The Paleo-Game Cult: An Internet Age Subculture?

The Paleo-Game Cult...Just Who Are They?

First off, I did not invent this term, however I will use (despite the controversy of the word 'cult') it for the sake of continuity in this post. It is a label (coming from the anti-feminist blog The Black Pill. Disclosure: I don't agree with much of this blog's content, but I believe their description of this group is spot on) used to denote an internet subculture that utilizes elements from two or three unrelated subcultures.

I believe Paleo-Game Cultists are prevalent and easy to spot here on ATS as well as throughout the 'conspiracy-sphere' at large. To begin, I'm going to quote The Black Pill's list of characteristics. You'll probably know somebody who shares these traits:

1. Game
2. The Paleo Diet
3. Meaningless “Self Improvement” (This means self improvement without objective metrics.)
4. Conspiracy Theory (This can include everything from 9/11 & New World Order conspiracy theories to conspiracy theories about individuals such as myself.)
5. Collapse Porn/Compulsive Doomsaying
6. Ron Paul as some sort of “secular messiah” (This is distinct from the Libertarian Party and libertarianism as a political movement.)
7. White Nationalism or some degree of racism and/or anti-semitism
8. A belief that their “truth” is superior to science and an opposition to scientific inquiry and experimental evidence when it comes to their ideology (a similarity they share with creationists)

I'd like to elaborate on each of these points and flesh them out a bit, because I believe there's some room for clarification and a synthesis of how these characteristics relate to each other and form a nascent group identity. Before we begin, I'd like to lay a few predominant characteristics of this loosely-woven group:
1. The group is predominantly male.
2. The age range is predominantly from 30-60 years old.
3. They are socially and economically conservative
4. They are not, necessarily, overly religious. In fact, they may be vehemently opposed to some religions such as Islam, Judaism or the New Age movement.

Now then, let me explain a bit about the points The Black Pill listed.

1. Game
What The Black Pill refers to as 'game' is more commonly known as the Pick-Up Artist (from here on referred to as "PUA") community. Think of people like the semi-famous 'Mystery.' Pick-up artistry in the context of the Paleo-Game Cult goes deeper than just people going to Mystery seminars though. Many members of the Paleo-Game Cult are militantly misogynist in their views towards women, which they rationalize through the use of 'pop anthropology' and evolutionary psychology. They are also probably involved with 'Men's Rights' advocacy. The paradox lies with the fact that despite the negative views of women shared by Cultists, they share a seeming obsession with being sexually successful. More on this in the "Nationalism" bullet.

2. Paleo
Let's start with what the Paleo diet is, for those who are unaware: the Paleo diet (popularized by writers such as Loren Cordain) is a diet that seeks to eliminate processed and 'Neolithic' foods. In general, Paleo dieters cut out grains, dairy, legumes and beans, some nuts, and some go so far as to also eliminate all starchy plants, Nightshades and other food groups. While the diet doesn't prescribe macronutrient ratios, most dieters assume a low-carb, moderate-fat, moderate or high protein version. The average paleo diet meal would, for example, consist of lean meats and select vegetables. Ketogenic, 'Zero Carb,' or 'Carnivorous' paleo diets are growing in popularity.

The dark side of the paleo diet is that it isn't accurate as to what our ancestors ate, because there's never been a worldwide, monolithic diet before in human history. The reduction and elimination of processed foods is admirable, but paleo often veers into orthorexia - an eating disorder marked by a crippling obsession with 'clean eating,' to the point that it affects one's social life. To Paleo-Game Cultists, the Paleo diet is also symbolic of a wider resistance to not just modern medicine and nutrition, but also to modern society, which is viewed as 'corrupt.' To Cultists, the mindset represents a utopian vision of a dog-eat-dog, 'pre-progressive' world.

3. Meaningless Self-Improvement
This is the one that I thought warranted the most elaboration, in my opinion. Paleo-Game Cultists are often involved with what used to be called 'self-help' or 'self-improvement' (think Steve Pavlina) and is now called 'lifestyle design' (think Timothy Ferriss). They often will be stuck in a 'self-help' cycle and will rely on inspirational or motivational material (whether it be seminars, podcasts or ebooks) to give themselves a confidence boost.

