What is mainstream mentality?

Anyone who actually reads my blog posts is likely to encounter the phrase “Mainstream mentality.” What is mainstream mentality? It refers to beliefs and opinions that are believed by enough people that they are treated as fact. If you don’t agree with these beliefs and opinions, you are treated as though you are ignorant of the fact.

A lot of people believe that when something is believed by enough people, it is probably true. This revolves around the idea that if people look at the same issue and overwhelmingly come to the same conclusions, it must be true. I disagree.

If you believe that something must be true because everybody else believes it to be true, have you really bothered to look into the issue? Have other people used similar logic and assumed that the mainstream is correct? How many people who belong to the mainstream have even bothered to look into such issues?

The belief that the mainstream is probably correct relies far too much on people who never bothered to look into the validity of the beliefs and opinions of the mainstream. Perhaps if everyone legitimately asked questions and overwhelmingly found the same answers, we should build off of those answers. That’s just not how things work.

If a belief or opinion has become popular enough to be treated as fact by the mainstream, it is more likely due to a common influence than validity. After all, it is highly unlikely for individuals to all come up with the same ideas.

Independent thinkers are among the least likely to agree with the mainstream. This is because they will not simply accept what the mainstream believes. The people who believe what enters the mainstream live mindless lives. Otherwise, they would deviate from the mainstream.

For the reason above, I have created another term, mass mindlessness. Mainstream mentality and mass mindlessness are effectively the same. The reason for the second term is that I have the ability to emphasize or downplay the negativity associated the the concept depending on the situation.

What is ultimately happening here is that we are not thinking for ourselves. We conform to thoughts that may have originated from propaganda, indoctrination, or even previously valid information that has become obsolete. We mistreat those who disagree with what we assume to be fact, which creates societal pressure to conform. We develop fairly intense societal pressure, and those who fail to let the mainstream tell them what to think are turned into outcasts.