Sheeple. People who are led like sheep. I’m learning that some bloggers are sheeple. Some are down right cult dwellers.
I had thought bloggers were just people looking for some entertainment in the middle of a workday, but clearly some folks are looking for a life line, permission to feel okay about who they are. A leader who tells them they are acceptable.
I understand people like to have a sense of belonging, but what I’m witnessing in parts of blogland has to be unhealthy. It’s scary to realize how crazy people are. How easily led. I’m guessing some folks who are socially inept in real life, can feel accepted in cyber world and they like belonging to something.
I’ve heard on a few ocassions that Jonestown- led by Jim Jones- was part of a government experiment. You have to wonder why the government would allow welfare checks to be shipped to Guyana. The experiement was to see how easily people would join a cult.
Well who knew you could lead people over the internet and through a blog? People assume they wouldn’t have drunk the kool-aid in Jonestown, but it doesn’t start with the poison drink, it begins with small agreements, small promises, small assurances by the leader and trusting that the leader would never lead you in the wrong direction.
The need to belong is also what makes the cult dwellers dangerous. They are willing to do whatever to maintain that feeling of belonging. Sometimes its best to be okay as an individual and not only as a member of a group/clique/cult.
In some way I feel that blogging is just a reflection of real life. People are generally clique-ish and it starts on the elementary school yard. You have some that take it too far & never grow up — just like in real life.
Comment by K — October 31, 2007 @ 11:07 am
I’ve been blogging for over two years now, and I can see what you’re talking about. It’s disappointing to me, because I believe we’re capable of better - with precious little experience to bolster my belief.
Comment by Sistah Ant — October 31, 2007 @ 1:10 pm
I love the term “sheeple”.
Its definitely a weird thing in the blogging world how cliques form - between folks who have never met one another. Wonder if they did, if they would be so enamoured with each other?
Comment by Miss Ali D — October 31, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
You know, there’s nothing more ridiculous than a person just agreeing with something just because someone says it’s so. It’s like the whole Juanita Bynum thing. There’s a blogger I’ve seen in action who would put Ms. Bynum to shame with the way she gets those foolish women to shout amen to everything she says. LMAO
Comment by Sugar — November 1, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Sugar, I think people want to maintain the approval of their leader, whether she be cyber, t.v. or in person, so they shout amen and don’t form their own opinion.
Comment by call2arms — November 1, 2007 @ 10:03 am
weird, I think I glazed over this post the first time I read it. Definitely the truth though. I think people are scared to express how they REALLY feel for fear of being put down. You know, for someone hiding behind a computer, it’s easy to portray oneself as this domineering, i-don’t-take-crap type of person.
Comment by heartdrops — November 6, 2007 @ 10:00 am
sheeple….is this a C2A original word? I love it! Better get it over to the people at webster
If bootylicious and crunk can make it, anything is possible.
Comment by Mwabi — November 10, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
Heeyyyyyyy Mwabi…….I wish I could claim creative ownership of that word. LOL
Comment by call2arms — November 10, 2007 @ 9:20 pm