@thesotiris 31 October 2025 more from that month

Why the West is NGMI #3: Soul-Shattering Cognitive Dissonance

I won’t sugarcoat it with flashy academic babble in lieu of essence, or meaningless, needless jargon to impress the impressionable that would applaud anything: Western (European) cultures are dying because the joy in holding them has died. There is no reward, no meaning, no validation of values or identity in holding Western ideals. And this is why… For context, check ‘Why the West is NGMI’ #1 and #2, as well as ‘Western Civilisation’s Problem’. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/why-the-west-is-ngmi-part-1 https://sotiris.substack.com/p/why-the-west-is-ngmi-part-2 https://sotiris.substack.com/p/western-civilisations-problem

Vandalism of historical and cultural relics is a society self-mutilating as a manifestation of self-hatred, the individual equivalent of which is tattoos, piercings, body modifications, gender reassignment surgery, Botox, and other forms of ritualistic self-harm. Punishing oneself serves to validate their pain and their self-righteous identity as a sanctimonious moralist, self-righteously” hating themself as penance for the sins of others, and on behalf of others. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-loudest-moralists-tend-to-be **Self-righteous guilt and self-loathing** are the new faux-virtues of the Westerner. I will define “the West” as the set of values that first define an individual, and then, a set of like-minded individuals spontaneously define a group. **Individualism, this fundamental Western value**, is a high ideal, and is the opposite of the **despicable vice of collectivism**, by which the arbitrary concept of a “group” gets to forcefully define the individual. Collectivism is manifest in different brands, like Marxism/socialism/communism, Islam, fascism, the scam of democracy, and religious cults. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/western-civilisation-was-built-on https://sotiris.substack.com/p/what-are-western-values-anyway https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-great-evil-of-the-lesser-evil https://sotiris.substack.com/p/islamic-feminism-and-muslim-matriarchy https://sotiris.substack.com/p/socialism-fascism https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-state-is-the-devil **The reason the West is dying is that today’s Westerners are afflicted with pathological, self-destructive, schizophrenic-level cognitive dissonance.** That’s it. The article is over. But do keep reading if you wish to understand more about this. Cognitive dissonance: The simultaneous holding of contradictory, mutually exclusive beliefs. The symptoms of cognitive dissonance — this violent clash of contradictive beliefs inside one’s mind — include immense mental suffering, feelings of tragic insecurity (at least on a subconscious level), self-hatred, unease, aggression, and Stockholm syndrome. Yes, Stockholm syndrome is a manifestation of cognitive dissonance: **loving your abusers, those who work hard to earn your hate**. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/stockholm-syndrome-explained In the case of modern Western cultures, the peoples who have traditionally held those values have been for centuries infected with antithetical vices, as I break down below. **The Westerner’s cognitive dissonance** **1. Blame vs. Accountability, Assertion vs. Dereliction** **We are taught to be responsible and** **guilty for things that are not our fault****, while we are told to** **deny all self-accountability for things that are indeed our responsibility****.** https://sotiris.substack.com/p/why-the-world-is-fcked-up https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-source-of-all-evil We hold children responsible for things that shouldn’t burden their innocent souls, yet we make every excuse in the book for parents whose obligation is the well-being of children. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/what-you-owe-your-children https://sotiris.substack.com/p/narcissistic-parenting We show much more patience for adults when they deliberately and spitefully commit the worst of annoyances against us — when adults have no excuses to be be irrational and uncivilised — yet we show no patience or understanding for children when they naively “misbehave” in the slightest way, without ill intent, just out of innocence — not malice — and when children deserve the privilege of the benefit of the doubt, of understanding and exoneration, due to their pure nature. Besides, every single “misbehaviour” of a child is 100% attributed to their parents. No one has as much deterministic influence on someone as their parents do. **2. Politics and economics** We are confused, especially stuck in the left-right paradigm, the false dilemma of same-shit-different-branding politics. We are taught that supposedly “democracy is the highest ideal”, where democracy is the tyranny of the many over the few, while at the same time we hold the contradictory belief that minority rights should not only be respected and kowtowed to by the majority, but also treated with privilege at the expense of the majority. We are taught that welfare-abusing migration is good on one hand, and on the other hand, colonisation is imperialistic conquest. We are taught that everyone must pay their “fair share” to an arbitrary definition of “society”, and that violently-enforced taxation is somehow “justified” to solve the ‘free-rider problem’, yet we are brutally propagandised to accept **welfare abusers**, from other countries, no less, as acceptable, no… as privileged statuses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem We whine about “fair share,” yet we have no problem using a free email or Dropbox account, or using LLMs and AI image generators for free, knowing full well that the costs are covered by paying customers only. We have no problem consuming online content that is free for the off-chance that we might one day become paying customers, yet we presume it’s perfectly ethical for a threat-based central government to use its monopoly of violence to force people to pay taxes for things they never wanted, let alone deem worthy paying for. So obsessed we are with the sham of democracy that we firmly delude ourselves that **the state, this unaccountable monopoly of violence**, somehow takes into consideration **the slaves’ suggestion box (****the ballot****)**, without incentive to do so. And at the same time, we somehow demonise free-market competition, refuse to acknowledge the dynamics of market incentives, supply and demand, scarcity, and how **the basic laws of economics are as demonstrably predictable as the basic laws of physics**. