Okay, enough of the abbreviations. I am going to take the liberty and write this post for those who know what NPC means. If not, this post is also for you anyways, but you've got some reading to do.
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There are NPC's in TRP too. You see them everywhere. The one liners, the book recommendations, the advice... Having read it once, you see it copy pasted over the years n times.
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Sure, "lift", "No more Mr. Nice Guy", "AWALT"... are good advice. They form the basis for the construction of everything else for the redpill man. A time comes when the redpill man needs more than basic platitudes and needs a deeper discussion.
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Do not understand this as “we are all special snowflakes and need a different recipe for our problems”, most of our problems are basically the same, that is why the advice mentioned above is good.
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My problem is with those who enter TRP, soak in the information, and never do any critical thought with said information. If all you do is repeat what others said before you, you are no better than a parrot. A red parrot, sure, but still a parrot.
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If you behave like a screen that plays a movie made by Rollo, IM, GLO or someone else, line by line, word by word, there is no point in talking to you. You are merely one of the many screens that play scripts written by somebody else.
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There is no use in rejecting all idols if you are going to take in anything said by a TRP member as gospel. This is merely idol changing.
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Many ideas of TRP are useful as heuristics. Apply those who work for you. Living rigidly through the 48 Laws of Power makes you a program with rules. Break the rules damn it.
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Digest every piece of information if you must. Rearrange, compile, edit and discard the information that is useful for you. No thought is original, the way it is rearranged is. We all may have the same ingredients, but we all have to come up with a different dish. Play a script written by you, or at least edited by you.
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So, how to avoid being a TRP NPC?
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I hate bullet points, but NPC's need bulletpoints, and this post is intended for you:
- Produce, instead of consume, for a change. Try to create a side hustle: freelancing, flipping, coaching, design...
- Write, create art, play an instrument. It doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be a part of you. Lifting is a great hobby, but it shouldn't be your only one.
- Read original works. Better to read The Origin of Species first hand than via an opinion of an opinion of an opinion. Make your own opinion. Read other works that are recommended here. If all of us here only read TRP literature, does that makes us better than graduates who have read the same 5 books?
- Understand why feminism, communism or whichever movement you disagree with is attractive to others. Understand the pros and cons. The true enlightened man understands many different points of view on one matter.
- Don't take in whatever is said here without any thought. I don't need to marry to know it is a bad idea, but I did need to check a few things here first and live them. This, apart from making you a more well-rounded man, makes you more interesting, as you have experiences to tell.
- Tying to the last point, reject all the movements and ideas that you do have currently. Let those in again which are useful, only now you have consciously let them in, accepting their pros and cons. It is harder to unlearn than it is to learn.
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To end this post. A true non NPC would reject all of this post and would call me out on my bullshit. Don't just agree and move on, disagree with what is written. Play something through that screen that isn’t written by somebody else verbatim. Don't be a TRP NPC.
DubbleFUPAwitCheez 5y ago
Absolutely. This is such an old problem that Neil Strauss wrote about it in "The Game", pickup robots he called them. Anytime you follow a system, any system, you run the risk of becoming nothing but a cog in that machine.
I get in confrontations around here sometimes because whenever I chime in I try to add my own thoughts on the "tried and true". Why? Because though we might not all be perfectly unique snowflakes we are still individuals. What I want out of life and how I view it is my own and I assume that to be true of all of you.
So, through years of experiencing and reading the facts presented here I have formed my own view of them and have tried to understand the meaning underneath them and what that means to me. For example, yes, marriage is a bad idea but I plan to risk it one day. I hope to find a woman that is of high enough quality and character to mitigate the risks as much as possible. "But AWALT" you will hear time and again. That is true but the lion's commanded by the tamer are no less beast than the ones in the wild. The main difference is, that man is prepared. TRP will tell you about the world but only you can decide what the world means to you.
SwoleyMoleyFrijoley 5y ago
Be a leader instead of a follower. TRP overall is just information. Use it how you want to live your life.
msmahamed 5y ago
I disagree with the last point. Action is key in succeeding in anything, but if the thought processes you’ve had before are validated by real-world data, and you spent the time rejecting those ideals to adopt them over again, wouldn’t that be a waste of time?
ThrowFader 5y ago
I disagree that a true non NPC must reject the post and call you out on your bullshit.
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Although ironically, I'm doing just that.
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This is a solid post, and it starts getting into what many people lack. Self awareness.
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Once you become truly self aware, take care that you maintain that lucidity, and do so with the utmost rigor. Otherwise you will inevitably fall asleep, just like when you stay awake past your bedtime to long staring at the screen instead of being productive.
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Same shit with TRP. Stop staring at the screen. Go do shit.
278209AR948Q 5y ago
Going all philosophycal, we should reject everything. Even what we agree with. Filter everything out so, when we accept them back in, this time we have conciously let them in.
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The reason I say to disagree with this post is because the second half is something that I am exactly criticising. I admit it may not have turned out like I wanted though.
