SMBC Comics Forum

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2339

I don't get todays comic, can somebody explain?

I think Zach is saying that people who act like idiots while fighting for their movement discourage intelligent people from joining. As the number of crazies in a movement go up, the number of intelligent people who want to join go down.

I personally disagree with the comic (which I wasn't going to bother mentioning until I read this thread), I think the bigger a social movement is, the more extremists tend to join. And even if they're a fringe group, and have very little to do with movement as a whole, they're what usually gets highlighted by the media. And if people go by just these bias media* reports, it can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Which is a good way to turn a good movement into a bad one and why people should learn to take it all with a grain of Nackle.

Highlighting the crazier members of any movement (whether they even really exist or not) is also a common tactic for people who want to discredit said movement. Truly intelligent people, I think, are the ones that actually take the time to look below the surface and take the time to actually properly understand the movement to decide whether to join or not instead of just taking for granted what the media is showing you.

Not that there aren't any movements that I strongly disagree with, but I disagree with them based on what the movement itself and their leaders are actually doing and saying, and not because I was watching some 24 hour news station where they interviewed a random member who really didn't seem to understand how the world worked. But if you judge every movement by their worst members, you're just not going to have anything to believe in left at the end of the day.

*When I say bias media I mean media that is bias towards sensationalism, not bias one way or another politically.

So the x axis represents the number of members?
But wouldn't that just mean Zach prefers smaller movements over larger ones?
Also why would somebody be a bigger asshole if he has a lower IQ?

Damn it Zach, you are confusing me!!

Ah to be blissful and naive. Small organizations are full of dumbasses too. Not that it changes the point at all.

For some reason, the loudest ones are always the ones you hear.

I had to edit this post because I commented on the wrong comic. I don't know how the heck I viewed the wrong one and thought it was today's. I'm think my brain just malfunctioned. It needs more coffee... Anyways, apologies on that one.

But anyway, I'm not sure how the graph would be hard to get. I think the comics on SMBC are pretty straightforward, and that's even when I'm kind of brain dead.

More people = more assholes. Few people = intelligent but low on membership. Every group has to come to its unhappy median, and so movements get stupider as they get larger.

I'm still going to hold onto my hope for humanity, and think that no one would be thoroughly confused by the comic.

What does he think this is, XKCD?

YellowKeys wrote:More people = more assholes. Few people = intelligent but low on membership. Every group has to come to its unhappy median, and so movements get stupider as they get larger.

There is a critical flaw in this line of thinking. Kids at home, can YOU spot it?

There are some small groups of people who are pretty dumb. If this logic holds... they get dumber as the group gets bigger? I am terrified, truly terrified.

I disagree fundamentally with Zach's premise that intelligent people are less assholish. In my experience, the more intelligent someone is, the bigger of an asshole they are.

bzh wrote:I disagree fundamentally with Zach's premise that intelligent people are less assholish. In my experience, the more intelligent someone is, the bigger of an asshole they are.

The chart isn't correlating intelligence with dickishness in general; only in the case of social movements.

Well, they have XKCD and Explain XKCD.

Edminster wrote:

YellowKeys wrote:More people = more assholes. Few people = intelligent but low on membership. Every group has to come to its unhappy median, and so movements get stupider as they get larger.

There is a critical flaw in this line of thinking. Kids at home, can YOU spot it?

I thought that the graph was a joke that's speaking about large groups in general... And generally, a larger group has a greater chance of assholes simply because there are more people. Percentage-wise, a smaller group may have more assholes in it, but it probably won't win in the head count. 10% of a million people > 10% of 10 people. Meanwhile, as the group gets larger, people act stupider. Hence why there's mob mentality, herd behavior, crowd psychology, etc. That's even inspired quotes like, "The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its least intelligent member divided by the number of people in the mob." (from Maskerade by Terry Pratchett; a good and funny author) Movements are different than mobs, again generally speaking, but irrational and 'us vs. them' thinking resembles mob-thinking. As groups get larger they tend to go towards that, and so there's an unhappy compromise: get bigger and deal with a drop in IQ, or stay tiny and keep the average IQ up.

So, I'm not sure why you quoted what I said. I think I'm being logical but I'm also tired today, so I know I may be missing something.

Alright I'll give you a better hint.

YellowKeys wrote:Few people = intelligent but low on membership.

YellowKeys wrote:stay tiny and keep the average IQ up.

By your arguments (and the argument of the comic), the WBC is smarter and less assholish than the SMBC Fanclub (taken as an aggregate).

I don't like this comic. It comes off as really elitist.

Quintushalls wrote:Well, they have XKCD and Explain XKCD.

Yeah, but XKCD comes up with a lot more obscure things than Zach does.