WE ARE THE WIERD ONES
Seeking the truth is not natural for humans.
For most of history, and all of prehistory, agreeing with your group mattered far more for survival than being right. So it went into our nature.
That is the comfort in illusions: the comfort of holding the same beliefs as everyone around you. It means you won’t be stoned or burned.
Only the weird ones went looking for the truth – and they often paid dearly for it. In many societies they were weeded out of the gene pool. The safe conformists stayed.
That is what makes the West so rare. It is the civilization that learned to protect its weird ones: free speech, the scientific method, the market – institutions that make being right pay more than being agreeable. Socrates still had to drink the hemlock. But eventually the West turned heresy into progress.
And today, for the first time, the cost of being right is falling for everyone
Krzysztof Szczawinski
thanks for this one pedro
AND
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the German philosopher.
He was one of the most influential and controversial thinkers in modern philosophy. He challenged traditional religion, morality, and social conventions, and his ideas influenced psychology, literature, and existentialism.
Some of his most famous concepts include:
“God is dead”: Not a celebration of atheism, but an observation that traditional religious belief was losing its authority in modern society.
The Will to Power: The idea that humans are driven not merely by survival, but by a desire to grow, achieve, and overcome challenges.
The Übermensch (Overman/Superman): A person who creates their own values rather than simply accepting society’s norms.
Eternal Recurrence: A thought experiment asking whether you would be willing to live your exact life over and over forever.
As for the quote:
“When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.”
This comes from Beyond Good and Evil (1886). In its fuller form:
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
What did Nietzsche mean?
The “abyss” represents darkness, evil, chaos, suffering, obsession, or the deepest mysteries of existence.
Nietzsche’s warning is that:
If you spend too much time confronting evil, you may start to adopt the characteristics of what you oppose.
If you become obsessed with a problem, enemy, ideology, or trauma, it can begin to reshape your personality.
The act of studying darkness can change the observer.
Examples
Politics
Someone who fights corruption may become willing to use corrupt tactics.
Someone opposing censorship may become intolerant of opposing viewpoints.
Personal Life
A person consumed by revenge may become bitter and destructive.
A detective investigating violent crimes for decades may begin seeing the world as inherently evil.
Psychology
Dwelling endlessly on one’s fears, anxieties, or traumas can allow them to dominate one’s identity.
A modern interpretation
You could paraphrase Nietzsche as:
“Be careful when confronting darkness, because darkness has a way of changing the person who confronts it.”
Or even more simply:
“What you focus on long enough begins to shape who you become.”
That is why the quote remains popular today. It speaks to everything from politics and social media to personal struggles, reminding us that in fighting what we hate, we must be careful not to become it ourselves.
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