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Once you go up a step, you begin to wonder where the next level is.
ThrowFader 5y ago
You are your own best critic indeed...
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I agree with your observations.
Halitenina 5y ago
Because we can't sticky user comments directly.
zyqkvx 5y ago
The first part of your post successfully called out NPC behavior. Then you preceded to give advice like an NPC. The post still has value. First part: Correct. Second part: Is a perfect example how easily the mind wants to slip in to becoming a NPC.
The truth to not becoming a NPC is to never give advice. Do not vicariously be concerned with negating the actions of others or bettering their interests, only your own. And poof. Now I'm an NPC.
Vikingcel 5y ago
Taking a stupid meme far too seriously.
278209AR948Q 5y ago
I'm glad you see the division in the post. It is meant to be rejected, as an example of what I am denouncing.
Still, nobody should be taking the NPC too seriously.
LeftHookLary 5y ago
Give advice but only if you applied it yourself and have experienced the goodness from it. If you don't have experience I don't believe you are qualified to tell others from a place of true understanding.
zyqkvx 5y ago
Right. Maybe r.TRP should have a discussion about how bad TRP advice is born. For instance, I had some weak sides to my body and lifting changed my physic, proportions, and posture permanently. After a year of not lifting, still permanently improved, I didn't want to bother telling why to lift because I had already written it out three times. So I devolved to saying, 'lift'. I thought I was cueing others to cut the chase and lift. Saying 'lift' alone is useless unless it's accompanied by insightful description. Also, when I spew 'lift' I suddenly halt lifting in that chapter of my life. So I become part of the NPC consomme raft instead of being the consomme.
riot2100 5y ago
Including synthesis is required to make a point credible and, if you’re trying to convince someone in debate, is even more needed. It’s like most arguments given against the left and the right by my colleagues today: they’re inherently because x, y, and z reasons (usually their own confirmation bias anyway). The backbone of said arguments? Never there. Never take a person’s suggestion seriously if they can’t answer this simple question: “how did you get to that conclusion?” Chances are if they do have one, they just read it somewhere else online.
GodOfDinosaurs 5y ago
I've always thought there was some irony in the NPC meme. By the very act of sharing a meme you are reproducing a collective thought or expression; becoming an NPC yourself in a sea of NPC memers.
Everyone is loathe to be skeptical of their own dogma and that includes TRP. I think this is the value of postmodernism, no matter how misunderstood. True skepticism is endless self-critique.
Whisper 5y ago
You're not generalizing enough. All ideas are memes. The concept of a meme is, in and of itself a meme.
Use what is useful. Discard what is not.
GodOfDinosaurs 5y ago
Yeah technically ideas are memes in the broad sense. I would still distinguish ideas in general from internet memes. The NPC meme is a discreet cultural artifact whereas ideas are amorphous, so reposting an NPC meme is more concretely ironic.
The “use what is useful, discard what is not” line is also interesting to me when used in the TRP sphere given the “objective rationalist” bent here. There are many obviously false beliefs that would be very useful to buy into depending on your goals. But following this thread would be getting into the rabbit hole of epistemology, pragmatism, ethics, etc.
ArdAtak 5y ago
Endless self critique. I've definitely mastered that.
278209AR948Q 5y ago
The interesting aspect about the NPC meme is the debate that it generates. It ends when you yourself become an NPC by shouting it at others all the time and not delving deeper into the issue.
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A next step to enlightenment is to question the same aspects that helped you go up the steps.
SUCK_MY_DICTIONARY 5y ago
If you can do something and make fun of it, it’s better than doing that same thing and getting outraged when you consider that.
People who reap benefits by it don’t care, it’s the people who are banking on it who will fight. Like the guys here who literally just approach and lift, if they have an abundance mentality would hear themselves get called an NPC and be like “hm. Yeah maybe. Idk. Welp gotta go FYB.” It’s the guys who don’t pull anything who have this all or nothing frame.
Some people don’t think to zoom out. The material at hand from guys like Rollo have really boiled down the root of hundreds of dating books, and that’s great for the science aspect of it. But you get people who read that and think they know a lot more than they do, will gladly argue with someone for 10 hours about it. To a man with just a hammer, everything is a nail.
Bottom line, there are leaders and followers. Either one can be a part of a movement/organization/country/etc. and either one can respect a leader, but one thinks “it has to make sense to me, and I need to trust the source” and the other thinks “these people believe it, one of them probably has the source.” All followers are NPCs. Whether you’re super alpha in your head, or you’re a total squeeb that looks up guys on CL to come bang your wife.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
That's not the point of the NPC meme.
Vikingcel 5y ago
Conforming to the "point of the meme", huh?
zyqkvx 5y ago
Might not be the point of the meme, but that's the reality of the meme.
Imperator_Red 5y ago
No, repeating something that is false because your cultural programming tells you to makes you an NPC. Repeating something that is true just makes you correct.
