Breaking the Fifth Wall to Mediate Freedom of Expression.

Readership: All
Theme: Problems with The Red Pill / Infighting
Author’s Note: Images and section headers added. Minor editing for readability.  Links added for the reader’s ease of reference.
Length: 1,000 words
Reading Time: 5 minutes

A reader writes in to report how he has applied Ryanizing to the technique of Breaking the Fifth Wall as a tool for mediating social intercourse with his liberal coworkers.  By coincidence, his name happens to be Ryan.

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The Problem: When Political Correctness is Used to Castigate Non-Conforming Speech

He writes,

“27 male here.

[…]

“Where is the balance between freedom of expression and PC acceptability???

[…]

“I work with a lot of liberals, and it’s a daily drag to slog through all the superficial expectations for me to parrot their liberal platitudes. It’s like I have to watch everything that comes out of my mouth or else they’ll turn savage over some made-up grievance they’ll call an ‘offense’.

They’ve thrown shade by calling me “socially ret@rded”, meaning that I can’t understand their W0ke jargon and fake ways of relating to each other.  Actually, I get it, I just won’t play their game.

According to them, saying anyone is “ret@rded” is considered offensive. But that doesn’t apply to them, I guess.  The blatant hypocrisy ticks me off, but if I tried to point out their hypocrisy, then I would be playing their own game — a pharisaical w!tch-hunt to condemn everyone who says “ret@rded” and “g@y” in a colloquial way — something I won’t do.

It’s made me question the reason I am actually part of this group in the first place.”

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The Experimental Method: Ryanizing + Breaking the Fifth Wall

“After reading your take on Jordan Peterson’s method of Breaking the Fifth Wall, I thought it over and came up with some finesse Frame to use on my coworkers.

Whenever they confront me about a word or idea I’ve used that they think is offensive, I’ll strike a pose of humility and act like it’s being offered as constructive criticism.  This deflects the clapback of the perceived ‘offense’. But I won’t stop there.  In a mockingly obsequious spirit of “learning more”, I’ll inquire about the nature of why it is offensive or inappropriate, proceed to break it down into what causes the offense, and for purely heuristic reasons, argue about the validity of its offensiveness. IOW, I’ll turn it into a philosophical joke.  The joke is that whenever we start to dig into why something is offensive, it always confuses them and makes them look like a tool.

It gets even funnier when they agree with the wig snatch and then walk away wondering about it, or when bystanders catch the dig and start snorting, but I have to be careful to hold a poker face and not cross the line of reasonability.  Otherwise, they get shook.

To them, it’s a way for me to show ‘humility’ for my ‘mistake’ without looking like a tool.  At first, I thought this way too and was hesitant to go this route, but I decided to run with it and see what would happen.  But after discovering that their arguments can’t hold water when you pick them apart, I started to see how this would play out.  The best part is that throughout all this talk, I’m amusing myself by ridiculing them in the privacy of my mind without them even knowing.  ROFL!”

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“After I got better at this, then a couple of them who are more aware said that I was trying to rouse a debate and questioned my motives for doing so.  I just told them that it’s necessary for “us” to establish trust (something else I picked up from your blog), it’s important for us to talk about whatever is bothering “us”, and that good communication will improve our work culture.  I thought they would call me out for trolling (because that’s how I feel — ridiculously disingenuous), but they generally agreed to this.”

Results

“Overall, the reaction from my coworkers has been mixed, but more tolerable for me than before.  Some of them are avoiding me unless work demands, but I’m not missing any love. They’ll think twice about calling me out or arguing with me over semantics, and when they do, it’s done with more decency and respect than before.

The downside, if I can call it that, is that I’ve developed a reputation for being [incorrigible].  So much so that they started using a portmanteau of my name to refer to my Frame.  Now I am accused of “Ryanizing”, meaning to take a narrative argument and dismantle it in the spirit of understanding it.  Whenever they can’t come up with a good response, I’m met with, “You’re Ryanizing again!”  “Don’t Ryanize me!”  Seems like they’re not capable of generating independent thoughts.

“Ryanize” lit a running joke in the workplace that has been popping ever since, and they’ve started using my name in other ways too.  Now, “Ryanize” means to question specifics until it becomes completely exhausted, boorish, and mundane.  IOW, I’m breaking their spell and finding my place.”

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“The other day, we ran out of coffee and someone watered down the brew so there would be enough to go around.  Then people were saying the coffee was “Ryanized”.  LOL!  So now if someone says something is “Ryanized”, I guess they mean that the quality has been greatly reduced in order to achieve objectives.  Kind of like a hack job, I guess, except no ratchet. Honestly, based on my past academic performance, that wouldn’t be far from the truth.”

Conclusions

“Having my name bandied around was superbarrassing at first, but since it’s brought me so much notoriety, I’ve come to own it.  I expect to improve this Frame until I can develop a “voice of authority” in this way.

BTW, there’s another guy I work with who has the same name as me.  He’s so fazed out that he’s ghosted us.  The others always have to apologize to him for using our name, or else he’ll turn salty.  LMAO!”

This is master class Frame and epic hilarious, so I had to share it.

I’ll admit, I had to look up some of his jargon before I fully understood what he was saying. So I must be somewhat of a “social ret@rd” myself (due to the apparent ‘generational gap’).

I’m impressed that he was able to transform the difficult socio-ideological conflicts with his coworkers into a contextual frame of interaction in which he could showcase his charisma and intelligence, enhance his sphere of influence, and squeeze some respect out of them in the process — all without getting canned.

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