I recall reading a Reddit post from an advertising expert that a major goal of marketing is not attracting initial buyers, but instead aiming to minimize customers regretting their purchase. That has the effect of second-hand promotion as people think more highly of their past purchases, and forms personal lifestyles. The key is that people fundamentally don’t want to admit to an error, and their expressed opinions build around avoidance of the truth.

The Asch Experiments from the 50’s seem to show the same behavior. Many people would answer with the group, fearing the isolation and regret that would follow a dumb answer. Participants often felt it better to be able to deflect regret than be right; many participants’ stated memories even altered themselves to conform.

One "yielding" subject (who conformed in 11 of 12 critical trials) said, "I suspected about the middle – but tried to push it out of my mind." Asch points out that although the "yielding" subject was suspicious, he was not able to reinstate his confidence and go against the majority.

That sounds like active avoidance of the truth to me.

Cody Wilson said on his Vice interview, “One of my fears is that people prefer the forms of soft domination, pleasurable domination engendered in their culture...why would you want to be reminded that you can print a gun out and actually change something?”

Introducing yourself as an antistatist is reminding people of their choice to neglect action. They are reminded that their political beliefs were not only misguided, but just as ridiculous as the incorrect lines in Asch’s experiment. Quite confronting and scary when you think about it!

When people have built their lifestyles around conforming to group pressure or avoiding their past misconceptions, how do we break that cycle? Do you think that people are really genuinely quite comfortable with the soft domination prevalent in our society?