Many Paleo-Game Cultists believe in working for themselves. This isn't such a bad idea, except they demonstrate a total dependence on being told what to do by 'gurus' such as Tim Ferriss, Dave Asprey, Ramit Sethi or Robert Kiyosaki. They read a large number of books on personal finance, investing and entrepreneurship, and usually will be in the process of attempting to support themselves via a 'lifestyle business,' which is usually an online business that relies on information products (such as selling marketing guides, offering personal finance information or the ever-popular SEO consultancy). They probably will have a blog.

4. Conspiracy Theories
Paleo-Game Cultists are, inevitably, conspiracy theorists. They can be introduced to the 'conspiracy theory world' through one of their other characteristics. For example, a PUA could become a conspiracy theorist through exposure to anti-feminist conspiracies, or a paleo dieter could become a conspiracy theorist after reading about the USDA's abuse of power in regards to public health.

Paleo-Game Cultists, once in the conspiracy-sphere, tend to focus on NWO conspiracies, usually due to their first conspiracy 'exposure' being about a supposedly underhanded systemic plan - for example, the government is run by feminists, or by Jews, or by Big Agro. However, they aren't restricted in any sense and once they're a conspiracy theorist, nothing is off-limits.

5. Collapse Porn/Doomsaying
This goes hand-in-hand with conspiracy theory. Paleo-Game Cultists will usually detest 'hopeful' conspiracies (for example, the currently viral 'imminent mass arrests' meme) and will instead embrace 'doom,' which can take the form of imminent martial law, imminent culling of the population, imminent natural or economic disaster, and so on.

In the event of a total 'collapse' that doesn't involve an NWO takeover, Paleo-Game Cultists will usually treat the subject favorably due to their interest in survivalism and relative confidence that they would be able to thrive in a post-Apocalyptic world without civilization.

I'm running out of room in this post. In my next post I will finish expounding on the last 3 traits (a Messianic vision of Ron Paul; white nationalism, militancy and other prejudices; and the hypocrisy of only embracing 'truths' that fit the Cultists' personal vision) and will offer a few closing thoughts on the subject.

Thoughts so far? Surely this type of character is common on ATS. Do you believe a less offensive group name should be invented? There's enough varied viewpoints and non-Cultists on ATS to warrant a discussion, I believe.

Something to consider...

Before I post the next half of this thread, I'd like to pose something for ATS' consideration. Is it possible that the Paleo-Game Cult is less of a coherent or conscious culture unto itself, and rather, it's that certain personalities or types of people gravitate to the ideas expressed by interests such as the Paleo diet, PUA, anti-feminism, entrepreneurship and such?

If that's true, and it's more of a loose collective of shared interests, than the question becomes: what shared qualities do things like nationalism, the paleo diet, self-improvement and such have? And what types of people are prone to being attracted to them? Something to think about.

And a disclosure: I myself would've once been considered a member of the 'Cult.' I have been involved with the paleo diet before, as well as 'lifestyle design' and entrepreneurship, and for a spell I was a devoted reader of Roissy, one of the PUA and MRA movements' most notorious bloggers. I was never involved with any nationalism or other forms of xenophobia, however. The original posting about the Paleo-Game Cult wouldn't have interested me nearly as much if I didn't see so much of myself in it. I have personal reasons for trying to figure out the connecting threads between these superficially dissimilar topics have formed a sort of pseudo-social group.

No offense OP but the whole thing sounds like an arbitrarily made up classification that someone obsessed with labeling and boxing every person into a new group, just pulled out of the air.

The fact is I have yet to meet one of these cultists or if I have I had no idea. Though, I am sure I have probably met some people that fit some of the descriptors and maybe one who or two who fit all, that hardly makes it a group or even a cult.

