NORMIES

Revenge of the Nerds really was cultural poison

As something becomes more popular there is a tendency for executives to push for the lowest common denominator, and that's where the hate comes from. Sure, things need to be popular for commercial success, but people care about good art. Things like Star Wars were able to get popular in the first place because the writing had multiple layers and there was spectacle. Meaning, the more you put into looking at Star Wars, the more you got out of it. That's how things used to be. Disney had zero depth and practically killed the brand by destroying the momentum.

And this is why democracy is an absolute joke. Set aside the fact that in reality it's just an oligarchy, the average person is not some rational decision maker. The normal person just goes with the flow and can easily have their opinions swayed at the drop of a hat by percieved authority or group consensus.
This is not even an intelligence thing because many intelligent people are total normies. I believe it's more of a personality trait that makes people fall into one or the other category. Just look how many doctors and other professionals who you'd think were smart totally fell for the C19 debacle
What we are scared to admit is that some(most) people are just followers, and some people are trailblazers/leaders/pioneers at heart. This is not a bad thing and society could not function without the majority of the population being normies. Most people are too afraid to admit to themselves that they are just peasants living in the 21st century.

Without the newstand/comic rack at the grocery stores I probably would never have gotten into comics as a kid.

The ironic thing about Normie’s is that the more companies try to cater to them often the less Normie’s actually enjoy things

I do judge them harshly, because I do not understand a person who can just do a 180 on their beliefs just because people around them believe it. Nearly everything a normie does gets on my nerves & annoys me.

As a rule with art:
If you want to make art YOU like, do it for fun.
If you want to make art for a living, make art that OTHERS want.

Those segways into Kickstarter promotion are gold. It gets me every time lol

"The Normy Conquest".

I view them as Morpheus does. While they are plugged into the system, they fight in the service of that system, they uphold it. They are not my enemy, but they are so entrenched and dependent on a system which is my enemy, that it amounts to the same. Until a person is unplugged, they are an agent of that system, even if they don't know it.

We're all normies with some things, fanatics with others.

Loving the content blitz!

When a lot of normies start to show up in your scene, it's important to manage expectations. Most of them are never going to become fanatics, almost none of them are going to be impressed that you were there before them and watering down the scene isn't going to make them stay any longer than they were going to stay.

Based on the comments, no one collectively agrees on what a normie is. I suppose it makes sense since for me a normie is someone into things at a very shallow level or they don't care about anything that's intangible. They typically don't think things beyond a surface level, and if they're forced too, it's because they needed too for money or to stand out. Normies typically don't care about contexts at all and they don't like to do even basic research in anything. So many ppl can't even be bothered to quickly check in the search bar if the youtuber did a video on "this and that" before telling the youtuber to do so.
But some see normies as a level of obsession in something aka how much of a fanatic are you in this domain. IMO this is not normie territory as normies would never become a fanatic in anything that's intangible which includes fictional works and I would even argue historical ones too. To me, normies are so much like commoners, the only thing normies truly care about is moving through life and anything else that doesn't do that isn't on their itinerary. Normies are into nerd stuff because other normies are into nerd stuff. They do it for the social aspect and nothing more than that.
But I can understand why ppl think normies is a level of obssession because either those ppl never interacted with real normies or they're actually casuals/consoomers that think they're non-normies and they think consuming a lot of something makes you a non-normie rather than an obsession with depth in something like lore, mechanics or whatever it is.
This is why sometimes I should see normies as "healthy minded" ppl. Cus obsessions aren't really good for you and as you stated before identifying yourself as something you like rather than what you do is not healthy either which usually non-normies tend to do but not all non-normies.
And i think the last normie definition is normies conform and have zero issues with just conforming to the usual social norms and again they don't even think about the social norms. Whereas non-normies don't like nor conform to a sizeable chunk (but not all) of social norms.

30:14 I suggest avoiding terms like "real fantasy"; it discounts peoples' tastes, & may discourage them from exploring things more deeply. It makes them think "I don't want to become a fanatic; fanatics are exclusive & snobby."

23:09 This, more than anything, is why Atari failed. In the early '80's, WB hired some consultants, to tell them why Atari stopped being profitable. The consultants said they were in too many stores, & that WB should reduce their dealer accounts to stop competing with themselves. This didn't work.
Jack Tramiel bought Atari's home electronics division, but he couldn't get dealers to trust him. By the time the Jaguar was released, Atari was only in specialty stores. They did get into Walmart, but by then it was too late; the PS1 was already out. No stores = no sales = no games = failed system = failed company.

