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Musk & Savior Beliefs
Nov. 13th, 2022 11:17 amMy dad and I got into a fight about Elon Musk and Twitter last night. My dad has this thing where he thinks he knows more than I do on topics he as zero experience with, and it's incredibly invalidating, so things got really heated. Because he spent about a week on Twitter maybe back in 2010 and I've spent nearly every day on there since 2007. And he was defending Musk using conspiracy theories that didn't pass my smell test. Like, at all. But he defended them passionately, even though he didn't have nearly the stake in the question as I do, and had a fraction of the knowledge I have. He also said he KNEW his beliefs were correct, whereas I was merely pushing what I thought were high probabilities.
So afterward, I began ruminating, as I do (it's terribly unhealthy), and tried to get at what underlying belief my dad was *really* defending. Capitalism is good? Billionaires are perfect? Fox News is right?
No, it's deeper and far less conscious than this. I know what belief he's defending because I once had it: The Chosen Messiah Will Always Save the Day
It's not surprising I had this belief, or that a lot of Americans have it, especially if we've got a Christian background, but it permeates our secular media, too. Luke Skywalker can take down the Death Star by himself. Neo will destroy the Matrix with his sheer talent. Harry Potter will take out Voldemort with his superior wits and power. Sure, their friends helped, but only because they had a single leader strong enough to overcome the overpowering darkness.
I was challenging his unexamined belief in the Savior Myth. Which might cause him to question his literal Savior. All very incredibly subconscious cognitive dissonance resolution ala Leon Festinger stuff. (This is all very much along the lines that I write about when I explore mind control and why people believe things. I know I'm wildly speculating here, but remember, this topic is my wheelhouse.)
So first my dad has to invent overpowering darkness that Elon was rescuing Twitter from, like every Savior narrative needs. But none of that story added up to me. (Apparently the 3700 laid off employees deserved it because a handful of them were selling verifications for $15k on the side? It wasn't making sense and he didn't have a lot of details for his story which was one reason it didn't pass the sniff test. I need details!!) Any of my challenges to Elon's character seemed to raise his ire. Every single bad decision I listed off, my dad defended. Even while I had to explain basic, rudimentary ways that Twitter (and the rest of the internet) function. He was completely unwilling to question a single cog in his cognitive structure.
When we look at these surface-beliefs that we think a group of people have, that's usually not the real belief. They don't know it themselves. And I know this primarily from examining my own beliefs, and uncovering the underlying value set that I'm extending like a ladder to get the resulting belief. What support stone am I pulling out when I go up against someone in disagreement? That's the real reason people get emotional. I was emotional because Twitter has been my online homebase for 15 years. I expressed that. But my dad didn't know why he was emotional. Maybe I don't either, but I'm guessing it's this. If Elon isn't the Savior dad thinks he is, then maybe there are a lot of other Saviors he's got to question as well.
Edit to add: I've examined my internalized Savior myth. That was one of the biggest shifts in my politics, because it's that kind of underlying belief about how the world functions that results in grand conclusions. I learned through experience and seeing evidence that nearly every great accomplishment was done with a team or large collective. The biggest things ever accomplished (especially in free societies) were done by huge teams of people all doing their part. Saving Twitter (if it needed "saving"?) needed to be a team effort of thousands of Twitter employees and millions of Twitter users. It seems ridiculous to me now that one single person, even as a leader of people, could fix the kinds of complex issues Twitter had.
So afterward, I began ruminating, as I do (it's terribly unhealthy), and tried to get at what underlying belief my dad was *really* defending. Capitalism is good? Billionaires are perfect? Fox News is right?
No, it's deeper and far less conscious than this. I know what belief he's defending because I once had it: The Chosen Messiah Will Always Save the Day
It's not surprising I had this belief, or that a lot of Americans have it, especially if we've got a Christian background, but it permeates our secular media, too. Luke Skywalker can take down the Death Star by himself. Neo will destroy the Matrix with his sheer talent. Harry Potter will take out Voldemort with his superior wits and power. Sure, their friends helped, but only because they had a single leader strong enough to overcome the overpowering darkness.
I was challenging his unexamined belief in the Savior Myth. Which might cause him to question his literal Savior. All very incredibly subconscious cognitive dissonance resolution ala Leon Festinger stuff. (This is all very much along the lines that I write about when I explore mind control and why people believe things. I know I'm wildly speculating here, but remember, this topic is my wheelhouse.)
So first my dad has to invent overpowering darkness that Elon was rescuing Twitter from, like every Savior narrative needs. But none of that story added up to me. (Apparently the 3700 laid off employees deserved it because a handful of them were selling verifications for $15k on the side? It wasn't making sense and he didn't have a lot of details for his story which was one reason it didn't pass the sniff test. I need details!!) Any of my challenges to Elon's character seemed to raise his ire. Every single bad decision I listed off, my dad defended. Even while I had to explain basic, rudimentary ways that Twitter (and the rest of the internet) function. He was completely unwilling to question a single cog in his cognitive structure.
When we look at these surface-beliefs that we think a group of people have, that's usually not the real belief. They don't know it themselves. And I know this primarily from examining my own beliefs, and uncovering the underlying value set that I'm extending like a ladder to get the resulting belief. What support stone am I pulling out when I go up against someone in disagreement? That's the real reason people get emotional. I was emotional because Twitter has been my online homebase for 15 years. I expressed that. But my dad didn't know why he was emotional. Maybe I don't either, but I'm guessing it's this. If Elon isn't the Savior dad thinks he is, then maybe there are a lot of other Saviors he's got to question as well.
Edit to add: I've examined my internalized Savior myth. That was one of the biggest shifts in my politics, because it's that kind of underlying belief about how the world functions that results in grand conclusions. I learned through experience and seeing evidence that nearly every great accomplishment was done with a team or large collective. The biggest things ever accomplished (especially in free societies) were done by huge teams of people all doing their part. Saving Twitter (if it needed "saving"?) needed to be a team effort of thousands of Twitter employees and millions of Twitter users. It seems ridiculous to me now that one single person, even as a leader of people, could fix the kinds of complex issues Twitter had.