GodOfDinosaurs 5y ago
The NPC meme is an expression by right-wingers (4chan origin/alt-right specifically) of how liberals and the media appear to them: mindless and monolithic, repeating the same talking points uncritically and unoriginally.
Now consider for a moment what the next hentai avatar sharing an NPC meme looks like to anyone not familiar with those communities. The critical aspect of the NPC meme is embedded in meme culture itself.
Meme (Oxford Dictionary): an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
The irony is almost explicit to the point of being intentional.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
Everything I don't like is rightwing, said the NPC.
You clearly don't understand the meme, reading urban dictionary is not the same as having knowledge.
Hint: Part of the fun of the NPC meme is the triggering: NPCs get triggered when called an NPC. Main characters don't.
GodOfDinosaurs 5y ago
I never made a value judgement or said it's stupid. I'm actually sympathetic to the spirit of the meme given that I'm not a liberal myself. The meme is still deeply ironic.
Honestly you sound like the one getting triggered over my comments.
ThrowFader 5y ago
I don't believe the meme is ironic as you suggest. There are levels of magnitude, in most moral affairs, and this is no exception.
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Calling out NPCs by using a format that characterizes them seems ironic, but consider that the choice is intentional. It is a form of self-mockery. Thus the irony dissipates and becomes a stunningly accurate critique of human tendencies to conform.
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What I mean is, I can call others NPCs, fully aware that I myself am human, and am prone to the same tendencies of conformist thought. I'm reminding myself that humans are predictable, and not unique.
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People who use the term politically, and non ironically perhaps could be the subject of your comment. Even then, those with enough self awareness to recognize the general lack of awareness of others are probably less susceptible to being conformist sheep. Less susceptible. Not exempt. No one ever said humans don't like to be agreed with.
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The irony only arises when individuals who don't get the joke attempt to rationalize their superiority over others because they are NPC.
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"Wow this NPC lieberal really SUCKS! WHAT A CUCK. MAGA" is the same breed of conformist idiocy as radical liberal feminism.
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This usage is only tangentially at best related to the actual phenomenon of NPCs. Actually awakened people recognize their own tendencies to group think. They also possess the capability to call others out own their lack of awareness.
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TLDR:
NPC are one dimensional, and those who find their "raison d'etre" in mocking them are ironically also one dimensional. But you can mock NPCs without yourself being one.
mori_forthestreamer 5y ago
They've never even heard of it. Most people aren't rpg gamers and have no idea what npc means. It triggers no one but the people who share it. They're giving each other a small dopamine rush when they do.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
Right... You must be new on the internet.
mori_forthestreamer 5y ago
I've mainly heard about it from right leaning YouTube channels and right leaning meme posters. It's not a mainstream meme so most people are not going to be triggered by it.
Pynewacket 5y ago
I don't know if this is true but that meme definitely triggered its targets; case in point Twitter, banning a bunch of accounts with NPC avatars and getting tougher on Dehumanizing languague despite the prevalence of the Rusian Bot as a "counter argument" from the left.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
Yes, and the articles about how it's so "dehumanizing" to be called an NPC xD
Whisper 5y ago
So, OP, you're telling these guys they shouldn't just blindly repeat what ECs say and that they need to think for themselves?
Cool deal.
278209AR948Q 5y ago
Your comment should be stickied in my opinion.
No idea is original. We are all a mixtape of ideas previously read or heard from others. What makes us original is how we implement said idea.
If we barely repeat it, word by word, we are merely a screen that plays a script. We should strive to be able to accept ideas by editing them, rearranging them, taking the bits and pieces we discard and not use them.
We all have the same ingredients, it is the way we choose to mix them that defines us. Those who only do one recipe all their life, which they learnt by copying someone else 100% will never be able to improve truly.
I intend for the post to be criticised and argued about, because it is the same kind of content that doesn't particularly help. It is all make-you-feel-good bullshit.
It may haven't worked, it may have. All in all, thank you for your comment /u/Whisper
Whisper 5y ago
+1
278209AR948Q 5y ago
Thank you very much.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
I think being an NPC is the default state, you have to "wake" up to realize you're just a useful idiot.
Imperator_Red 5y ago
The problem is that most people are just idiots. Waking up won't help them because they need someone to tell them what to think.
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ThrowFader 5y ago
Good observation. I'd say the Pareto principle governs intelligence as well.
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Obviously is you are dumb it is somewhat easier to be NPC.
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NoahHaders 5y ago
I disagree w reading original works. Origin of the Species is effin boring and obtuse. Better to read a digest that gets across the main points and provides context for why it’s relevant today.
278209AR948Q 5y ago
In this concrete example, of Origin of Species, I agree that is boring. It is easier to get the general idea through other means.
The danger lies in that we read the summary written by somebode else, which distorts ever so slightly the original work.
Compound this n times and you will lose the original message, think of the telephone game.
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