I have a pet theory (obviously, just a pet theory) that the alt-right "50 tweets about nothing"-style comes from a deep insecurity.
It's the fear of being caught with your pants down intellectually, a la Rand, Hayek and all the others. Rather make unfalsifiable non-statements.
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It's funny how they marry a deep anti-intellectualism with a desperate need to have an intellectual veneer.
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It's almost like that's exactly the expected outcome of an unacknowledged lack of covert self-esteem.
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I sometimes have to stop and wonder how many forms of social compensation being insufferably arrogant in some areas has actually saved me from.
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If anything, I've started developing issues with a superiority complex after realizing how much of my old ideas were just cocky young bluster.
It's *now* I have to stop myself from trying to sound cleverer than I think I am, not before. Before I just thought I was that smart. ;)
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That's a knowledge chart. I'm talking abilities. I've never thought I was an expert on anything.
I was used to interacting with people of middling/low ability. Gave me an inflated sense of my own.
This has since been brutally remedied, but I do still find the occasional bug.
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I've always had confidence in my abilities, but it's long been married to a crippling inability to commit to anything long-term, make new habits, or market myself.
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It's led to a somewhat fatalistic but also empowering desire to just keep being myself, not try to adapt to neoliberalism, and wait for the environment to catch up.
But that also induces a superiority complex I've had to constantly recognise and temper, lest I grow resentful.
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IME, resentment is located more on the level of deprecated self-worth. Then, that gives you an excuse for adopting a superior attitude.
Of course, it's also a feedback loop with few breakers, so...
But really, a superiority complex is an a priori sign of resentment.
And that's all the maybe-useful things I have to say about that.
I have my own issues managing resentment, and few solutions of much merit other than "temper your expectations w/time and practice"...
Which is shit advice for any number of circumstances.
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The way around it I found was to constantly frame my resentment not at the level of the individual, but in the struggles of everyone, especially my generation, who've found themselves locked out of the opulent society happening around them. But being angry for everyone is tiring.

