Compulsive Contrarians

“The most cynical view of X is that the people who still respect Musk are reactionaries who delight only when their enemies have been gleefully trolled.” — Charlie Warzel

There are a lot of people who don’t have strong feelings about virtue, values, or principles.

They are also people who tend to be easily annoyed by anything that does disturb their own sense of peace, happiness, or safety.

They’re not terribly introspective.

Their main motivator for getting up in the morning is to be a compulsive contrarian.

Rather than digging deep, they relish in others being uncomfortable.

The outsize influence of trolls like this is why we can’t have nice things.

Are people’s political and social beliefs rooted in unprocessed trauma?

Some believe so.

Those who still respect figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump might be doing so out of a deep-seated need to see their perceived enemies suffer.

In their eyes, Musk’s dismantling of a social network or Trump’s unwinding of the American Republic are only successful if they make the right people — The Others™ — miserable.