If You’re Reading This, It's for You - TLP Part 1

The Last Psychiatrist is one of the most thought provoking critics of our time. One of his core ideas is that the media you consume is the insidious core of your worldview.

"Catchy title, no?  I put it there for the stupid people." [0]

The Last Psychiatrist is one of the most thought provoking critics of our time. If you can piece together his scattered ideas, his blog is insightful pointing towards a darkness within us and around us that is rarely explored. His writing is so convoluted that it’s almost like reading poetry, an act of interpretative reading. What follows is my interpretation of his writing and one of his core ideas that the media you consume is the insidious core of your worldview.

Style - The 24/7 Blog Cycle

But first, we must understand this strange writer's refreshingly cruel writing style. His points can feel sharp, insightful, like someone is finally saying the obvious. It's an arrogant style that only works because its actually backed by a real brilliance and originality. He vaguely reminds me of a cross between Nietzsche and a comedian pointing and laughing at culture with a cynical, piercing gaze.  

Enough descriptions, here's three examples of some particularly brutal quotes:

• “Lori Gottlieb is a writer for the various outlets that pose as intelligent-- Slate, NPR, Salon, whose demo is people who use the word "inappropriate" and know there are no wrong answers.  She also wrote a book called, Marry Him: The Case For Settling For Mr. Good Enough which roughly coincided with her never marrying anybody.” [1]

• “Love is dying, the system is killing it. The only acceptable portrayal of fulfilled love is with vampires and BDSM billionaires, not because those men are great but because there's no worry you'll meet one, enjoy your little fantasy. Now back to work, whore, you need fulfillment.” [2]

• “It's like James Joyce said, ‘we can never know the truth so long as we have ears and eyes.’ Actually, he didn't say that, but do you see how you paid attention?” [3]

He loves speaking to you directly, yes you dear reader. He loves playing with your expectations. In the first paragraph of his article titled Randi Zuckerberg Thinks We Should Untangle Our Wired Lives, he writes "if you have no idea who she is, and you shouldn't, then the answer to your one and only question is yes." Then he continues on without any explanation. The question implicit in the headline is left as an exercise for the reader in both his article as well as this one. 

Now, there is no essay where he fully argues his points with evidence. Instead each article dissects some current pop culture event, article, or ad according to his worldview. In a way, he emulates the click bait news cycle he criticizes with titles like The Worst Thing That Can Happen Is You Succeed and Hipsters on Food Stamps. And like the news he emulates, his blog could continuously churn out timely, relevant content propagating his worldview. So what memes is his blog propagating?

The Power of Pop Culture

Everything from The Hunger Games to The Atlantic to Ads for Luxury Watches reflect something deep about our culture. If something exists and is popular, then that means A) many entities decided it was worth creating and B) it resonates with people in some way. While this sounds like just an extension of marketing 101, the real depth shines in the details.

Why It Exists - The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom

In 2011, Amy Chua, a Yale Professor, wrote an article in the Wall Street titled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. It is exactly what you think it is about. Here's a picture from the article if the title wasn't enough: 

Daughter gets into BOTH Harvard and Yale (Emphasis not mine)

Now a normal reader would approach this article and start thinking about the merits of Chinese vs American parenting and its long term effects on children. And that's the fundamental power of media. We jump to "debating the conclusions while accepting the form of the argument" [4]. Instead the Last Psychiatrist asks the more interesting questions, Why did Amy Chua write this article out of all the possible articles she could have written? and Why did the WSJ publish it out of all the articles submitted to it?. 

The Last Psychiatrist's pushes us to “take a step outside the article. This is a woman explaining why Chinese mothers are superior. The thing is, I don't know any Chinese mothers who would ever talk about their families this way, publicly, describe their parenting, brag about it. Never. And then you see it: Amy Chua isn't a Chinese mother, she's an American mother. She had a Chinese mother, but now she's a first generation American, which means she has more in common with Natalie Portman than she does with any recent Chinese immigrant.”

There is no immigrant sacrifice. In fact, she is a Yale Professor married to another Yale professor. There is probably a train of help and good genetics she has ensuring the success she attributes to her "Chinese" parenting. But this is America and so she seeks to brand herself. And "clearly her brand is SuperSinoMom and her bling are her kids.  When Jay-Z wants to front he makes a video, and when Amy Chua represents she writes a WSJ article.  Because that's her demo, you feel me?"

