straycat on Nostr: The kool-aid theory of social cohesion: People demonstrate allegiance to a tribe by ...
The kool-aid theory of social cohesion:
People demonstrate allegiance to a tribe by drinking tribal kool-aid. The more offensive the kool aid is to outsiders, the greater the demonstration of allegiance.
Internalization of tribe-specific delusions and hypocrisies becomes interpreted by the tribe as virtue. Virtue signaling = drinking the kool aid as publicly as possible.
This explains why brilliant people sometimes double down on their delusions and hypocrisies.
I’m just starting to listen to Jordan Peterson and Gad Saad discuss “Why do smart people double down on bad ideas?” I’m betting their explanation does NOT encompass Kool-Aid Theory. Why not? Because no one wants to admit that we ALL do this, under normal circumstances, to some extent.
https://fountain.fm/episode/klVD52Rl3geoaR3EmTo9Published at
2025-06-10 10:30:32Event JSON
{
"id": "74946ab3d8c16b376e7833a08d56e32ee28e235b46d26972290ad9cb65c66dfe",
"pubkey": "e5272de914bd301755c439b88e6959a43c9d2664831f093c51e9c799a16a102f",
"created_at": 1749551432,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [],
"content": "The kool-aid theory of social cohesion:\n\nPeople demonstrate allegiance to a tribe by drinking tribal kool-aid. The more offensive the kool aid is to outsiders, the greater the demonstration of allegiance. \n\nInternalization of tribe-specific delusions and hypocrisies becomes interpreted by the tribe as virtue. Virtue signaling = drinking the kool aid as publicly as possible.\n\nThis explains why brilliant people sometimes double down on their delusions and hypocrisies.\n\nI’m just starting to listen to Jordan Peterson and Gad Saad discuss “Why do smart people double down on bad ideas?” I’m betting their explanation does NOT encompass Kool-Aid Theory. Why not? Because no one wants to admit that we ALL do this, under normal circumstances, to some extent.\n\nhttps://fountain.fm/episode/klVD52Rl3geoaR3EmTo9",
"sig": "f5d63f10e45cdc92401c0657fad145575276e6847101eb8375a8a2433db602aa0b24c42e59b4a9dac66eaf9bbed80698b295dfa32e9a12c54787a5d24ba4af71"
}
