Comment on Why do many folks play follow the leader even into adulthood?

HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• ALostInquirer@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A lot of people don’t really understand how things work. Rather than try to understand, they latch on to someone who does understand.

  Wouldn’t it be more apt to say that a lot of people latch on to someone who appears or acts as if they understand how things work, given the thinking that a lot of people simply don’t understand to begin with?

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  • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Definitely. If you don’t understand how the world works, you can’t tell if someone else does either. Only experts can easily spot fake experts. And that’s exactly the trouble with things like pseudoscience and misinformation; it’s easy to fall for without the domain knowledge necessary to avoid falling for it.

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  • MelodiousFunk@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    A perfect example is this guy from my last job. Thought himself a leader. Thought himself knowledgeable. Always had an answer, regardless of actual facts. Alternated between barking out orders and lamenting on how he had to do everything himself. Constantly getting schooled by people who actually knew the subject matter. Those who had been around just kinda put up with his BS because he filled a position that nobody else wanted.

    Enter new management, who was very impressed with his authoritative tone, apparent breadth of knowledge, and willingness to lick boot. Suddenly management is bypassing dude's bosses to go straight to the horse's mouth and get the straight dope (which often involved taking credit for other people's work and bus-chucking whoever was handy). All because someone who barely knew what he was talking about spoke confidently to people that had no idea what was going on.

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah, it would be.

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• Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A great example is when you’re in elementary school and you get that one really athletic kid on your team for some team sport in gym class. You know you’re not on that level and never will be, so you tie yourself to them, knowing that them succeeding is good for you.

  Likewise, we like to attach our fortunes to a designated person, and they become greater than just a person in our mind. Like, that athletic kid is not longer simply a kid who’s good at sports; they’re the athletic kid. Our favored 19th-century political thought leader is no longer just some person who had opinions on society and wrote them down; they’re a political messiah.

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• andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is the best answer so far in my opinion

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