How a normie thinks is completely antithetical to how I think. What I like, I like intently, and passionately. I'm most likely autistic, so I've never cared about the social consensus about the things I like either. That said, I don't hate nomies, (though they do annoy me greatly at times). but my anger surrounding them is usually at the corporations or higher ups who neglect their responsibility to lead them, or outright weaponize them to their own ends, knowing they're ill-equipped to fight back, or even know they're being taken advantage of. Companies want to milk them dry, while giving them the lowest quality product, politicians want to manipulate them for their vote. it's sick, but without a shared moral founding saying it's wrong, why wouldn't these groups seek to exploit them for their benefit.

Hello David, another great video with amazing food for thought! Really! You're very eloquent and delivers complex ideas in a very easy way to digest!
Here's a subject I could appreciate your analysis and opinion: how to find a balance between collecting (acquiring new things) yet enjoy what you already own.
I am asking this, because often I see my friends and myself looking at our collections (and these are books, comics, music albums, etc) and we are on one hand constantly looking for what's new, or what new edition, new collections, new format, something is being released, and we end up acquiring more things than we may have time to properly consume...seems a bit of the so-called FOMO, but with it, these hobbies, collections, seem rather hollow, or that easily lose the "meaning" we had when we started collecting such objects...
I am not sure whether I expressed myself clearly, apologies if not...

Normies can't just suddenly turn into "fanatics". Totally disagree. Fanatics never were "normies once". Normies are going to normie about everything, forever. If you're really into something, anything.. seeking deeper and deeper.. you were never a "normie". Actual, real "forever normies" sooner or later will ruin everything (that somehow, someway gets sufficiently popular). It's not just a meme. This is some disgusting pro normie propaganda piece!
Only half joking about the last one, btw. Thanks for another interesting video, cheers.

I had seen a few of David’s videos many years ago. I just remember the intellect, and keenly insightful outlook.
Now? I’ve just done a print run on my first “aerospace” hard scifi novel. Now I understand why I was very drawn to with David’s freethinking mindset.
Someone I aspire towards.

Just remember that whatever you're not a normie about, you're a normie when it comes to everything else. 😊

Normies are actually OK. They don’t understand what makes things good but they do know when things are good. Virtually every single high literature book is considered skilled reading now, was once fabulously popular among the gross mass of people. At least the most smash people were able to read.

Got a chuckle out of the rearm europe thing. You really can't unsee it.

I started this thinking that "well, of course I'm not a normie..." I've read the Silmarillion multiple times, book of lost tales, & unfinished tales. My favorite metal band is Sabaton, which is hardly mainstream. And inasmuch as I pay attention to the news, it's usually from indie sites. But, listening to this articulation of the difference, I feel like in a lot of ways I fit more in the "normie" category than "fanatic." Perhaps it is less clear-cut, and one can be a fanatic in certain areas of your life, and a normie in others?

The good thing about Normies is that they are less picky and easier to please, and they will support things that are already successful. Making the thing more successful. They will also protect good if it already exists. The bad thing about Normies is that they will support bad things if normalized. Including things that harm others just to fit in. Trust me, I have experienced this.

I can't stand them and they are not worth fighting for.

I think modern patterns are warping this discussion a bit. Historically people had traditional lifestyles with well thought out materials, clothing, diet and so on. This made the default “normie” position functional and more healthy as well as much less grating. It was also not socially acceptable for a “normie” to attempt influencing culture in certain ways and it was viewed as presumptuous and ignorant and shamed. If you chose not to learn about a topic you were not supposed to volunteer more than a limited opinion on it in polite society if you shared one at all.
Also, now the default is rule by normies in terms of values. This was not historically the case and I am not referring to royalty. I mean that the setting of standards or morals was not done by the average person. A religious leader or some other figure who was considered of good character and respected typically via influence set the standard for behavior, lifestyle and so on. How many “normies” would engage in _____ behavior if they knew it would get them labeled socially as degenerate or untrustworthy? Few would. Today normies are setting the standard due to religious and cultural decay allowing corporations catering to masses to set the standards. Of course if normies set the standards then they will be wonky. We will always have normies, but we used to uphold standards and traditions to keep that from ballooning into a major problem. This also makes the extreme inconsistency issue much more socially unacceptable.
The following story on filial piety is one example that this issue reminded me of.
“One day, Yuan Gu’s father and mother decided that his grandfather was too old to be useful, so they decided to get rid of him. Yuan followed his father, who used a litter to carry the grandfather to the mountains. After his father abandoned the old man, Yuan grabbed the litter and brought it home. When his father asked him why, he replied, ‘Perhaps later you too will become old and will not be able to work again. Merely in order to do the right thing, I have retrieved it.’ Terrified and ashamed, his father realized the error of his ways, retrieved the old man and served him in a filial manner.” (see Knapp 2013)