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-case-against-voting https://sotiris.substack.com/p/incentive-based-order-without-government We psychotically believe that security, lawmaking, risk management, healthcare and property insurance, environmentalism, charity, and judicial-correction services (this is all the reasoning behind the existence of the state) can somehow be achieved only through an unaccountable monopoly of ping-pong blame-game and deliberately overlapping jurisdictions intended to protect the administrators of the embezzling scam of centralised government. We fail to see the irrationality in the *de facto* rejection of the fact that the alternative free-market provision of such services is undeniably more effective and more efficient. Instead, we are enthralled by the illogical **circular reasoning and incredulity fallacy of “*****but some things need to be a monopoly*****”**, without any argumentation, as if that were a logical argument by individuals with respect for their intellect or sanity. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-dumbest-objections-against-statelessness-4f5 https://sotiris.substack.com/p/laws-without-government https://sotiris.substack.com/p/how-i-know-statelessness-works-part-78c https://sotiris.substack.com/p/healthcare-without-government https://sotiris.substack.com/p/law-vs-bullshit-law https://sotiris.substack.com/p/who-takes-care-of-the-environment https://sotiris.substack.com/p/every-single-argument-against-statelessness https://sotiris.substack.com/p/punishing-criminals-in-the-absence https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-state-is-the-devil https://sotiris.substack.com/p/government-is-an-unnecessary-evil And not only that, but we get this new breed of supposed “Western patriots” who supposedly stand for “Western values” that they can’t even define, yet they simultaneously idolise the effeminate false-flag agitator, Adolf Hitler, the big-bank puppet and murderer of Germany. They supposedly “stand for Western values”, yet they treasure Eastern/Hebrew mythology that was enforced onto the West by the gay-orgy-loving, socialist Roman Empire; these are the people who presume to see themselves as “masculine” and “warrior-like”, hiding behind their keyboard to project an online image of bravado that is as misguided as it is fake. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/hitler-was-controlled-opposition https://sotiris.substack.com/p/hitlers-economic-miracle-debunked https://sotiris.substack.com/p/abrahamism-must-end https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-military-is-gay https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-roman-empire-was-socialist https://sotiris.substack.com/p/how-to-be-the-most-alpha https://sotiris.substack.com/p/your-warrior-archetype https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-military-is-gay-part-3 **3. Ethics** Then we’re taught **deontology** and the valuing of ethics over arbitrary utilitarianism. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/negative-economics-vs-positive-economics https://sotiris.substack.com/p/on-morality-part-1 https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-government-should For example, **almost every single moral dilemma in mainstream Hollywood is about, believe it or not, deontology**. This is the **pop culture manifesting the collective unconscious**, per Jung. In the Star Trek TNG episode where Deanna Troy becomes artificially aged to serve some guys’ supposedly superior motives, we clearly see this standard moral dilemma in modern screenwriting. Same with almost every other episode of that series. Same with every other moral dilemma in every other movie where the protagonist is faced with **the quandary of sacrificing the innocent and unwilling few for the alleged “greater good” of the many**. In Terminator 2, killing an innocent scientist could have supposedly prevented the apocalypse; yet it was immoral to do so. In Ender’s Game, the genocide of an entire species for the “greater good” of war-reliant peace is correctly portrayed as an abomination. In Fantastic Four, First Steps, the sacrificing of an innocent baby to save an entire planet might have been utilitarian, but it was immoral; would an immoral civilisation — one that sacrifices the innocent and unwilling — be worthy of survival? And what would its survival mean, what worth would it have, if this is how it survives? I could go on and on about the ‘deontology vs. utilitarianism’ moral dilemma in movies. While voluntary self-sacrifice is a virtue, the arbitrary and forceful sacrifice of the innocent and the unwilling is a vice. You can’t sacrifice truth for a utilitarian “greater good” because then, any virtue that comes from and relies on vice loses its meaning. You can’t sacrifice the unwilling innocent for an arbitrarily defined “greater good” because then, the greatest evil of justifying evil takes hold. The “lesser evil” is the *greatest* evil. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-great-evil-of-the-lesser-evil **4. Civility vs. barbarism** Westerners are conditioned to normalise government secrecy and confidentiality, while at the same time they are indoctrinated to perceive the term “conspiracy” as a laughable fantasy of mentally crippled ideologues. https://corbettreport.com/dissent-into-madness/ The “noble” savage myth is another expression of schizophrenic-level cognitive dissonance: the barbarian who also happens to be civilised. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-noble-savage-myth Westerners are taught to treat others as savages, but also to treat them as if they were noble solely on the “merit” of being savage; a condescending preferential treatment, how we hand out privilege to the handicapped. