There are many functional things possessing a desirable aesthetic due to their function. There is an unfortunate side effect that many will adopt the aesthetic of a particular thing rather than the particular thing itself, causing a distortion that allows for one to seek the additive benefits of a particular thing without incurring any of the intellectually rigorous costs associated with it.
Some examples of this might be:
- “Non-partisanship,” or putting oneself above pressure to believe everything a certain political group believes. Very rarely does the “non-partisan” individual have a way of independently generating unique, consistent and coherent thoughts, but rather they find a way to criticize unimportant things that appear to be part of their political in-group while still aligning 100% with every important, core belief. A great example of this is being highly critical of Donald Trump’s promiscuity or fiscal habits while being in lock-step with everything more integral to Donald Trump’s associated beliefs, such as his historically divisive rhetoric, his claims of mass voter fraud, or his claims that the entire political and corporate world are a “swamp” waiting for him to drain them.
- “Rationality,” or pretending to be someone possessing a high level of “reason” or critical analysis. Almost never does a person claiming they are “rational” or “truth-seeking” does the person actually exhibit any qualities fundamental to those people, rather they tend to align almost entirely with certain other groups of people and they simply wield this “rationality” against someone else that belongs to the “wrong” side.
- “Skepticism” is never applied evenly to anything. People are almost never skeptical from a place of rational criticism, but rather because the skepticism is required to maintain their cognitive consonance.
- “Uncomfortable truths” are almost always incredibly comfortable. They wear the guise of discomfort in order to smuggle in some incredibly comfortable thing. Great examples of this might be telling people the “uncomfortable truth” that some huge system is against them, e.g. the FDA or WHO or IMF, but this is actually incredibly comfortable to most people because it helps them organize the world and provides an external entity by which you can blame significant, societal problems on. Almost none of these “uncomfortable truths” require you to change your mind or your actions in a way that you wouldn’t already want to, but instead serve to motivate you to moving down a path you already find highly desirable.