Thursday, January 25, 2024

Conspiracy Plot Armor

A decent explanation for a significant portion of the relative inactivity in the gematria conspiracy content these days compared to 2016-2018 is the same ennui that overcomes watching a long running television show or a reading a book series.  It started as fresh and exciting, then as time marches forward even the less critical thinking enabled at least subconsciously realize things.  Season 6 episode 13 is essentially the same plot as Season 2 episode three.  But it’s the Vorlons instead of a rogue Galactic Republic starship commander.  And comic book fatigue - how many times exactly does the invulnerable demigod have to die and get reborn before on thinks something is funny about comic heroes and villains constantly returning from the grave?

Gematria narratives are at a disadvantage compared to more normal media.  While the fiction in a popular series starts off good and gets harder through time the narratives in gematria and other conspiracy content start off badly.  Then get worse, or at least maintain the low standards of mind numbingly profound stupidity.  The debunks are already in place.  And the plot armor is the same over and over and over.

Plot armor is when the main character is known to be immune to catastrophic ends since without the main character the story isn’t going to go far.  Think of Scott Evil complaining how Dr. Dad Evil won’t just shoot Austin Powers and end it.  Miraculous escapes give a reason for a cliffhanger that gets you to the next chapter.  You can still invest some time with genuine interest on exactly how the heroics will unfold.  Maybe a minor character sacrifices themselves to save the hero.  Or maybe the deus ex machina is super obvious and stupid.  But something happens that the plot armor keeps the mains in healthy condition because sequel cash grabs rock.

We already know the purpose of gematria sports pick narratives.  There’s no attempt at serious engagement of a long term crowd of intelligent people.  There’s a Patreon attached and constant begging, to the point you know the plot is openly going to include a message to support the “work” for the next chapter you know is going to be the same.  Word of mouth has gotten around and we know the tricks.  Picking both teams.  Being vague and not picking either team but claiming (lying) you picked one when you didn’t.  Ignoring easily concocted counter narratives that contradict the predictions made by others.  And boy is the plot armor boring.  They flipped the script.  It’s heavily double coded.  Memory holing old material.  Occasionally mainstream fiction gets good word of mouth and takes off for a well written twist.  Ain’t gonna happen with gematria.  You learn pretty early on that excuses and other plot armor is the sole purpose of any future acknowledgment of previous material.

If one is content to stay stuck at a reading level of hearing someone is suggesting that you see Spot run, and you find it enjoyable to find out that Spot does indeed run.  Knock yourself out.  Just don’t try to force me to lead a lifestyle that does nothing that but think about Spot and his running.  And don’t try to make Fluffy the cat his lazy non running arch nemesis that I must do nothing with my life but acknowledge how Fluffy must be destroyed because of artificial not factual labeling you assigned that isn’t even in the books.  Education is a two way street.  At least effective education is.  Biased education is just propaganda.  Good education promotes the material which is either objectively correct or subjectively shows both sides and nuance to the material.  Ineffective education leads to constantly finding plot armor that keeps Spot running in place forever.

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