My brother is obsessed with promoting big name brands. He never considers any product that comes from an independent or smaller company or individual. He loves everything Disney, everything. In fact, he seems to love it even more the worse it gets reviewed because he feels he has to defend the company harder. He only buys a video game if it comes from a major AAA studio and he mocks everything else no matter how good it is.
He and I couldn't be more opposite on this. It is incredibly infuriating, but I avoid arguing about it because I know it would be ww3 and I would destroy my relationship with him. People like this just cannot be changed or convinced out of their mindset.

I think fanaticism is kind of wrong term to describe a not-normie, as fanaticism is by it's core a very normie trait. "Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm" says wikipedia, of which describes perfectly normie's typical tendency to preserve the status-quo for example. I think terms like "nerd", "creative thinker", "passionate person", "individual thinker" or "deep thinker" are better words to describe non-normie minority of human race.
Normie's will as collective even genocide a group of people, if their leaders and current status-quo demands it. People who have tendencies to think deeper will go against the flow and present critique even if there is a threat on their life, if they believe their perspective to be right on the issue. There is also less this blind worship of things you enjoy or appreciate that normies have: I can admit when a game/movie/book/music album in a franchise or band I used to like before has some faults or issues, or it might have even turned bad in my perspective, to a normie it's usually just Star Wars=good because I always liked Star Wars, and I don't even get those movies that often anymore, so it must be epic when one comes out!
A non-normie will say if a movie from his favorite director sucked, a song or album of his favorite artist or band sucked, book, tv-series, video game what ever: if it sucked it sucked. No matter how much you loved all the previous stuff. At the same time a non-normie can still give you an hours long lecture about lore, productional techniques used, deeper symbolism in it and so on of some of his favorite media or art form, while normie can usually at most say "it was good, I liked it". Non-normie thinking is still not fanaticism in this case, since it also boils down to somewhat each individuals personal tastes: band taking a new direction in their sound might be something some enjoy, while others want more of the same old.
It gets quite subjective the deeper you go, but in general normies lack this general passion and deep interest on things, that makes the non-normies nerdy about things they enjoy.

I'm a music obsessive - and I'm also on the "autistic spectrum". I believe that fanaticism and obsession correlates to "the spectrum".
Now obviously I'm not saying every "non-normie" is on the spectrum, but I'm saying that inclination to take a "deep dive" into something like a form of art is related to leaning toward that brain type.
I see it as "specialization" vs. "all rounders". I think there is something of an evolutionary purpose to specialization - it causes us to be stronger as a civilization because we are not all equally obsessed with the same thing - we all have different pursuits.
There is also a strong evolutionary advantage to being an "all rounder" - someone who has a wide, varied life with a lot of shallow dips into many art forms and experiences.
I'd find my life extremely lacking in purpose and direction if I lived like a normie - but by the same token they would see my obsession with these "narrow lanes" of human experience to be boring to them too.
I certainly don't condescend or look down upon the normies - their interests may be more fleeting and shallow but they get to live a pretty full life in their own ways!

im like 25 years ahead on this new baggy clothes trend

Ok the last 45 seconds really had me rolling. Guess I failed the normie test.

"I put on my robe and wizard hat"

I honestly feel like I'm less clear on what a normie is now - and questioning whether i might be one.

People keep confusing normies with npcs. Normies are just average people with a few interests that dont break the mold too often where npcs are soulless people that change their worldview on a dime based on others. Its like comparing an un-interesting person to a robot.

Best example of something being "dumbed down" for normies was when they made the Simpsons movie.
The show was able to simultaneously be popular with normies who bought all the t-shirts but also have multi-layered deep cut oddball jokes and social commentary clearly written by extreme nerds and weirdos.
Then the movie comes out and it has jokes with zero wit or subtext like a silo full of pig excrement labeled 'pig crap' or Homer singing "spider pig", which normies loved but had no actual intelligence to it

For me, being a normie (though I don't consider myself one otherwise) and having a convenience bias is about avoiding new books. I prefer old, public domain books which don't have DRM. Those can be downloaded without any hassle and stored on my e-book reader. New DRM books are a pain in the a** compared to that. Why should I pay for something that's worse than a free product?

I could listen to you talk about pop culture forever. Still waiting on a deep dive on the "cultural ground zero" idea. Its so interesting and I'd love to hear your full thoughts on it.

