as the Special Snowflake involved will puff up like a frog at the first sign of an opposing view, no matter how correct or incorrect.  Furthermore, the Special Snowflake's greatest wrath is reserved not for outsiders, but for those who are doing it wrong.

Another good "tell" for a Special Snowflake is whether or not they're there to defend That Other Guy.  Example:  Cultural appropriation.  If someone laughs at the White trust fund baby wearing dreadlocks, well, that's the natural reaction to someone who LOOKS LIKE A DUMBASS.  On the other hand, watching an equally White person go rigid with indignation and then erupt like Goddamn Mount Krakatoa over it is kind of patronizing, isn't it?  You know, "Those People can't possibly stick up for themselves in a case like that, so I shall shoulder The White Man's Burden and do it for them".  Which is not to say that you shouldn't slap down people who think saying "nigger" or "spic" at a family gathering is tolerable, mind you...But to install yourself as the guardian of someone else's cultural turf is damn near as bad as the yahoo at the family gathering, when you get right down to it.

Because you aren't really doing it for Those People, are you?  No.  You're doing it to show THEM and YOUR PEERS just exactly what a SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE you are.  Same thing with the first two examples.  You ARE communicating, but you're NOT communicating to people outside of your tribe, you're CLOSING DOWN ALL COMMUNICATION to the outside, while bellowing your status to your tribe.

Do you define your cause, or does your cause define you?  One way means you have beliefs.  The other way means you may as well jam a Brad Pitt hat on your head, because you're already a hipster and therefore a joke.

But, you know, the joke gets old fast.  Which will probably be taken by Special Snowflakes to mean something other than "the joke gets old fast".  I don't care.

Or Kill Me.

[EK WAFFLR]

This is fucking fantastic!

[LMNO]

Right on, brother man!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Part III later.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Another good "tell" for a Special Snowflake is whether or not they're there to defend That Other Guy.  Example:  Cultural appropriation.  If someone laughs at the White trust fund baby wearing dreadlocks, well, that's the natural reaction to someone who LOOKS LIKE A DUMBASS.  On the other hand, watching an equally White person go rigid with indignation and then erupt like Goddamn Mount Krakatoa over it is kind of patronizing, isn't it?  You know, "Those People can't possibly stick up for themselves in a case like that, so I shall shoulder The White Man's Burden and do it for them".  Which is not to say that you shouldn't slap down people who think saying "nigger" or "spic" at a family gathering is tolerable, mind you...But to install yourself as the guardian of someone else's cultural turf is damn near as bad as the yahoo at the family gathering, when you get right down to it.

I've been getting Villager in to DS9, and we were watching an episode over the weekend involving a Cardassian kid raised as a Bajoran, and he was staying with the O'Briens.

Myles of course had a typically racist thing to say about Cardassians, because he's kinda racist against Cardassians. Keiko chides him and then goes on to serve Cardassian food for dinner on the grounds that the kid was Cardassian. Never mind that he'd grown up eating Bajoran food and would probably prefer that. So, we were laughing more at her- she was just as racist as Myles was, but from that defender of the other type of racism.

[Junkenstein]

Do you define your cause, or does your cause define you?  One way means you have beliefs.  The other way means you may as well jam a Brad Pitt hat on your head, because you're already a hipster and therefore a joke.

This. THIS. The ability humans have to groupthink and see no problems with the logic within the group is probably one of the major things fucking EVERYTHING up. Problems are only seen by an external group and you can't pay any attention to them because they're not One Of Us.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Do you define your cause, or does your cause define you?  One way means you have beliefs.  The other way means you may as well jam a Brad Pitt hat on your head, because you're already a hipster and therefore a joke.

This. THIS. The ability humans have to groupthink and see no problems with the logic within the group is probably one of the major things fucking EVERYTHING up. Problems are only seen by an external group and you can't pay any attention to them because they're not One Of Us.

Groupthink actually has valid applications inside of a very narrow framework.  Of course, it's also the EASIEST way to get by, so it is often applied to everything.  With predictable results.

