Someone please call a moratorium on the word 'sheeple'.

I just finished reading through a thread with 'sheeple' in the title, and peppered throughout. I don't know about anyone else, but that word just makes me cringe haha. I feel it has reached or surpassed the buzzword-level of 'selfie', 'yolo', or even the reprehensible 'bae'.

Whenever I see it used in earnest on here, I automatically picture the person at the keyboard as some high-school kid wearing all black and a black duster, a month after first seeing the Matrix, whose buddy just showed him/her Zeitgeist and Loose Change......and it's 2008.

Screw hate-speech legislation. We need buzzword legislation!!

originally posted by: WizardVanWizard
I just finished reading through a thread with 'sheeple' in the title, and peppered throughout. I don't know about anyone else, but that word just makes me cringe haha. I feel it has reached or surpassed the buzzword-level of 'selfie', 'yolo', or even the reprehensible 'bae'.

Whenever I see it used in earnest on here, I automatically picture the person at the keyboard as some high-school kid wearing all black and a black duster, a month after first seeing the Matrix, whose buddy just showed him/her Zeitgeist and Loose Change......and it's 2008.

Screw hate-speech legislation. We need buzzword legislation!!

I first came across the term through the books of David Icke.

I have to admit that it could annoy me if I care. Not because I dislike it as I think it is genius but that as with most good things it has been over used by people who as you say have had a 3 week enlightenment and feel the need to "Tell the world to wake up!!!"

Sheeple.

I agree. The term "sheeple" is so patronising and offensive. It is used by people who have lost the ability to debate and discuss, or who are on such poor ground that this is their only escape.

Arguably, the "sheeple" should be used to describe people who also slavishly follow implausible conspiracy theories rather than those who choose to react against them using such silliness like "fact" and "evidence".

a reply to: nonspecific

Agreed. A clever term overused and fallen-back-upon. Like an overplayed hit song (that was great to begin with)

a reply to: WizardVanWizard
Sheeple: People unable to think for themselves. Followers. Lemmings. Those with no cognitive ablilities of their own.
I think the word has merit, used in the proper context. It has just been overused, and used to offend. And like any other slang word, each person has their own perception of what it means to them.

a reply to: paraphi

I would say "Sheeple" are people who blindly ignore facts and evidence. They will usually argue against such things and will only blindly believe their "Gospel" whether it be from Media, Government, Religions or Conspiracy Forums.

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

Yolo, bae! ## sheeple

check me out on instagram..

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

i re- read what I wrote. now looking at it . I am getting nauseous. no.. I really don't feel well

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

Anyone who uses the following words in conspiracy theory talk is really just buying into an alternate version of lies pushed by the media:
shill
sheeple
awake

I agree completely. While the term sheeple is a clever term bringing to mind mindless animals vegetating their lives away eating grass, such terms have no place in intelligent debate. In real life, "sheeple" don't exist, it's simply a term that denies any agency, humanity, and thought to an opponent. Facts and debate are completely debased by juvenile name calling. I cringe when I see it in any debate. It does not make their user sound intelligent or awake. Any time someone uses derogatory generalizations for a whole mass of people they are no longer holding to any level of intellectual rigor. Imagine reading Plato and finding Socrates calling other philosophers sheeple, one would lose respect for Plato's writings immediately. It's a non-specific slur that degrades the discussion to the level of adolescent name calling.

Sure, by itself it's a clever funny term, I also find some fart jokes clever and funny but would lose respect for anyone adding them into a serious discussion. That's because in "real" life, people are much more complex in their motivations, emotions, and desires than a generalized black and white derogatory term like "sheeple" could ever contain.

Speaking of, Kool-Aid is another term that immediately lowers the standard of intellectual discourse.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Yes those words definitely reek of 'poseur'.

a reply to: AudioOne

That's because in "real" life, people are much more complex in their motivations, emotions, and desires than a generalized black and white derogatory term like "sheeple" could ever contain.

Well-said. You can replace 'sheeple' in that sentence with just about any other blanket term that many so-called debaters fall back on.

Kool-Aid kinda irks me, too (the term, not the drink! Oh yeah!!). Besides, wasn't it actually Flavor-Aid, anyway?


(I'd probably add 'eating the blue pill' to this little list, as well)

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: WizardVanWizard

Anyone who uses the following words in conspiracy theory talk is really just buying into an alternate version of lies pushed by the media:
shill
sheeple
awake

Well you would say that wouldn't you...

I like to picture my sheeple with white curly hair.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: WizardVanWizard

Anyone who uses the following words in conspiracy theory talk is really just buying into an alternate version of lies pushed by the media:
shill
sheeple
awake

AWAKE,,,, as in I am and you are not. As if the process of maturation was a simple thing. Switch off, switch on. See? Now I am awake. Were it only that easy.

It's annoying. I never know what I'm meant to be waking up too? They don't even know. I hate terms like the new world order and illuminati too.

I understand that in a world in which global capitalism is the economic system a few rich and powerful people form an elite to scratch one another's backs and maintain their positions of power. Is that what I'm meant to wake up to?

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

while we are at it could you do away with "lurker" and "false flags"?

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

I don't find it offensive for any other reason than the fact that it just sounds gross to me, kind of like "spleen". You used the perfect word for it; "cringeworthy" is a very apt description.

Maybe there's something wrong with me lol ... Doesn't seem right to get grossed out by a word merely because of its phonetic properties rather than its definition.

a reply to: Ashirah

Hahah yeah there are some words that make me shudder just from their sound, too. "Panties" always has haha.

I hadn't really thought of it as being offensive until I read some of these replies. I was coming more from the annoying buzzword angle haha.

a reply to: WizardVanWizard

I despise the phrase "Love me some".
I heard a news anchor talking about Taylor Swift just this morning, and he actually said "Love me some Taylor!"

What I'd like to do to whoever invented that repugnant phrase is best left undescribed.