Have to disagree with other commenters - everyone is normie about some topics and fanatic about others.
"Normie" mostly just means "focused elsewhere"

It's interesting because I always assumed something like "if you make it they will come", where the fanatics find the art you make and if it's good enough it "breaks containment". This makes me think about the relationship between the art we make, fanatics, and the normies. Because I can think of examples of when companies really narrowing in on the fans didn't create something that appealed to the normie.
Is it possible to create something that appeals to both the fanatics and the normies? I think while the fanatics are interested, like the creatives, in engaging with the medium and the emotions and experiences that it can produce; the normies are more interested in how the work engages with their lives, whether it be in the form of aesthetics, a narrative that feels like it could be actualized, a social cause, or whatever.

Normies are hylics

The term "normies" really irritates me and makes me think of the term "hipster". Kinda feel like at some point in the Obama years we went from calling certain people hipsters and it did a 180 flip and suddenly everyone is a hipster cultural elitist calling others "normies". It's like everyone turned into a cultural snob because of the internet.

Frackin Normies!!!! REEEEERER!

At the beginning of your video i was thinking that another word for "Normie" might be "Casual". But you immediately make another point which i completely agree with and makes a distinction imo.
At first I was thinking that to some extent we're all normies. When it comes to things like anime, stamp collecting, whatever I wanna say that I'm not especially into myself. To the people who are really into those things, I'm a normie (or casual). But then I totally agree with your argument that a normie is not necessarily concerned with the truth, facts, or quality of the thing in question. That would be the point of distinction. A casual, as far as I'm concerned, might go about the hobby in the 'correct' way, but could simply be unwilling to dedicate a decent amount of time or money to the topic to become expert or buy the best equipment.
A normie on the other hand, is more fundamentally a follower. What's the consensus? What will my friends think is cool? What's the safe option?
And i love the point you made about being reactive and changing opinions on a dime. Not based on anything except the newest consensus.
This puts the normie firmly into NPC territory, just waiting for their next download.
If normie isn't synonymous with casual, than is it synonymous with NPC?
I think one part of the definition of an NPC is the willingness to argue about a topic they know nothing about. There's no self awareness about the fact that they've made a decision based on how they've been told to make a decision and nothing else. So they're clearly in no position to try to argue its case or push it onto others. Is this the distinction between normie and NPC? Or does that fit a normie as well?
Thanks for the video!

Have you ever read the "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy by Tad Williams? It was a fantasy novel series that came out in the late-80s through early-90s. I picked up one of the books when I was in the Army, deployed to Bosnia, and I thought it was great at the time and ended up seeking out and reading the entire trilogy (more of a quadrilogy in paperback form, since the third hardback book had to be broken up into two paperback books) once I got back to the States.
I remember being the "duty driver" while in Bosnia (basically a chauffeur for officers and Sergeants Major) and I had the book with me, since the job involved a lot of waiting around and you weren't allowed to sleep while you were waiting. That day I ended up driving for a one-star General and a Colonel, from the 10th Mountain Division. After they got into the HMMWV, I remember the General picking up the book and looking at the cover, then giving me this look that seemed to be a mixture of confusion and disgust. He just asked, "What the f*** is this?" And I responded with "Just something I'm reading to pass the time, sir." Him and the Colonel both looked at me like I had just dropped in from outer space, then the General put the book down and never spoke another word to me again.

Aaaaghhh! It took me a moment to realise what you were referring to right at the end there. I thought "maybe sensitivity to the historical context of European rearmament?"... and then it hit me. The Internet has permanently de-normified me.
People can be normies in some or most areas while being a total outlier in others.
Normies and outliers are inextricably linked and the relationship is two-way. Outliers serve normies while normies follow or listen to outliers. Like a head is to the body, outliers are to normies.

If you're honest enough with yourself as a fanatic/nerd/ideologue, you realize most of your resentment for normies comes from the fact that normies do gatekeep what is socially acceptable, and so somewhere in your development, you ended up on the losing end of the normie social consensus filter. While there's nothing wrong with having taste, being intelligent, or liking to think more deeply about things, that consensus filter does protect society from some seriously sick and maladaptive things if it's functioning properly. Case in point with the woke/tranny stuff. That garbage was thankfully as short-lived as it was because normies never fully adopted it. They might have went along with it to keep their jobs and for want of better options, but all they really needed was somebody with some authority they respected giving them the permission to stand up to it. Those of us in the creative sphere can do that for normies. Not telling anyone to use their work to preach cringe propaganda, but you also shouldn't shy away from your creative work reflecting your world view and values. A lot of normies who feel the same way you do but never really examined why they feel and believe what they do can benefit from works that reaffirm core values for them.

