Poptardation 2: Sophist Boogaloo
A look into the ideologies of an age that believes nothing
Some background to start us off
I recently wrote a magnificent post about the poptardation of our society. That was my “how we got here” post. Today, I want to get into what late-stage poptardation looks like when it takes on religious form, as everything eventually does. This discussion will involve a basic knowledge of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which you can read about here.
I would also like to say, before we get into it, that I am a believer in attacking ideas, not people (if I can help it). Although ideas are made and propagated by people, I am in the business of concepts and discourse, not conflict and debate. That also means, however, that the figures who champion ideas (eg. Kierkegaard and Existentialism, Camus and Absurdism, etc.) are avatars of the ideas they espouse, and are thus oftentimes inseparable from these conversations.
I shall do my best to refrain from personally attacking anyone, and I kindly ask my readers do the same while interacting with my publication. In short: Buddha’s teaching of Right Speech is very important to me.
The culprits and claims
Something that has become increasingly prevalent in today’s society is internet gurus. Not guru as in the Sanskrit term meaning, “dispeller of darkness”, but people who claim to have an intimate relationship with the absolute truths of our material world and claim to be the doorway to them. Their claims are substantiated by an echo-chamber of agreement, and their societal opponents are too poptarded to put up any coherent rebuttals.
These pseudo-gurus claim we're living in “The Matrix”, a prison built to enslave the everyday citizen, especially men. The bars of our cells, they say, are financial restraints and lies being fed to us by our prison guards, the societal elites.
These self-annointed saints of the Dude-Bros then assuage our fears by letting us know they’ll teach us (for a fee) how to break free. With enough money and effort, we can leave The Matrix behind and live a life of true freedom and virtue: having endless sex on expensive boats, or something.
That’s largely it.
Wealth is equivalent to freedom, and women will pursue the “highest value” man, so the richest is the most sexually successful—which is the ideal relationship goal in this movement. The secret to it all is hustling your way to the top and building a successful business by following the wisdom of these guys—much of which is rebranded self-improvement cliches masquerading as philosophy, or contrarianism in the guise of original thinking.
There are many people adjacent with this sphere of the internet that are well-meaning and preach higher virtue—we’re not addressing them today. God bless those people for trying to help, truly. Today, we are discussing the Red Pill sophists.
Plato and the sophists
In Plato’s dialogue Sophist, he observes the pseudo-gurus of his day: "Sophistry is a productive art, human, of the imitation kind, copy-making, of the appearance-making kind, uninformed and insincere in the form of contrary-speech-producing art."
In simpler terms, sophists cosplay as philosophers, using deceptive arguments and rhetorical tricks to create the appearance of wisdom. Another key difference between sophists and philosophers lies in their motivation: sophists are driven by profit and personal gain, while philosophers seek truth and genuine understanding.
Little did Plato know that the sophists would have their revenge: a massive resurgence in the 2020s, hijacking a modern retelling of his teachings and driving it into the ground.
The Cave vs The Matrix
The Matrix, for those who somehow don’t know, is a 1999 film about a man named Neo who learns the world we live in is a computer-simulated illusion called the Matrix. The man who liberates him, Morpheus, offers him two pills: one red, one blue. The red pill frees him from the shackles of illusion, and enables him to wake up in the real world. From there, Neo, Morpheus, and their companions return to the Matrix to rescue the rest of humanity. It’s overtly a retelling of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and a great movie in its own right—if you haven’t seen it, you have to.
And now the Red Pill movement is everywhere, using the allegory from the film.
Fun fact about Plato: he was very wary of art. He reckoned since physical reality is an imitation of ultimate reality, art is an imitation of an imitation, driving us further from truth. And in this particular case, I’d say he’s not wrong.
In getting translated over from Plato’s Republic, to Warner Bros, to internet discourse, the core teachings of Plato’s allegory have completely evaporated. The messaging has been thoroughly poptarded.
