Cult Mentality and the Pink Slime from Ghostbusters 2

Chris explores the dangers of groupthink and the cult-like mentality often seen in social media debates. Drawing a parallel to the "pink slime" from Ghostbusters 2, he discusses how negativity online fuels hostility, making productive dialogue nearly impossible. He reflects on his experience with callers and social media, emphasizing the futility of arguing with people entrenched in their beliefs. Markowski advises avoiding toxic online exchanges and focusing on meaningful, direct communication instead. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Cult Mentality and the Pink Slime from Ghostbusters two. Yeah, Unfortunately, unfortunately, again,
we live in a day and age day and age
when again, people, let's just put it this say, they
get really really stuck on whatever belief system they have.

(00:42):
And this is not even so much a moral system.
This is not a grounded system of morals and the
difference between right or wrong ten commandments type stuff. This
is the fact that climate change is most definitely happening
currently other things as well. I mean, it's you know,

(01:05):
it could be right, it could be left. It's when
people believe in something with a religious fervor and they're
completely unable onable to listen to any sort of reason
or have any sort of conversation. Now again, I explain

(01:26):
this in my many, many many years in radio, and
I used to host drive time programs with callers. I
learned my lesson is that once again, you don't you
cannot argue with idiots, it doesn't make any sense. They've
got way too much experience at being an idiot. It'll
bring you down to their level. Again, it's like argue
with people that make up their own facts. Now, part

(01:49):
of the problem that we have today is that, because
of social media and what's taking place, the ability, the
ability to make someone's argument look ridiculous is, well, you

(02:11):
can do it. It's not a difficult thing to do.
And sometimes what we have happened, what we have happened
is these people who have their entire belief system attacked. Again,
it's it's like it's it's like a cult.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
It basically is a shot at their their ego, their
their entire self worth.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
And these types of people, more often than not, rather
than be like wow, I was I was wrong on that. No, no,
no no, they try to back at you with idiotic arguments.

(03:08):
You know, various different, you know, forms of criticism out
of left field. You're often going to be called, you know,
it sounds like something Hitler would say. You're going to
be compared to being a Nazi, a you know, fascist,
a myriad of different things. And you know they're doing

(03:29):
that because quite frankly, I need to feel better about
themselves who they are. NASA Nicholas Talub Talks discusses this
as well, and it's something that you have to look
out for. What does this have to do with the
Ghostbusters pink slime? I compared this is fifteen years ago longer.

(03:55):
I mean, yeah, we don't know, we're going back even longer.
For crying out loud. I'm going back to the early
parts or the infancy of social media. I saw what
was going to happen and what was going to take
place understanding human nature and the negativity and the nastiness
that was going to be pervasive on these platforms. And

(04:18):
I compared it at the time in the second Ghostbusters movie,
they had this pink slime that was underneath, going underneath
New York City and the subways, and it was basically
all because of negative energy. And ave even got close
to the pink slime, it made you want to fight
and argue. And that's that's what these various different forums do. Again.

(04:46):
It's something it's something that you kind of at time
to time you have to you have to walk away from.
If you're someone that likes to actively post stuff, you
might want to avoid the comments. You don't want to
get into long, dragged out debates on social media. It's

(05:06):
not a good place to go in. Again, I probably
should be posting more from some of the things that
we're doing, and transcripts from this program, and eventually will
do that. I do post my appearances and whatnot. They're
on the program. I never even look I never look
at it. I don't even I don't even bother response.

(05:28):
Someone wants to get in contact with me, well, you
know what. You can send me an email, you can
place a phone call. You want to have a conversation,
have you know a problem with Sometimes you can reach out,
reach out, but don't ever engage in these name calling
fests on social media. It's a complete or waste of

(05:48):
your time. Watch Dog on Wall Street dot com