Unmasking The Psychology of Woke Pt.2 — Pluralistic Ignorance

The foundation of social discord is our inbuilt psychological tendency to ‘simply go along with what everyone thinks’

In social psychology, the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance is a specific form of groupthink. Pluralistic ignorance is a bias held within a group by members of that group.

No one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes.

It occurs when the majority of group members privately reject a social norm but go along with it on the assumption that other group members accept it. It has a high incidence in both the moderately woke and the newly formed alt-right.

For those of you who love a fairytale you’ll find a simple allegorical example of pluralistic ignorance in the story of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. It begins when two con-artists chancers come to the Emperor’s palace and convince him they make the finest clothes in all the land.

‘Clothes that can only clever people can see’ they tell him. This is important. Only those who have ‘insight’ can see the clothes. Special people. Smart people.

The Emperor is impressed. Naturally he can see the clothes.

The nefarious tailors take a massive wage packet and make a big show of being kick-ass fashionistas. Lots of hocus-pocus with tape measures. Inside leg your Emperorship? Watch the bobbin. Invert the seams and add a ruff etc… At this point it should be very evident penguins have little knowledge of tailoring

We don’t need it, we got nature’s tuxedos. I was told the Chinese symbol for Penguin is ‘Business-Goose’ — I’m down for that.

Got distracted, sorry. The deluded Emperor is sent out into the streets of the kingdom butt naked. He parades through the streets his meat and two veg swinging in the breeze. The townsfolk say nothing, after a short silence they cheer because everyone else seems to think the Emperor’s clothes are awesome.

Plus. The emperor has the confidence of a man with clothes on. A veritable technicolour dreamcoat made by Mssrs Dunning and Kruger of Saville Row.

When a child says ‘I can see his tonker’, the spell is broken and everyone begins to point and laugh. They all thought the Emperor was naked, they didn’t say so. They all have a jolly good laugh at his tiny royal penis and fluffy bum hair and go home to carry on being peasants.

The tailors get away with their duplicitous scheme and laugh their way to Ye Olde Bank or Rumplestiltskin’s Building Society. Wherever fictional characters keep their money. I confess, I never got past season one of ‘Once Upon A Time’

Cute story. But there are real-world consequences to this psychological malfunction.

Last year a study in Saudi Arabia showed that the vast majority of young married men privately express support for women working outside the marital home. By demonstrating this belief is more widespread than each of these men imagine society can be changed. Knowing their thoughts are shared by other men, the newly informed young husbands become far more likely to help their wives secure work.

Pluralistic ignorance overturned in favour of a genuine push for equality between the sexes. Feminism I can get behind.

Back to woke warriors

People caught amid pluralistic ignorance consider themselves to be deviating from the norm within their social group. Often they think of themselves as less informed or less committed than other people they know.

This has negative effects on self-esteem, making them less inclined to speak out. It gets worse. The Dunning-Kruger effect operates in the opposite direction.

In a nutshell, the propensity of people who are ill-informed to overplay their hand. They present as overconfident because they don’t grasp the complexity of what they’re talking about. The more informed you are about a problem, the less likely you are to present a simple solution to it.

Most societal ills have complex roots and require detailed and expert analysis to dismantle. Tearing down statues is one solution. A better one is placing them in museums then teaching children of all races the hist… THROW IT IN THE RIVER!!!!!

Won’t that alienate moderates and… I SAID THROW IT IN THE RIVER!

Pluralistic ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger effect are a perfect storm in the world of woke and the alt-right. It ensures the loudest voices push themselves to the front of the discussion. They interpret the ensuing silence as support and their rhetoric grows even bolder and more outrageous.

Nuance drops away and they lead the discussion from nuanced straight to batshit-crazy in record time.

This subsequently leads groups to persist in practices that lost widespread support a long time ago. The complicated issues that need to be discussed are simplified into single binary dictats, you’re either with us — or against us — because that’s what loud people do. It also prevent groups from adjusting their strategies to ones that would benefit them all in the long run.

Creeping groupthink runs amok. There are plenty of examples from the last five years of crazy online polarization.

Pluralistic Ignorance and Feminism (lost support as it strayed)

The change from #MeToo to #BelieveAllVictims. This sleight of hand is a philosophical non-starter both legalistically and socially. Society applauded the arrest and conviction of Weinstein and Epstein.

Those asshats had it coming. You got my full penguin backing on that one.

Then the movement morphed. The push for equality between the sexes was superseded by the insistence that the guilt of all men be attributed guilt at the point of accusation. That is a different argument and not one supported by any reasonable person with an understanding of how the law works.

Straight from nuance to batshit in under a year.

