The concept of shamelessness as a strategy has sparked intense debate in online communities, with many pointing to its growing influence across politics, business, and social media. The strategy involves deliberately defying conventional expectations to attract attention and followers, even if it means facing criticism from established communities.
Key Characteristics of Shameless Strategies:
- Deliberately defying conventional social expectations
- Creating confusion about competence vs. incompetence
- Attracting followers through controversy rather than approval
- Exploiting fluid online community boundaries
- Converting criticism into social signaling opportunities
The Game Theory Behind Shameless Behavior
The discussion reveals that this phenomenon isn't entirely new - it's actually a form of countersignaling that economists and game theorists have studied for years. The basic idea is simple: when everyone expects you to follow certain rules, breaking them in an obvious way can signal confidence and authenticity. It's like playing the Merlin character so boldly that opponents assume you must be someone else entirely.
Community members have identified this pattern in various contexts, from celebrities who built empires on seemingly vapid behavior to politicians who abandoned traditional campaign playbooks. The strategy works because it creates confusion about whether the person is being incredibly stupid or incredibly smart.
Historical Examples Discussed:
- Paris Hilton: Playing "dumb blonde" stereotype while building media empire
- 2016 US Elections: Abandoning traditional political playbooks
- Social Media Leaders: Contrasting formal vs. unconventional leadership styles
- Celebrity Culture: Kardashians and similar influencer strategies
Why Traditional Sanctions No Longer Work
The shift toward online communities has fundamentally changed how social punishment operates. In the past, small, bounded communities could effectively shame people into conforming. But today's fluid digital borders mean that criticism often backfires spectacularly.
The disgust of one's peers doesn't matter anymore, because that disgust forms the basis for an entirely new community.
When someone gets criticized by the establishment, it acts like a signal flare that attracts others who feel similarly disconnected from mainstream norms. This creates a feedback loop where controversy generates followers, and followers generate more opportunities for controversy.
The Authenticity vs. Shamelessness Debate
Community discussions reveal a sharp divide over whether this behavior represents authentic self-expression or dangerous norm-breaking. Some argue that people are simply being more genuine in a world that craves real human connection over polished corporate personas. Others worry that celebrating shamelessness encourages antisocial behavior and erodes the social contracts that keep communities functioning.
The debate becomes particularly heated when considering examples like people playing music loudly on public transport. Is this authentic self-expression, or is it selfish behavior that makes life worse for everyone? The answer seems to depend largely on whether you're the one doing it or the one suffering from it.
Proposed Counter-Strategies:
- Government Regulation: European-style antisocial behavior laws
- Return to Formality: 1950s-style presentation and manners
- Cultural Movements: Metamodernism and New Sincerity approaches
- Community Building: Creating smaller, more cohesive social groups
Potential Solutions and Future Implications
The community has proposed several approaches to address the negative effects of shameless strategies. Some suggest government regulation, pointing to European countries that have successfully curbed antisocial behaviors without collapsing into authoritarianism. Others advocate for a return to formality and traditional social norms as a counterbalance.
More optimistic voices point toward emerging cultural movements like metamodernism and new sincerity that might offer a path beyond the current cycle of shamelessness and outrage. These approaches attempt to combine authentic expression with genuine care for others and social responsibility.
The challenge remains: how do we preserve the benefits of authentic self-expression while preventing the race to the bottom that occurs when everyone adopts shameless tactics? As one community member noted, the failure scenario for shameless behavior is looking like a fucking clown - but in an attention economy, even that might be preferable to being ignored entirely.
Reference: Shamelessness as a strategy