And lurking in the background, is the WSJ. “Amy Chua thinks she wrote an essay and published it. Wrong. The WSJ wanted this kind of an article and they chose one from the thousands available.”

And what does the WSJ want? “It wants kids who will conform, who will plug into the machine (albeit at the higher levels), it wants the kind of kids who want the approval of the kinds of people who read the WSJ.” Note this is just a spicy version of Noam Chomsky's criticisms of the media in Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky argued the media was effectively a mass system of propaganda directed towards benefiting the elites and government. 

While, I personally doubt the editors of the Wall Street Journal are actually conspiring to make people conform. The perspective is valuable. There are really writers, editors, and executives behind the scenes making choices about what you see. While I would imagine a competitive profit motivation, it is not unreasonable to imagine other values driving choices like social justice, social stability, or power. When you are sufficiently gigantic(Google/Facebook), there is a real selfish incentive to influence wider cultural trends and development(Web Standards/Internet Access).

How It is Crafted - He's Just Not That Into Anyone

Even in seemingly intellectual pieces, the author is shaping the narrative. Here's a prime example of the Last Psychiatrist analyzing a New York Magazine Article describing how the author's addiction to porn is disconnecting him from women:  

"Here's the first paragraph of the article, in full:

‘I met the woman at a Broadway show, but the night's best piece of acting, I'd say, came from me, back at her East Village apartment, after we'd been having sex for about 25 minutes, with Neil Young wailing the song "Comes a Time" from the laptop on her bedside table. The dried-out condom had a full-bodied choke hold on me, but I'd already stopped twice to put on a fresh one, and I knew, as I kept earnestly pumping away, that one more condom wouldn't make the necessary difference. Had I just given up, things might have played out the way they often did, with shades of confused disappointment and inadequacy on the part of the woman and mumbled apologies and awkward shame from me. But that night, ingenuity struck--unable to actually get off, I found myself flying a fresh route: I faked it.’

I don't need anything other than that paragraph to tell me that his problem isn't porn. Do you know anything, anything about the woman?  Forget her life choices; what color hair does she have?   Hell, even characterize her as just a sex-object, a bimbo, tell me she's got big boobs, degrade her, anything, but put her in the movie!  How would you cast her? 'Well, it's not really important who plays her.'  Got it. 

But I know too much about him, none of it important, all of it branding: Broadway show, East Village, Neil Young, two condoms in 25 minutes.  You could counter that perhaps the story is just made up to illustrate his point, but that only reinforces my point: this is what he imagines to be important to a story about sex."

A writer's bias rarely means they misrepresent the facts, instead it's the framing. It's the selective inclusion of details, the word choices implicit approval and disapproval. Chomsky's favorite example of this is the media's covering of the Vietnam war. Instead of the US committing war crimes, it was just a stumble in the pursuit of a righteous goal. 

The Impact of Pop Culture 

Popular media creates popular culture. Movies and TV shows become part of our shared expectations and understanding of the world. Just like all the food we consume is processed in the background and subtly impacts you. "Everything you experience— life, books, images, dreams, sounds, and things you did not even notice you experienced— becomes part of you, and it matters" [5]. It matters in ways you might not understand. Everything you watch from trashy rom coms to exaggerated porns scenes are teaching you something. Your subconscious learns this is life and your thought patterns and emotional patterns will emerge from it. Don't eat trash until you want to be trash. 

Now you may think, "I know it's not real" or "I have a master’s degree". That trashy tv show or ad you watched was for some imaginary "other" people. Hundreds of billions are spent each year on ads that don't really work on you. 

Yea... sorry, if you're watching it, it is for you. You are the market, you are part of the demographic it's targeting and affecting. You might know CSI is not representative of actual crime scene investigators. “But it never occurs to you to think as they're arresting a suspect, ‘since when did it become ordinary for professional cops in their 40s to have no kids, tons of disposable income, and regularly go out on dates that end in sex? And what the hell happened to body fat?’”[6]

“If you're reading it, it's for you”

You watch an ad of a well dressed beautiful woman staring longingly at an Acura and know they are just trying to sell you a car. You aren't falling for it. But it never occurs to you, that you are learning what a beautiful women looks like. You are learning what success looks like. While perhaps unintentional, Acura is selling Macy's. [6]

And even if you turn it off, it's still creating culture. “Even if you are not interested in pop culture, pop culture is interested in you.”[7] Even if you hate Gossip Girl, the airing of a threesome normalizes the idea for everyone. It's the same way LGBT representation on TV makes it acceptable behavior for others and yourself.