Anyone who questioned this change was labelled the worst kind of human. You were either with us or against us. At that point, I stopped calling myself a ‘feminist’. Many people quietly took their feminism badges off and put them in a drawer for safekeeping, my mother and grandmother included. To quote my grandmother ‘they’ve gone too far’

My most popular article on Medium was written in 2018 and has a prescient warning for adherents of the #MeToo movement. Keep an eye on where your movement is headed. Fast forward through Asia Argento, Amber Heard, Alec Salmond, the mess that was the Aziz Ansari character assassination. The whole thing lost steam when Joe Biden was accused by Tara Reade.

Sexual assault was co-opted into a socio-political weapon. #BelieveAllVictims is dead in the water and #MeToo paid the price by association.

Pluralistic ignorance and Trump (failed to adjust strategy)

In the interests of balance… and because SC always roasts me if I only pick on the woke, this also happens with the alt-right. There were a whole host of reasons why people might’ve voted for Trump. I expect ‘I hope he incites an armed force into the capitol building’ didn’t factor for most of them.

The centre-right moderates that voted for Trump whilst holding their noses were drawn into his racist and narcissistic world. When prominent people in the Republican party didn’t seem to have a problem with it, the moderates didn’t speak out either.

They were duly labelled bigots and racists by association, something which likely entrenched them further.

What the Republican party needed was someone on their side to burst the bubble. The closest they got was a deathbed protest by Sen. John McCain. Too little, too late I’m afraid.

This is one of the biggest failures of Mitch McConnell and other senior Republicans. They did what was expedient to keep power. Letting an Emperor like Trump run around with his pecker out will cost them in the long run.

When you sup with the devil, be sure to bring a long spoon. Trump was only interested in Trump

He can and will split the Republican party down the middle. A massive own goal for moderate conservatives.

Pluralistic ignorance and Trans-rights (Simplified complex issues)

The recent conflation of many separate issues under the banner of ‘transphobia’ demonstrates pluralistic ignorance in action. Many people support the rights of trans-people to live in harmony within a pluralistic liberal modern society.

Concerns about children being given puberty blockers, access to bathrooms and the fairness of trans-inclusion in sporting events were lumped together as one issue. This is a false conflation, they’re all different issues that relate to trans people

They need to be considered separately and discussed and debated by people with expertise in those individual areas. The small minority of people who questioned received wisdom on any single one these things were quickly labelled as ‘transphobic’ — that included notable paediatricians.

Support for one position held by the majority of trans-people (inclusion) was co-opted to infer support for all positions stated by any trans-person. That is a dangerous and stupid position for a society to take.

Many people are not in favour of carte blanche changing of the social contract on the whims of a vocal minority. They aren’t in favour of bypassing protection for other minority groups. They’re not necessarily in favour of pressuring medical professionals to give drugs to children who don’t fully understand the implications of what they’re asking for.

Those things are not transphobic, they are legitimate points for discussion around trans issues The inevitable set of infighting began with feminists, then with lesbians and now with gay men. An initial push for inclusion became a war for getting your own way. It was avoidable but pluralistic ignorance and fear kept moderates from pushing the brakes.

Activists enforcing radical change without negotiation harms vulnerable members of the group they purport to help. Why? Backlash.

Where does this leave the rest of us?

Woke and the alt-right are both fuelled by pluralistic ignorance. It continues because of a lack of dissent and marinating in echo chambers. People who no longer agree with where the dialogue has led don’t have the confidence or the courage to speak out.

Everyone believes that their neighbours, friends and co-workers agree, they believe themselves to be the misguided outlier. I’m telling you, this is often an erroneous belief.

Very few people agree with the extremes of any given argument. Most of us want a better society but feel that gradual consensus is the best way to get there.

The loudest people fighting the good fight are making everything worse. When you shout at people to take a binary position on an issue, they’ll go against the unpleasant idiot. If you’re the one shouting, it’s often you. The best intentions and hero complex don’t necessarily make you pleasant. The self evident truth you proclaim may not be as self evident or true as you think.

Centre ground liberals aren’t promoting brand new clothes whilst claiming only special people can see them. Why would we? Well-worn liberal democratic clothes with strong rationalist hems have been improving the world for the last 100 years.

They might not fit very well or be a little dirty and fraying a little round the edges — but they’re still sturdy and fit for purpose.

The alt-right and woke-left are running around without their philosophical clothes on. Their arguments are often facile and people are waking up to that fact. All it takes is a single voice to dissent, a well-placed child like in the fairytale, or in the absence of them. Someone childish. Maybe a Penguin? We don’t feature in many fairytales, only Happy Feet, Madagascar and Pingu.

It’s 2021, we’re fed up of entitled temper-tantrums from ideologically naked idiots. We can see your genitals. *blows raspberry*

If you haven’t already read it, you might also enjoy the first part of this mini-series.

And here’s some more stuff from the centre ground rationalist position. I don’t play identity politics and I don’t see why you should either.