Unironic basicness has the structure of a self-fulfilling prophecy: “I have no particular talents, interests, hobbies, quirks, privileges, or tastes.”
A belief in ones own essential indistinguishability.
Paradoxically, it is quite a narcissistic belief if you think about it.
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Once the prophecy of basicness is fulfilled via sitting on your ass for a couple of decades, you graduate to an Unchosen One, smugly blaming non-basic people for everything. It can’t be you because you’re not special.
Basicness is, above all, a psychology of convenience.
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But isn't the inverse also awful: assumed uniqueness is very off-putting, an unjustified belief ones own essential uniqueness. E.g., statements like "I'm this special kind of unusual person so I....."
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The same way Taleb frames anti-fragility as not resilience - this feels like an orthogonal opposite to individuality.
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Pure rationalism, in giving up the root, constantly thirsts for more and more. Fundamentalist ideas recognize the importance of the root but are afraid of walking backwards blindly. So they walk “forward” into the past. Both fear non-action. Like math systems without zero.
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It's not that complicated.
'Basic' people operate under a value system in which acceptance via an in-group identity + access to a built-in, irl social network is perceived as more fulfilling than the risk of being an 'authentic' yet lonely individual.
Can you really blame them?




