Gematria and the Extinction Burst

 Thanks for pushing that, Bob.  The lights on, but you never know, it really might be broken.

At the start of Speed, the tense opening sequence sets up a lot of important background information.  And I’m not talking about introduction of characters and their competence and motivations.  A simple line, very early in the movie.  A one off throwaway joke, demonstrating what happens when a learned behavior based on a reward system is doubled down on after the reward is withheld.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)

“Neoliberalism and the petrodollar, blah blah blah… Reaganomics trickle down blah blah blah…late stage capitalism and current policy failure blah blah blah…polling numbers among independents and Republicans crashing blah blah blah….”  Oh, here it is.  The MAGA extinction burst.  Type that in the search bar and see what articles and AI synopses give you.  Armchair psychologists like me can have a lot of fun with it.  Because if MAGA is undergoing an extinction burst event, even those results are polarized.  Conservative commentators deny it.  Liberal commentators on social media are putting content out about it.  Scholarly articles from trustworthy sources, not so much.  I may not be scholarly enough with my over reliance with my “Fuck Off” attitude, but that doesn’t stop me from admiring people who are smarter than me and have some fighting spirit left.

And I’m pretty sure I’m qualified for a strong opinion on what happened in the gematria community regarding an extinction burst.  Just like pushing the elevator button over and over again, gematria as a system of generating wealth and conspiracy theory expertise was doomed to failure.  I just got to be the bandwagon instead joining the bandwagon.  Yay me, it doesn’t make my home heating bill any cheaper.

As part of the broader MAGA cult, Qanon latched on to the weirder side of things.  Gematria, used mostly for sports betting, was a natural fit.  An attention Ponzi scheme.  Become viewed as a reliable source of information, gain a following, those followers pressured to get more followers.  Those followers having a subconscious link to the higher sources on the pyramid, even if their chosen clique didn’t mesh with how the Jews/Freemasons/Illuminati/Jesuits/Elites/Politicians/ <insert scapegoat of the day here> rhetoric.  The lower levels of the pyramid, despite lack of results monetarily and progress up the pyramid were powered by the Attaboy!^TM.  And the learned helplessness and grievance politics that comes with the sycophancy.  Trained to deflect to the scapegoat and double down endlessly.

The gematria community watched their heroes constantly engaging in questionable behavior.  Too many fundraisers with the money remaining with the organizer instead of whatever vague goal was stated.  Too many decodes after the event finished claimed to be a prediction.  (Waaaay too many.  Too many as a phrase to describe this does injustice to the phrase “too many”). Too many verbal assaults on those that had been faithful but suddenly started to think about some things for themselves.  In short, too much ME!  ME!  ME!  from the top.  A collapse when reality caught up to hollow promises was inevitable.  And meanwhile in the big picture there’s something like this:

https://youtu.be/Qk96-PjcblI?is=dLmcspwRmMBUFS9p

Independent journalists filling the gaps where legacy media was too scared of consequences.  And if you pay attention to the parallels between Trump’s behavior and the gematria extinction burst it at the very least should make you see some reference points being duplicated.  The self referential expert that consistently fails and does everything in their power to show they don’t care because they can’t admit that the party’s over.

Now, under a hypothesis that MAGA as a whole is collapsing and the signs of extinction burst are here, what can we expect?  A lot of pain.  The next two years should be really bad.  Training someone to behave differently after getting caught in the confirmation bias of gematria is way easier than convincing cult members dedicated to bad ideas of a lifetime.  The remaining 30% of supporters are a mix of what looks to be the following personality types, mostly centered around those of boomer and early Gen X age groups:

1). Die hard cult members that are lifers and will never let go.

2). The hedgers who prefer counterproductive behavior and who selfishly insist that everything is fine now, but are still willing to go with the flow of the kids and the working class getting some relief.

3). The openly supportive whose heart isn’t really into it anymore.  The Angry Man of the twelve who just wants to go to the baseball game and doesn’t really care about the trial outcome.  Then gets to pretend he was part of the winning team long after his not being terribly important to the outcome has passed.

If you are not part of the problem, where your age and lack of access to decent wages and affordable housing has ruined your life - bad news sunshine.  It’s going to take some effort.  Don’t fall for the continued ragebait tactics of the lifers.  That’s a waste of time.  Yes, you’re angry and have every right to be.  Now is the time to pay attention and improve your target selection process.  Pushing the elevator button over and over is a magical solution.  Like gematria decodes are a magical solution.  Like not participating in a democracy when you have an opportunity to be active and then complaining about the results is a magical solution.  A solution that is no solution at all.  The elevator is still operating on its own schedule whether it’s working right or sabotaged by Dennis Hopper.