And thing is I am not against classification per say, but there is a point where over classification actually defeats the purpose of a classification system in the first place. If classifications of people become so detailed that you end up with separate classification for each person, then what is the point?

You see the same thing happening in music where people are just arbitrarily making up new genres of music to the point that you now have hundreds of genres of music with very little difference between them, at least not enough to really qualify for a new genre and you have like maybe three bands in each of the genres. lol

Anyway, good luck with this classification, I personally think it's nonsense, just my opinion though.

Originally posted by prisoneronashipoffools
No offense OP but the whole thing sounds like an arbitrarily made up classification that someone obsessed with labeling and boxing every person into a new group, just pulled out of the air.

The fact is I have yet to meet one of these cultists or if I have I had no idea. Though, I am sure I have probably met some people that fit some of the descriptors and maybe one who or two who fit all, that hardly makes it a group or even a cult.

And thing is I am not against classification per say, but there is a point where over classification actually defeats the purpose of a classification system in the first place. If classifications of people become so detailed that you end up with separate classification for each person, then what is the point?

You see the same thing happening in music where people are just arbitrarily making up new genres of music to the point that you now have hundreds of genres of music with very little difference between them, at least not enough to really qualify for a new genre and you have like maybe three bands in each of the genres. lol

Anyway, good luck with this classification, I personally think it's nonsense, just my opinion though.

I think there was a failure to better explain the name; this is mostly on my part.

I don't know if I agree with the name "Paleo-Game Cult" mostly because I believe it encompasses a lot more than the titular 'Paleo-Game' aspect. Also, the inventors of the term over at The Black Pill meant for it to be an attack on these people - hence, 'Cult.' I, personally, don't think it's a cult because it isn't centralized, or self-conscious, and it doesn't have an agenda, among other things. It's simply a group of shared interests.

I do think there's something unifying between all these disparate aspects of it, though. I'm just not sure what. However, you're entitled to view it as nonsense if you want. It certainly is more of a topic of curiosity rather than one of real-world importance.

reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!


Well, I think we can drop the use of the word cult, it wasn't really what I was trying to say anyway. I was actually questioning whether this is even a good classification of a new sub-culture. The reason being is there is eight descriptors and many of those descriptors are highly detailed; in fact far to detailed.

What, I am trying to say is; how many of the descriptors does a person need to fit into this "new" sub-culture? If you say all eight, well then I think, the group would be so narrowly focused you wouldn't have enough people in the classification to actually warrant calling it a subculture, on the other hand, if you only need one or two of the shared interests, you would actually be lumping a lot of people into this new group, that may not even fit. I mean if I follow the paleo diet, would I be in this group, if I support ron paul would I be in this group?

What I am trying to say is the descriptors of the group is so narrow, that I don't really think it's an accurate classification of a new subculture or really even a new subculture at all.

If I write down a list of eight of my own interests, and call it a new subculture and then look around I may find people that share some of my interests, but I doubt I will find many that share all eight, definitely not enough to be considered a new sub-culture.

So, like I said to me it seems like someone is juts putting together a long list of things they dislike and then taking people they meet that share one or two of the common interests and labeling them. Really I think if the idea of this classification takes off you will soon see on ATS, every ron paul, supporter, proponent of the paleo diet, person who believes in self help gurus, etc all thrown into the this group and labeled.

Sorry I just think it's a bad classification and that is why I said I believe it is nonsense.

It is just my opinion though. Anyway thanks of the time and the response

reply to post by prisoneronashipoffools


The more I read about it, the more it seems like this whole 'paleo game cult' concept is just the product of a bunch of whiny feminists/people who have to compete with men interested in equality and health.

They (the feminists) are upset that men are getting in shape, networking and going their own way - AND these men have the gall to believe in equality of the sexes. See, the men's rights community serves much the same role as men's clubs used to before the feminists forced their way into everything, and ruined it all. The fact that they cannot do this to the men's rights activists and young men's pick-up groups bothers them immensely.

....'Paleo game' - that even sounds like an insult; like Neanderthal Game or something. But you know how these people are, they'll throw mud until something sticks.