Whereas Morpheus in the film represents a philosopher returning to the cave to bring others to enlightenment, those claiming to emulate Morpheus are more like the puppeteers of the cave, encouraging others to chase the shadows. Enough accumulation of shadows, and the prisoners themselves may even become puppeteers.
The red pill in the movie was akin to Plato’s sun in the world outside the cave—but modern sophists are pushing another type of pill. A highly addictive hallucinogen that, in perfect Pop-Tart fashion, gives you the fleeting illusion of satiety .
If we go back to the original allegory, it becomes apparent to all that our culture has spawned a cult of shadow worship—a belief system and community built upon hedonistic materialism for the sake of perpetuating itself.
This was obviously going to happen
We all lost the plot and any real sense of meaning long ago. This was bound to happen, and you can't blame the people flocking to these sophists—being offered anything feels better than nothing, even if it's shallow and predatory.
This is the sort of religion that crops up in a culture that believes in nothing but materialism. When higher ideals and the people of this world lose all value, shiny Pop-Tarts are all that remain for us to pursue. There are other such secular religions with their own poptarded ideals, but they’re also usually built around some sort of worship of sex, money, or other base-level bullshit.
An example from the other side of the political aisle: the Leftist shift from “let me love who I want” to “we should teach sexuality to children.” This is obviously shadow-obsessed, and arguably more harmful—since Pop-Tarts have no substance, more is always needed.
There were dozens of these religions to pick from, but Red Pill is headed by sophists cosplaying as Platonic philosophers, so that made up my mind.
Church is always in session for these movements—and everyone is nauseated from illusion overdose.
That's why the sophists are so successful. They know the world is sick, and they appear to rise above the herd by stating the obvious. The victims of this scam believe the sophists to be right by virtue of clearly pointing out that our society isn’t conducive to human flourishing, yet the prescribed solution is to become the kings of the cave, as opposed to leaving the cave altogether.
My friends, the king of the cell block is still doing time.
Dispellers of darkness
Philosophers, gurus, or whatever you call your sages, are also in the cave, of course. The difference is they point people towards the exit and dedicate themselves to virtuous action for selfless reasons. And I don’t mean they are self-sacrificing—they just have less of a sense of self. As Benjamin Franklin allegedly said, “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.” Think of someone completely unwrapped for others.
True teachers care about ideas, about inner riches, and about how to provide for the world around them. Money isn’t an end goal, but their ideas could inform how you could spend your money to make the world a better place. Sex isn’t an end goal, but they may have ideas on how sex can be a healing, relational activity with someone you love. Things have a purpose outside of themselves, and a teacher that talks about values and concepts rather than shiny collectibles is more likely to believe that—you talk about what you’re preoccupied with.
If a man regularly tells you about goodness, truth, compassion, and peace, you can be rest assured those are the places his mind dwells. If a man talks about satisfying his numerous lusts and how it elevates him above others, that tells you everything you need to know about what he thinks of himself—and you.
But in our poptarded society, that’s what’s been mainstreamed. Sophists are widespread both because they’re louder and appear to be selling the uninformed what they need. These con-artists know that people are desperate for direction, and it takes very little effort to point somewhere—for a fee.
It’s up to you
Enlightenment, escaping the cave—whatever you want to call it—is a sense of mental clarity, psychological relief, and an understanding of the world around you.
Anyone can escape the cave. Mahayana Buddhists often stress that anyone can find enlightenment in a single lifetime. Pursuing the truths about the world is not only an achievable goal, but a good thing to do. You’re not doing yourself or anyone else any favors by taking the first thing you hear on the internet as gospel. The world gets better on the macro when enough changes happen on the micro.
If you are desperate for truth, it's up to you to find it. Be a part of the cure by enriching yourself for the sake of yourself and others.
Take stock of your relationship with information, with truth, with teachers. Are you chasing something real? Or just shadows?