Why do mainstream folk love to label everything unknown a myth?

Question

I'm tired of mainstream folk. They are close-minded. They are the majority. They are fearful. They are deceptive. They are manipulative. Their strength is in their numbers and nothing more.
Mainstream society is a disease on human civillization. Don't get sucked in. Live outside the box. Think for yourself. Don't be fed intellectual bullcrap.



"Mainstream media, and society are an immense system of robots creating more robots." ---Truthseeker

"Mainstream folk are all alike. They are drones. The media is God to them. CNN is the gospel truth. Any new ideas or concepts are considered myths and anti-society. All symptons of brainwashing. " ---Psychology Major

"Smoking wasn't bad until the goverment through the media told people it was 10 years ago. Mainstream society is scary, indeed." ---Political adviser.

How can the majority be a target? Utter ridiculousness, Tuna.

***Thanks for demonstrating my point on brainwashing, though.

And Black, you missed the whole point of the question. It futher demonstrates my point that you are brainwashed and will do anything to defend mainstream views.

Answer 1

I don't have an answer for you but I do agree with you.

Answer 2

You make "myth" sound like a bad thing. This implies that you are more "mainstream" than you think.

In its most essential form, a "myth" is the existential background against which you live your life. It may be as simple as a few core beliefs or as grand as a poetic saga full of gods and heroes. It only needs to be something that can't be verified directly. That is not its purpose. It's purpose is to guide your decisions.

There is a difference between "mainstream media" and what you call "mainstream folk". The media are an indoctrination tool, the folk are the members of a culture who agree with the predominant myths and ethics, whether they agree with the indoctrination or not.

Some commonly held ideas are very useful, like traffic laws and ideas about which substances are poison. Some are debatable, like methods of civil governance or how to treat some diseases. And there are also predominant but bad ideas, such as "reality TV", although the culture doesn't recognize them yet.

People who subscribe to unorthodox beliefs can expect to get some friction from your "mainstream folk" because they require extra thought processing. They are seen as "troublemakers", complicating life for no good reason.

But sometimes that's true. There are crackpot ideas and philosophies in the world that do far more harm than good. Tolerating a discredited idea can be a waste of social resources. But if enough people believe in the idea despite its invalidity, it's hard to suppress. People have the freedom to make up their own minds.

That makes it hard to get a good, but troublesome, idea into circulation. The majority may be deluded by a long-held tradition, or may not even believe in it anymore. But they already know the routine. Change is all about abandoning old knowledge and learning new. That can be more painful than clinging to a delusion.

Your third quote, about smoking, is an ironic example of "mainstream" thought. Before the Surgeon General's warning in 1964, cigarette companies actually advertized the "health" effects of smoking and got "doctors" to appear in their ads. It took decades of persuasion and mountains of medical evidence to turn the tide of public opinion. But it finally did, despite the protestations and pseudo-scientific pronouncements of tobacco companies. Now your "Political Adviser" is desperately trying to argue that changing one's mind is proof that one doesn't know anything.

There is a battle for the attention of the majority of people. Political, religious and economic leaders do their best to steer the majority into the most convenient beliefs. Dissidents shout out various, contradictory claims to "the truth", but one can't automatically tell which one is right. There is a natural temptation to listen to the loudest, most persistent voice.

But deception can only go on so long. Eventually, it becomes obvious when the shepherds have been working against the interests of the sheep. (Yes, it can take a very long time.) If an idea is the truth, it will eventually be vindicated by experience.

Your "mainstream folk" ARE close-minded and fearful, but they are more manipulated than manipulating, more deceived than intentionally deceiving. They try to keep life as simple as possible, despite the distortions that result, because the alternative is chaos.

"Mainstream society" IS "civilisation", not its disease. It may be an impediment to social development, but speed is not always a good thing. Consider the speed at which the rational, organized philosophies of fascism spread across Europe in the 1930s. It's hard to wait for a good idea to take hold, but every idea needs to be tested.

Think, question, analyze, hypothesize. Don't take information or assumptions at face value. Most people won't make the effort, but those who do have an obligation to share what they discover. It may hurt, and they may not even be right, but the more the pot is stirred, the better the chance that our course will change for the better. The biggest challenge is to get people to think at all. Our leaders are doing their level best to stamp that out.

Answer 3

Funny how you chose an unattribuatble quote featuring CNN and not FOX News...

In fact, all your quotes are unattributed really. I'm not saying that your premise that the vast majority of people are sheep is wrong (look at the success of so-called "shepherds"...) Rather that you could have found at least one named individual to take credit for the thoughts...

Answer 4

The mainstream is a moving target, which chnages moment by moment. There is no permanent mainstream. Get over it.