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-evil-of-ill-intentioned-empathy Star Trek’s ennobling of the savage, warmongering Klingons, Blizzard’s and Amazon’s humanising of irredeemably demonic orcs (of all beings), and the sanctification of the human-hating machines in Matrix 4. And now the eulogising of Islam (not its naive followers), this despicable, monstrous political ideology masquerading as a religion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_III:_Reign_of_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Rings_of_Power https://www.itv.com/news/2025-07-17/king-charles-says-its-more-imperative-than-ever-to-understand-the-muslim-world https://sotiris.substack.com/p/why-islam-is-the-smartest-religion All this **ennobling of the savage** blurs the line between identities and values, and it shakes convictions. Especially in fiction, where moral distinction is clearer than reality, to make ideas easier to express, this shouldn’t happen. I understand that it’s good to bury old hatreds and to see the human side of those around you, but this is not what’s happening here. This is clearly **kowtowing**. It’s **submitting to those who want you to submit to them**, those who don’t grant you the same grace of ennobling. **Lasting and meaningful peace is only possible when you acknowledge in others their ability to be brutal against you**. **5. Religiosity** The “West” is currently defined by Eastern mythology, the latter of which has appropriated Western ideals and is unfortunately fused with them, unable to separate. The cognitive dissonance of Hebrew mythology is enough to make anyone insane: Mainstream Christian denominations tell us that we are all worthless sinners, yet we are simultaneously created in the perfect “god’s” image. It tells us we are lowly and humble, yet the almighty “god” is so desperate for our glorifying, validation, for our worship, for our acceptance, like a needy, narcissistic child. The “god” that demands humility doesn’t stand for the virtues it demands from us. Christianity preaches humility, yet believing in it requires the narcissism of not being able to imagine your existence ending. I am fine with nothingness after death. Actually, that’s all I want; wouldn’t want to be born and do this shit all over again. But believers of Abrahamic faiths are obsessed with eternal life, which requires self-love to the point of narcissism. The ultimate humility is the acceptance that anything with a beginning has an end, and that **your life is not important enough to deserve eternity**, especially not a hedonistic one. There is nothing more hubristic than imagining yourself as an eternal god-like entity who somehow “deserves” eternal rewards for an insignificantly short lifetime of supposed “virtue”. Yet this is the religion of humility? How confusing and cognitively dissonant is that? We are religiously indoctrinated to hold ourselves **accountable to the extreme**, to **blame ourselves for an “original sin” that wasn’t our fault**, to **despise ourselves for being sinful**, even though we were **made “in the image” of the demiurge who practices not what it preaches**, who expects us — demands from us — that we hold ourselves **accountable for a nature that was forced upon us**, yet this **demiurge doesn’t hold itself accountable** at all for plunging us — without our consent — into this hostile reality, into this flawed nature. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/holding-god-accountable https://sotiris.substack.com/p/on-the-morality-of-the-demiurge We perpetually ask forgiveness from “god” for the nature it forced on us, for us supposedly being eternally “sinful”. Yet we don’t expect of this **“god” to ask for our forgiveness for** **making us sinful**, in its own image and by its own admission, no less. And who has abandoned us, on top of it all. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/free-will-revisited https://sotiris.substack.com/p/on-our-cosmic-abandonment **The parent blames the child for how his children turned out instead of having the decency to hold himself accountable for his** **weak parenting**. This is what the despicable disgustingness of Abrahamism teaches us, this insult to whatever may or may not be divine. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-cycle-of-abuse https://sotiris.substack.com/p/alternatives-to-the-story-of-abraham https://sotiris.substack.com/p/true-blasphemy **Conclusion** The West is confused. It is going insane with its blatantly irrational cognitive dissonance, the simultaneous holding of contradictory beliefs, and mutually exclusive beliefs. No culture thus afflicted by schizophrenic-level cognitive dissonance deserves to survive; it has not the means to. **The West is bereft of clarity**, and its fatal confusion is evident in its **collective cognitive dissonance**, its **conflicting beliefs between deontology and utilitarianism**, **majority rule and minority supremacy**, **humility and narcissism**, **blame and accountability**, civility and barbarism, individualism and collectivism, vice and virtue. This **hypocrisy**, whether conscious or unconscious, further plagues the Westerner with the suspicion that he is a fraud. Tortured by his well-earned impostor syndrome, he loathes himself, internalising weakness, and **seeking vice to validate his** **adopted identity** **as a villain**. No one, let alone a society and culture, can survive like that. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-false-self-tribulation-part-2 Who knows how high Europe would have risen had the socialist Roman Empire not imported Hebrew mythology and force-indoctrinated Europeans into despicable Abrahamic disgustingness? The West hasn’t made much historical progress. All its accomplishments are mediocre achievements, not *because* of Judeo-Christianity, but *despite* it. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-roman-empire-was-socialist-addendum https://sotiris.substack.com/p/theodicy https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-evil-of-abraham