October 30, 2009

10 Signs You’re A Sheeple

By wise sloth

Pictures of a cave man morphing into a sheep, with the words, "The evolution of blind acceptance"

 

10. You own an expensive vehicle. 

You don’t need a $40,000 vehicle to get from point A to point B. The only reason to own a $40,000 car is because you want one. Why do you want one? Because you were told to want one… and you obeyed.

 

 

9. You watch the top 10 highest rated television shows.

This wouldn’t be the case if the top 10 television shows were beacons of genius. As it stands, the top 10 television shows are beacons of petty ignorance because stupid sells better than genius. The reason stupidity sells so well is because people who don’t think flock towards stupidity because it’s familiar and safe. It reinforces their egos without ever challenging them. If you’re confused as to whether or not you’re a sheeple you can check to see if any of your favorite television shows are on the top of the Neilsen ratings.

 

8. You believe that the music you listen to and the clothes you wear make you unique and/or rebellious.

 

Photo of a bunch of sad emo goths who all look the same, with the caption, "CONFORMITY: The harder you try to show your individuality, the more you look like everybody else."

 

Music and fashion are mass produced consumer goods no matter what label they fall under. I don’t care if you’re hip/hop, grunge, indie, metal, emo, punk, hardcore, country, death metal or classical. There’s somebody else out there listening to the same music as you, wearing the same clothes that were made in the same sweatshops, congratulating themselves for being unique just like you. But you’re not unique. You’re defining your identity by associating it with mass-produced consumer products that you’re going to stop listening to/wearing when it goes out of style. I’m not saying you can’t listen to music or wear clothes. Just don’t assume any of it makes you a rebel.

 

7. You don’t read or you only read popular fiction.

In order to grow and change you need to learn. In order to learn, eventually you’re going to have to read a book. If you’re not reading then you’re not learning much outside of the pop culture you’re bombarded with every day.

 

6. You get along with pretty much everybody.

On the surface, it sounds noble and virtuous to get along with everybody, but most people are stupid. Stupid people are afraid of ideas. Smart people have ideas. If you’re smart, stupid people won’t like you. If you get along with everybody you either don’t have any ideas to offend their stupidity with or you’re not standing up for your intelligent ideas, and if you’re not going to stand up for what’s right then you’re stupid.

 

5. Similar to #6: You automatically disagree with people all the time.

If you do this you probably don’t notice, but it’s pretty easy to spot when other people do it. So think about this. Non-thinking people don’t weigh pros and cons logically. They just defend what they already believe and automatically reject everything else even if it’s mundane and trivial. If it doesn’t already have a place in their mind already it’s not coming in. So they constantly disagree with other people. They think this makes them smart because they’re so “good” at coming up with arguments and playing the devil’s advocate. The more they shoot down other people’s ideas and shut them up, the smugger and more genius it makes them feel, but all they’re really doing is building a higher and higher wall around their mind.

 

4. Your best friends are stupid.

We hang out with people we’re comfortable with. Now be honest. Are your best friends stupid? If they are, then the reason you’re friends with them is because you’re stupid.

 

3. You have no philosophy or your philosophy is vague to the point of being useless.

Here’s a simple sheeple test in one question: What’s your philosophy on life? Don’t have an answer ready to go? Your mind is empty. You’re following the herd.

But don’t take my word for it. Go do a survey. Go ask everyone you know what their philosophy on life is. Most people won’t have an answer. That means they don’t know how to live. So all they can do is just follow the herd and convince themselves that whatever they’re already doing is novel and ideal. But what they’re doing is neither novel nor ideal.

A thinker would be able to immediately give you a summary of their philosophy and tell you a long, arduous story about how they came to that conclusion, and they would go out of their way to make the disclaimer that their answers aren’t conclusive, their journey isn’t over and they’ll have more to say on the matter every year.

 

2. You believe in religion.

All religion is mythology. It’s just stuff humans made up and told their descendants not to question. Believing something that isn’t true and refusing to consider the evidence is the definition of a blind follower. Don’t get mad at me for calling people who worship mythology sheeple, get mad at Jesus for comparing himself to a shepherd. I’m also not saying that being an atheist makes you smart and independent. There are plenty of pop atheists who have rejected religion just because it’s trendy, and that makes them sheeple as well.

 

"If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people." Gregory House

 

1. You don’t think you’re a sheeple.

I don’t say this hypocritically. I say it self-deprecatingly. Every one of us is a product of the environment we were raised in. Our most basic assumptions about life, existence, and our own identity are interwoven with the fabric of society so tightly it’s usually impossible to tell where society’s ideas end and ours begin. The world simply can’t be divided into sheeple and nonconformists. We’re all sheeple.

If you don’t think you’re a sheeple you’ll never have any motivation to analyze your beliefs and behaviors objectively to decide if you’re doing anything stupid or herd-minded. However, once you admit you’ve been guilty of following the herd your entire life then you’ll be motivated to tear yourself apart looking for the disgusting stains of society within yourself. And when you do that you’ll also find the good parts of your personality that society helped build within you.

