Mastodawn

Om Malik: "As the technology industry became the cultural zeitgeist, it became necessary to advertise to the world that you were part of the tech set. And the easiest way to do so was through a uniform."

What Malik fails to note in this article is that dress has always signalled that you belong to the group:
"Grey suited business men pissing against the wall."

It is just, in this time of individual truth, it is more insidious.
#conformity #nonconformity #ingroup

https://om.co/2026/01/16/our-algorithmic-grey-beige-world/

Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World

I start my morning going through nearly 250 feeds that flow into my “reader” app. Today, two quotes stood out in my early morning reading. “The main purpose of my work is to provo…

On my Om

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Nov 24

A quotation from Henry Commager

   What happens when a state tries to purge its state universities or a community tries to purge its public schools of alleged subversives? […] What happens is the demoralization and eventual corruption of the school system.
   This is not a momentary or even temporary affair; it is something the consequences of which may be felt for years. The search for subversives results in the intimidation of the independent, the original, the imaginative, and the experimental-minded. It discourages independence of thought in teachers and students alike. It discourages the reading of books that may excite the suspicion of some investigator or some Legionnaire. It discourages the discussion of controversial matters in the classroom, for such discussion may be reported, or misreported, and cause trouble. It creates a situation where first-rate minds will not go into teaching or into administration and where students therefore get poor teaching.
   In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience. In the long run it will create a generation not only deprived of liberty but incapable of enjoying liberty.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1953-02-21), “Is Freedom Really Necessary?” Saturday Review

More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henrycommager #chillingeffect #conformity #education #indoctrination #innovation #nonconformity #school #subversion #subversive #teachers #witchhunt, #redscare

Essay (1953-02-21), “Is Freedom Really Necessary?” Saturday Review - Commager, Henry Steele | WIST Quotations

What happens when a state tries to purge its state universities or a community tries to purge its public schools of alleged subversives? [...] What happens is the demoralization and eventual corruption of the school system. This is not a momentary or even temporary affair; it is something the consequences…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Nov 8

A quotation from Charles Evans Hughes

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862-1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910-1916, 1930-1941)
Speech (1925-06-17), Battle of Bunker Hill 150th Anniversary, Faneuil Hall, Boston Massachusetts

More about this quote: wist.info/hughes-charles-evans…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #charlesevanshughes #coexistence #difference #freedom #heterodoxy #liberty #tolerance #variation #nonconformity

Speech (1925-06-17), Battle of Bunker Hill 150th Anniversary, Faneuil Hall, Boston Massachusetts - Hughes, Charles Evans | WIST Quotations

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. Sometimes misquoted, "... the right to be free." When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free.

WIST Quotations

Aurianne Or Aug 19, 2025

Pathologizing children and teenagers: https://www.aurianneor.org/pathologizing-children-and-teenagers/

#ADHD #adolescents #antidepressant #aurianneor #burnout #child-tyrant #children,#classstruggle #crisis #diagnosis #education #epidemiologicalstudies #goal #hyperactivity #individualdifferences #mildAsperger #nononsense #nonconformism #nonconformity #pathologies #pauperization #personalitytests #predepression #school #socialclasses #SSRI #stress #success #technocracy #Teenagerebellion #teenagers

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Jun 27, 2025

A quotation from Orwell

To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-01), “The Prevention of Literature,” Polemic Magazine

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/46536/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #boldness #conformity #fear #heterodoxy #language #nonconformity #orthodoxy #radical #writing

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Apr 21, 2025

A quotation from Byron

I have not loved the World, nor the World me;
   I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed
   To its idolatries a patient knee,
   Nor coined my cheek to smiles, — nor cried aloud
   In worship of an echo: in the crowd
   They could not deem me one of such — I stood
   Among them, but not of them — in a shroud
   Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,
Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 3, st. 113 (1816)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/byron/76282/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #byron #difference #heterodoxy #humanity #independence #mob #noncomformist #nonconformity #public #separation #standalone #world

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 3, st. 113 (1816) - Byron, George Gordon, Lord | WIST Quotations

I have not loved the World, nor the World me; I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed To its idolatries a patient knee, Nor coined my cheek to smiles, -- nor cried aloud In worship of an echo: in the crowd They could not deem me one of…

WIST Quotations

Rev. Eric Burrows-Stone ⳨Apr 4, 2025

Being a #Christian inevitably means discomfort in this world. #Jesus proclamation of the kingdom entailed #tribulation and the #cross bearing (John 16:31; Matt. 16:24). He offers comfort, but never says we won’t suffer. Why?Because following him means #Nonconformity with the ways of this world (Matt. 24:9). This is a missing element in much Gospel #proclamation today.

@theologidons @theology #theology #theologidon

Idiot Business Jan 24, 2025

🚨 Rebel with a cause! Introducing "Rage Wears" - the ultimate apparel for those who refuse to follow the crowd. From oversized t-shirts with rude slogans to ripped jeans with splattered paint, we've got your nonconformity covered. 💪🏻Rage on! #Rebel #Nonconformity #Apparel
#BusinessIdea #Business #Ai #Llm #LlaMA2

Idiotic indeed

This could work

This has been done allready

Poll ended at Jan 25, 2025 at 6:29am.

ACT OUT TEES Jan 16, 2025

Act Out Tees is where creativity meets self-expression
www.actouttees.com
#Individuality #originality #thinkdifferent #standout #bebold #trailblazer #freethinker #courage #selfexpression #independence #uniqueness #daretolead #nonconformity #betruetoyou

WIST Quotations moves again!Jan 8, 2025

A quotation from Russell, Bertrand:

«
Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they consider such departures as a criticism of themselves. They will pardon much unconventionality in a man who has enough jollity and friendliness to make it clear, even to the stupidest, that he is not engaged in criticizing them.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/16303/

#quote #quotes #quotation #conformity #convention #criticism #Nonconformity