"sheep" and "sheeple"

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I wish people would stop using these terms to try to shame or guilt other people into supporting or fighting for something the sheep caller wants but doesn't want to put any personal effort into getting it. Guilt tripping and shaming are tactics of religion. Just enough of it. Seriously

people - conspiracy nuts.... narrow it down a little lol

In my experience whenever "sheeple" is used it is usually an patronizing an unintelligent post. Pseudo-intelelctual and very simplistic world view.


The other one is "wake up", it is the classic get out of jail card for someone without a coherent argument.


Both of these assume the recipient hasn't been forming their own opinions all along or somehow more susceptible to ideologies or being led.


You can't get people more susceptible to ideologies or being led than the stereotypical conspiracy theorists.


There is also an element of contrarianism too. Where they are not really sure what is goign on, but is always going to be the opposite of the obvious, becuase you a "meant to believe that". There is a confusion between this an true skepticism, and empirically backed deductive skills.


What irks me is the base logic of their theories, limited level of deduction, and assumption chaining. I also think these theories tend to take a lot of responsibility away from the theorist, lumping all the bad thing is one homogenous force. Reality is self-interest, logistics and that fact that all the conspirators would have to be remarkably cooperative with little reason to be, would the make the chances of the conspiracy being so unexposed unlikely. It is also laughable that the conspirators would waste time deliberately leaving subtle clues for no reason other then to goad the true believers.


On the other hand I think there is a neurotype or spectrum that makes some people more likely to go down these garden paths. So in some respect this is just how they think.

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Very succinct. I said it the long winded way as usual

Unfortunately a great many people fall into this category. How many people accept what they are told by the media, take for example Ukraine, how many people denigrating Russia have actually looked beyond the headlines before forming their views, or how many Christians (I know virtually nothing of Islam or other religions so have not included them) actually understand why they are taught to believe what they believe and where these ideas came from historically? Sheeple when applied to these groups whilst being a bit insulting is somewhat in context, after all don't the clergy call their congregations flocks.

When used by Birthers, The Truth Movement and all the rest I find this somewhat of an own goal as they believe what they believe because they are told so by others who have no evidence for their claims, which to me is the epitome of sheeple behaviour.

I do however accept that sheeple is derogative and somewhat arrogant, and there are far better ways to explain and persuade people why it is so important to investigate what and why you believe something.

I have actually looked into Russia quite a bit, and my father worked behind the Iron curtain during the cold war.


It hasn't really changed my view on Putin. Some propaganda is actual an appeal to contrarianism, rather than genuine promoting understanding.

So you don't think the fact that an unelected party brought to power in what was effectively a putsch with its members calling for the imprisonment of "degenerate russian speakers" and even the liquidation of Russian speaking Ukrainians has anything to do with it? This all happened BEFORE the Russian Ukrainian uprising.

Now I am not saying that Russia and Russian Ukrainians are completely innocent victims, what I am suggesting is there is far more to this story than the Western backers of Ukraine are making easily available. Unfortunately the vast majority of people would have next to no idea of the existence of Svoboda or the likes of Iryna Farion, Oleh Tyahnybok, Dmitro Yarosh, Oleksandr Sych etc let alone what they, and therefore a large and powerful proportion of Ukrainian Parliament stands for.

I think much of that has been way overplayed, it is not really a good interpretation of the overall sentiment that lead to protests. You are giving extremist way too much credit, for a movement about something else entirely.

In Russian politician rhetoric they use the word 'facisziod' to tar things they don't like. The irony is these far right group are just as Strong in Russia itself.

Russia made it an existential struggle, by reenforcing the divisions. Anyone would think that all the Russian speakers were on the side of the Rebels.

Sheeple is one of those words that would be genuinely useful, as it succinctly conveys a very specific meaning, except that its use by unsavory elements has given it unfortunate connotations. I actually first encountered the word in the self defense community, where it referred to people who thought that nothing bad could ever happen to them because the police would protect them, but the much more common usage is the one associated with conspiracy theorists.

I agree. The implication is always that anybody who really thought about X would never believe/do Y. So if you believe/do Y, you must be a sheeple being led.

I first encountered it among anti-vaxers. Their term for people who vaccinate is sheeple- of course anybody who actually understood vaccination and infectious disease would never vaccinate so anybody who does is just following the herd. The term for broad vaccination coverage of a population is legitimately "herd immunity" so I guess "sheeple" was inevitable in that context.

Conspiracy theorists are members of a hardline ideology which segregates the world into the initiated and the uninitiated. This segregation is a critical part of the ideology with its overtones of war

Sheep are what they are and refraining from calling them sheep doesnt make them any less sheep.

So we have both made the point that although we do not completely agree we have both bothered to look further into this. Unfortunately most people taking their knowledge straight from the current affairs shows and would not have al clue as to what we are talking about.

I find it kinda sad that when we have so much quality information literally at out finger tips so many people don't want to seek out information and knowledge or they get drawn into completely unsubstantiated conspiracies and pseudoscience

The term is overused for sure to denote someone who doesn't agree with your own viewpoint but there are sheeple, and what a strange species they are!

They don't have their own opinions, they don't think things through but instead just blindly follow another. They are intellectually lazy and are usually stupid as well or at the very least wilfully ignorant. Sheeple lack reasoning skills, pride themselves in their fallacies (and can't even recognise most of them) and see loose associations as valid (conspiracy nuts).

I've always thought of sheep as those who are dangerously naive with no sense of vigilance. Their only purpose is to serve as food for society's predators and to serve as an example of what not to be.