Why Does it Resonate?

You go through your daily life when something strikes you, a song at a restaurant, a scene in a movie, or a particular tweet or Tiktok in your feed. Something about it, your intuition says, is interesting or important. You won't know why, but it resonates.

It often resonates because it validates your identity. You consume it to avoid the hard work of change, to be comforted in your own beliefs. You "already know what [you] want to be true, but want it stated more eloquently". Tiktok can give you the best arguments to avoid intimacy. Reddit can convince you the system is so rigged there is no use in trying. If you want it to. 

"Propaganda doesn't succeed because it is manipulative, it works because people WANT it, NEED it, it gives their life a direction and meaning and guards against change." [8]

Fairy Tales

Pop Quiz: What do Harry Potter, Princess Fairy Tales, and Twilight have in common? Why do they all resonate? The "relatable" protagonist is fairly unexceptional, until one day through no act of their own some prince or vampire or half giant grounds keeper appears and tells them something they always knew to be true. They are special.

In Cinderella, "forget about gerrymandering or slaying a dragon or poisoning her rivals: does she even get a pretty dress, go to the ball and seduce the prince? Those may be anti feminist actions, but at least they are actions. No. She is given two dresses, carried to the ball, and the prince comes and finds her. Twice." [9]

Cinderella's value is so innately high that even without any action, self improvement, or agency a prince and fairy godmother will find and save her. Simply wanting is enough in this fantasy.  Now do some reflection. Are you just waiting for a prince to save you? Huh princess?

Here's another question, why did I write this? Out of all the possible things I could have written I chose to read almost every The Last Psychiatrist post and write this in depth analysis. In fact, I read TLP years ago and found it much too wordy and convoluted to be interesting. But in the last year or two, something changed and something began to resonate.

From an overly idealistic worldview, I had stumbled into a darkness that I didn’t quite understand. And TLP was like the lone dissenter in Plato's cave grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me saying, "The idols you worship are empty and fake, LOOK. You are being deceived, your values are toxic. WAKE UP YOU NARCISSISTIC COWARD”. While there other enlightened ones in the cave with a similar message, they are honestly too nice. They are not as unyieldingly scathing or violent in their screams or poignant with their attacks. A part of me resonates strongly with his straightforward attack. A part of me knows my values, ostensibly so important to me, were haphazardly erected by some cultural icons and an online peer group. I believed I was above such influence, but it just took a different form. A part of me knows there is a richer set of values outside the cave if I could only summon the courage to look — the courage to change.

I started this series with the easy part, the impact of media and how we are deceived. In my next article on TLP, I venture into the darker and murkier territory of what we are deceived to believe: a uniquely American narcissistic worldview poisoning our connection with others and the world.

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[0] - Penelope Trunk, Abuser - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/01/penelope_trunk_abuser.html

[1] Is the Cult of Self-Esteem Ruining Our Kids - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/06/is_the_cult_of_self-esteem_rui.html

[2] Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Successful - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/03/dont_hate_her_because_shes_suc.html

[3] Which Is Worse - An Altered Photo of Reality, Or A Photo That Alters Reality - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2007/11/which_is_worse_a_photo_of_an_a.html

[4] Pedophilia Is Normal, Because Otherwise It's Abnormal - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/02/pedophilia_is_normal_because_o.html

[5] Scientists Find Evidence For The Unconscious - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/scientists_find_evidence_for_t.html)

[6] I’m Not The One You Should Be Worried About - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/04/im_not_the_one_you_should_be_w.html

[7] Gossip Girl Is Going To Corrupt Someone - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/11/gossip_girl_is_going_to_corrup.html

[8] How Does the Shutdown Relate to Me - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/09/how_does_the_shutdown_relate_t.html

[9] What's Wrong With The Hunger Games Is What No One Noticed - https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/04/whats_wrong_with_the_hunger_ga_1.html