[Junkenstein]

Do you define your cause, or does your cause define you?  One way means you have beliefs.  The other way means you may as well jam a Brad Pitt hat on your head, because you're already a hipster and therefore a joke.

This. THIS. The ability humans have to groupthink and see no problems with the logic within the group is probably one of the major things fucking EVERYTHING up. Problems are only seen by an external group and you can't pay any attention to them because they're not One Of Us.

Groupthink actually has valid applications inside of a very narrow framework.  Of course, it's also the EASIEST way to get by, so it is often applied to everything.  With predictable results.

Could I get an example? Think brain is shutting down for the day now.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Do you define your cause, or does your cause define you?  One way means you have beliefs.  The other way means you may as well jam a Brad Pitt hat on your head, because you're already a hipster and therefore a joke.

This. THIS. The ability humans have to groupthink and see no problems with the logic within the group is probably one of the major things fucking EVERYTHING up. Problems are only seen by an external group and you can't pay any attention to them because they're not One Of Us.

Groupthink actually has valid applications inside of a very narrow framework.  Of course, it's also the EASIEST way to get by, so it is often applied to everything.  With predictable results.

Could I get an example? Think brain is shutting down for the day now.

The military.
Industrial applications (crane lifts, etc).
Any situation that REQUIRES a fortress mentality.
Any other situation where everyone has to act in concert.

[Junkenstein]

Got it. Confirms brain gone to shit as that was kind of what I was thinking.

I think I see what you are getting at too. Groups tend to end up in binary positions. X is good OR bad, rarely a bit of both. Subtleties are not easily communicated to (large?) groups. This is probably re-enforced by the economic realities of the world. A good thing for them is a bad thing for us. More good things must happen to Us or we will be Fucked.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Got it. Confirms brain gone to shit as that was kind of what I was thinking.

I think I see what you are getting at too. Groups tend to end up in binary positions. X is good OR bad, rarely a bit of both. Subtleties are not easily communicated to (large?) groups. This is probably re-enforced by the economic realities of the world. A good thing for them is a bad thing for us. More good things must happen to Us or we will be Fucked.

Anything more than 7 participants, and new thoughts are more or less impossible.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This should be required reading for ALL HUMANS.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This should be required reading for ALL HUMANS.

Aw, thanks.

Number III was a bit more pointed.  Applied, one might say.

[P3nT4gR4m]

This series is gold. Moving onto pt3 now ... I'm quite the traditionalist that way.

[Ixxie]

Nice post, I have been thinking about similar issues for a while now. Basically then - if I understand correctly - its the case of 'the map is not the territory' for social labels (i.e. Cultural Identity). But ironically is this not the very issue that blurs the lines of 'cultural turf'? I guess it's awareness of this blurriness that would make one all the more weary about asserting to much about unfamiliar turf.

I think your argument could be enhanced with sociocultural evolutionary theory - where Culture is defined as socially transmittable behavior (the functional and observable analogue to the meme). Thus defined - culture can be as seemingly small as the behavior of repeating the phrase 'the pool is on the roof' and as seemingly grand as stating 'I am a member of cult X'. On a conceptual hierarchy these things seem to be on different levels but behaviorally they amount to a verbal statement. So Cultural Identification under this scheme is only the behavior of signalling association with that banner, which is not necessarily behavior which is actually supporting it logically, pragmatically or even philosophically. They talk the talk but can't walk the walk.

So what in the vernacular is called 'a culture' becomes a wide repertoire of cultural traits clustered together - sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly - by a certain degree of association. Cultural Identity on the other hand is expressed in varying degrees by these traits - being a Scientist one often uses a computer, but using a computer is not a trait that distinguishes the identity of a Scientist from a Non-Scientist. My sense of the concept of Cultural Appropriation is more about the appropriation of Identity than of any old trait; I can eat a cook Indian food without appropriating Indian Identity. Clearly this is a fine line - and that if I start also dressing in traditional Indian garb and imitating an Indian accent, this starts to become fishy (although maybe less so if I lived in India for 30 years). This is compounded by the diversity of ways we have for affirming identity both individually and socially - often very context dependent. Some you are born into, others you are initiated into, others still you must be imbued with by extended association. Context, Context, Context!