First time seeing your channel. Great points

Was this entire video dedicated to the goatse punchline, cause that's hilarious

So if Normies have a time filter and Normies are the majority. Then, the only way a Normie will try something. Is if Fanatics make it popular enough for the majority to try it. So, in a way, the Normies rely on Fanatics. They just dont realize it. Odd.

The thing that has always bothered me is that I have been hardcore about things in the past but those who are even more hardcore have absolutely ruined things for me in the past and pushed me away. A great example was amiibos at their height. There are ones I wanted that I was not willing to shell out exorbitant amounts of money for because people were buying them up like they were made of diamonds. I wanted Ness and Lucas and never got them, same with the Xenoblade and Castlevania ones. I can absolutely love those series, consider myself a super fan from back when there was only Xenogears or from prior to SotN, but I'm not going to go out of my way for something that is essentially a dust collector. I didn't want them to use, I wanted them to look good on display and the frustration of dealing with unreliable game stores and people queuing online and using sniping bots to buy up all the inventory at launch just got to be too annoying. Dealing with that BS one too many times soured me on it entirely. This is to the point that I have come across Richter sealed in the wild and just said fuck this I don't need it

Trouble is when normies normalize sin, like fornication or abortion.

Let's face it: you're not nerdy unless you know what "Candy from Fidel" means.

That's a witch hat not a wizard hat AKKKTYALLY. Very normie thing to do. 🤣👍

Oh, so you've heard of MacGregor's mutton-piss blended too?

Normies recognize 3 Meatloaf albums...Bat out of Hell, Bat out of Hell II, Bat out of Hell 3. All other Meatloaf records failed to sell. 😅

You have a kid, you're no wizard!

My least favorite niche subgenre of normie is "overweight teacher who reads smut novels at her desk".

It's been shown that comics had never been profitable from Stan Lee and others in the business. It was only comics fans buying the books that kept them afloat when normies left it behind. It's the same with videogames by thinking the casual audience will stay when they always move on, leaving the fans. Comics changed because political activists infiltrated in the late 80s - early 90s and slowly began to change the content. You can find statements of this on Marvel podcasts from the feminists on it and other sources. Fans buy the products and never had control over it to alter it. Not when it changed hands with different writers and editors that couldn't set aside political views or just were not good.

Ultimate movie about fan snobs is High Fidelity with John Cusack.

So the kickstarter has 50 backers now. Did I miss my chance to get one? I don't think it's something I want immediately with a billion unread fantasy books on my plate. I'd like to hear James Tullos review another youtuber book though. Could I get one and send it to him?

I belong to no subculture
Because no one is in my subculture

Have you seen the Malcolm in the Middle episode where Hal is antagonized by a pimply comic shop employee?

Thats funny what you mentioned about Elon, I noticed that too. I never really cared for Elon when he first started Tesla, he was just some rich dude venture capitalist that had some smart people working for him, as far as I was concerned and I never used twitter. Now that the perception about him or at least the leftist perception around him has changed I have lefty friends sending me articles about Tesla stock tanking or Elon doing a Nazi salute, as if he's suddenly my guy now just because I lean right politically. I'm still pretty neutral on Elon, but now it's at least funny watching normies get emotionally worked up about a guy they used to chear for 5 years ago.

I love your videos

You said normies read Harry Potter only after it got really popular. I must be the ultimate anti-normie then. When the first book came out I was a teenager, and thought maybe I'll read it although it's a children's book. I didn't do so however, and then more books came out and eventually movies. Soon you couldn't step out of the door without being bombarded with Harry Potter propaganda, which made me hate it.
Generally I find myself allergic to things that are too popular. Admittedly sometimes it makes me miss out on genuinely good things too.
P. S. I didn't like Book of the New Sun. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't enjoy it either.

Black metal. But not the good kind, the weird kind that isn't really metal but somehow gets grandfathered in because the guy played bass for emperor in 1992 or something. That kjnd.

Having kids does an automatic
x5000
to your base normie level

We are all normies in various domains. By nature of being a normie you won't recognize that there's any depth you're missing.

I think it's ok to be a Normie on some issues. I care a lot about politics but I never got into Gamergate. I rarely pay attention to a video game's story or the politics that surrounds the video game, what matters to me is the game play. I've enjoyed a lot of games that apparently were woke and I had no clue.

We need to stop scorning the nornie

I’m a normie about most things. What does the flag mean?

Great analysis.

The wizard hat is Epic Metal. 💯