• Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    1 year ago

    I feel like none of these things are actually new to tech media, or media in general for that matter?

    Didn’t people worship Steve Jobs, who was literally the marketer, not the guy programming anything?

    The number of people who defend Richard Stallman when he says off-color things is high, too.

    I’m not even sure cult of personality is always the fault of the personality as much as fanboyism.

    • NightOwl@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, tech side is irrelevant.

      Many people like worshiping prominent figures, and looking up to them for inspiration and socializing with other fans about their adoration and displaying signs of support for them. It’s nothing unique to tech.

      Kardashians, Trump, Rogan, etc. List is endless in all spaces.

      • upstream@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Indeed.

        Not that it’s my field, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this has a lot to do with the human propensity to fall for religion.

        Many humans actually have genetic traits that make them more likely to become religious [citation needed].

        I suspect religion is interchangeable.

        I recall a research case a decade or so back, where they took a huge Apple fan and showed him Apple logos and products while doing an MRI or something and his brain lit up the same way a religious persons brain would when you show them religious iconography, like a cross.

        Some people are simply followers, doesn’t matter what.

        Some people like to exploit that, such as Trump and Joe Rogan. Surprised they’re not peddling NFT’s and Crypto.

        • preciouspupp@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Let me drop this quote here:

          “Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable …”

    • liv@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah ego, dogmatism, and the cult of personality are problems in many fields, I think.

    • Amju Wolf@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well its kinda how people (and society) can even function; we are hardwired to look up to role models, and to herd around people and ideas and whatnot… And that’s not a bad thing, we evolved to do it for a reason.

      It becomes a problem only when you completely stop thinking critically and do stupid shit because of the thing you look up to.

      • 1984@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I guess I don’t think these people are role models.

        They are more like personalities that people liked, and then it snowballed and they became famous because people know their names and they become like a brand.

        There are people that dislike mainstream brands, and I think there are people who dislike mainstream influencers also. We are not the same.

        There guys don’t have any wisdom. They are usually self absorbed people who want attention.

        • sfera@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          You and the person you replied to are both correct. Yet people herded around and followed well known persons through history. Unfortunately people don’t always look up to and choose to follow wise people. Yet the kind of hardwiring the person you replied to mentions is obsolete in my opinion. Never before was information as accesibile as today and ideas (no matter what kind) were exchanged as fast as these days. Critical thinking and the ability to filter through all the informational mess is probably the next evolutionary requirement if we wish to avoid becoming drones in a dystopia.