 

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 1:13 pm and tagged with , , , , , and posted in General Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

15 responses to “10 Signs You’re A Sheeple”

  • Carol
    July 22nd, 2017 at 10:18 am

    Your article nailed me on #10, I love old Corvettes, #3, my philosophy of life is rather vague, and #2, I do believe in Christianity (but don’t live in fear of hell). I live in a state of melancholy and I’m a hot chick over 60 years old. Can you refer me to a few of your posts that might help kick my ass into some kind of action other than letting my feelings control my life? Now that I read this, it’s pretty vague, just like my life philosophy.
    Anyway, I do enjoy your posts and look forward to them although I don’t always agree with what you say. Thank you.
    Carol

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  • Anonymous
    February 4th, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    I must admit, I have completely allowed myself to become “stupid”. Why quote, un-quote? Hell, I don’t know, or maybe I do know, I’m just too lazy to type in the words to express my reasoning. Which doesn’t make sense,considering I’m responding to this article at all.
    I do not watch TV, I do not follow the government’s latest lie, I don’t go to Church, however, I believe there is a God, and I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
    I tried, real hard being a sheeple, but fell off after only three years. That is when I not only broke off from the herd I was clearly never one of them or them or any type of herd type sheeple, I walk to beat of my own drum, I have opinions about all kinds of stuff, but I see issues at all angles and try not to judge or hate.
    I have too many emotional ties to everything, and I think sex should be special. Which deserves a raised eyebrow since my two sons are by two different “men” and I am 36 with an alright body…Sex should be Private, damn it.and pot should have remained illegal.

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  • Lonely No BAloney
    March 28th, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    I do my own thing. Never have been ahsheeple. Drive what I want wear what I want go where is want live where I want. I have found lately that this is lonely. Iam unique and this does not ‘ make anyone jump to be my friend. Soon I will be 45, people don’t grow up. This still want rich and pretty friends. People will never change. With makeup I am pretty, but makeup is fake. The price of not being a sheeple is high. Loneliness bc where I live you need to conform in a big way.

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  • Unpacified
    March 8th, 2016 at 2:53 pm

    I like this article. I have been trying not to hate and wish bad on the unthinking conforming majority, but since their choice to remain ignorant IS THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIETY it makes it very hard. Power is in knowledge. The true will of the universe flows through everything. When you awaken it will become clear we must dedicate our lives to protecting life and our existence(though I think words cannot describe the potency of intended meaing)

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  • Neo
    December 4th, 2015 at 9:06 am

    Nice article. We loose our creativity, uniqueness and wisdom when we loose connection with inner self. Humanity must switch from body/mind level awareness to consciousness level awareness which is more intuitive. I suggest reading books of David Icke. Humans are psychologically manipulated such that they know their own thinking is their own prison.

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  • BrughbreauxBro
    July 17th, 2015 at 6:10 pm

    Hah, pretty funny list and spot on for the most part; although, I would argue that practicing a certain religion or having a sense of spirituality doesn’t necessarily mean someone is an idiot. If you read the ancient holy texts through a symbolic and metaphorical lens and with the understanding that thousands of years have passed between our current culture and the cultures who created these ancient religions, you’ll notice they begin to make a lot more sense in a philosophical way. I have met plenty of of very sheeple minded, self-proclaimed militant “atheists” who are just as bad as the Southern Baptist drunk who goes to church Sunday morning and beats his wife in a drunken rage when his football team loses that same evening. To claim all religion is false and there is no God is as simple minded as any other thing you listed here.

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  • WrenchMonkey47
    June 25th, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
    Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928

    The complete lack of awareness, the staggering degree of denial and the abundance of perverse complacency that pervades human societies today is eloquent testimony to the depth of our acculturation. Willful ignorance has become the new intellectualism and normalcy bias is the guiding light.

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  • Joseph Ratliff
    June 24th, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    Reblogged this on The Ratliff Notepad.

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  • Kevin Basner
    November 4th, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    I disagree with this article! I say sheeple are people or everyone in society who throw plastic and other similar things away, even good, restorable collector cars! These people are the stupid ones because they are either doing what they are told and not what is right, or doing what they want without regard for the bigger picture in society and the world as a whole! 😮

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  • Neo
    July 6th, 2013 at 7:39 am

    You think people are sheeple because they believe in Christianity. I say Sheeple are people who don’t believe in Christianity. They have been conditioned in the last 20 years to mock it. First they used comedians to do it so people wouldn’t be as offended since it was “just for laughs”. Then movies, music, videos…ect. Now it’s just accepted and people have become complacent. It’s ok to mock and laugh and ridicule Christianity now. Even fashionable.
    I’m sure if that were done with Judaism there would be hell to pay. I haven’t read any criticism or articles against Jews or the Holocaust on this site. (I wonder why) Either you’re a closet jew or a Sheeple.
    In either case, I’ve lost respect for you and this site. You don’t have any balls at all. For all you’re talk, you’re just another hack. There is some good material here, but it’s not worth my time to be on a site that seems to be on a mission to constantly bash Christianity and religion in general. If you hate Christianity that much, fine; keep it to yourself. Don’t use your website as a front to spew your NWO rhetoric. You guys are a dime a dozen on the internet.
    As for me, I won’t be back. For you 2+2 will alway =5.

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  • Joe Ward
    October 27th, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    Beautiful. You mention Sagan analyzing the world with a sober mind though, but it’s a fact that he loved marijuana and came up with many theories while under the influence of the sacred plant. Much knowledge can also come from analyzing the world under the influence of psychadelics as well. Everything in moderation.

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  • jennifer stewart
    September 26th, 2012 at 5:12 am

    actually that pretty much sum’s up the hipsterish culture amongst us a bunch of sniveling moron’s who think there better because there a bunch of slaves too the mac culture bye and have indent tical i phone’s bye

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  • thunder
    September 14th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

    LOL. exactly!!
    During my teenage years, I was never able to enjoy my life because as usual, I was surrounded by teenage sheeples. They are everywhere, in school, church, neighborhood, the mall, park and everywhere.

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