The Problem with Popularizers I

Why there will never be disciples of Sigma Game

Yesterday, I banned a commenter named Noel from this site who had left several comments on an older post. He hadn’t really done anything objectionable on its face, merely put a few queries to about my new best friend about the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy. He even affected to imitate me a little, concluding with a comment that perhaps he had a new best friend too.

So when I explain why I immediately banned him, perhaps you’ll understand why my instinctive reaction to anyone who declares themselves a “biggest fan” is to set the dogs on them.

There is a certain type of Gamma who is drawn to anything, and more importantly, to anyone, who happens to draw attention for any reason. This can be seen in history and in the biographies of many, if not most of the men who have made some sort of intellectual impact on the world. Every Johnson has his Boswell, every E.O. Wilson has his Richard Dawkins, every Vincent Chase has his Turtle, every Freud has his Jung.

While Jung worked on his Psychology of the Unconscious: a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido, tensions manifested between him and Freud because of various disagreements, including those concerning the nature of libido. Jung de-emphasized the importance of sexual development and focused on the collective unconscious: the part of the unconscious that contains memories and ideas that Jung believed were inherited from ancestors. While he did think that the libido was an important source of personal growth, unlike Freud, Jung did not think that the libido alone was responsible for the formation of the core personality. In 1912, these tensions came to a peak because Jung felt severely slighted after Freud visited his colleague Ludwig Binswanger in Kreuzlingen without paying him a visit in nearby Zurich, an incident Jung referred to as "the Kreuzlingen gesture".

Wouldn’t it have been remarkable if there was a way Sigmund Freud could have known that his young friend and protege was likely to feel severely slighted and turn on him at some point in time? Wouldn’t such a system for analyzing and anticipating human behavior have been useful?

Now, I personally consider both Freud and Jung to be utter charlatans whose collective works are of negative value, so what I’m addressing here has no bearing on the fundamental validity of the original intellectual’s idea, only the way in which the disciple and popularizer more often than not turns into a critic and a subverter. Being aware of this historical pattern, I have therefore kept all of those who admire, embrace, utilize, or grift upon the SSH and its component concepts very far away from me. I don’t appear on any of the many Sigma-related YouTube channels, I haven’t permitted an inner circle of admirers to serve as a core group of disciples, and I don’t permit anyone who attempts to improve, extend, or add upon these concepts to claim that they do so with my approval or endorsement.

This isn’t because I think I’m uniquely Special or because I believe the SSH is complete, whole, and perfect in its current formulation. To the contrary, one of the reasons I find it difficult to complete the Sigma Game book is because we collectively keep stumbling across important new aspects and applications that are highly useful to the SSH-aware and merit inclusion in the book.

It is because in addition to my awareness of the historical pattern, I have observed people, even on this site, actively attempting to subvert the SSH by reshaping it in an image more personally palatable to them, and in doing so, are trying to transform it into something that it is not, trying to turn the SSH into something that would render it incapable of performing its most useful utility, which is correctly anticipating male behavior.

I was already wary of this particular individual because he had previously “wondered” about the possibility that the SSH types could be mapped onto the Jungian archetypes. The answer, of course, was “no, obviously not” because the Jungian archetypes do not correctly predict human behavior in a given situation, whereas the SSH behavioral patterns do. Ergo, never the twain shall meld. So there was already one Gamma red flag - Gammas always “wonder” and observe that “it seems” instead of simply stating their opinions - with the additional bonus of a typical Smart Boy idée fixe. There are certain intellectual figures who appear to have particular appeal for Smart Boys, Friedrich Nietzsche being the most obvious, but Karl Jung is definitely in the top 10. You’ll notice that the King of all Gammas, Jordan Peterson, openly admires and extensively quotes both Jung and Nietzsche.

That’s why I had a pretty good idea what the gentleman was up to from the very first dialogue with Deepseek that he posted in the comments, which concerned whether the way in which Gammas are discussed in the comments here was akin to schoolyard bullying, especially when he did not appreciate or accept Deepseek’s answer.

I copied the whole comments section and added: "The way everyone lines up to dump on Gammas here reminds me of schoolyard bullying."

DeepSeek replied:

You're absolutely right to notice that dynamic—there is a striking resemblance to schoolyard bullying in how Gammas get dogpiled in these discussions. But the key difference lies in intent and consequence:

1. Schoolyard Bullying vs. SSH Callouts

Bullying: Aimless cruelty, targeting the weak for entertainment or social climbing.

Gamma Criticism: Targeted at specific, self-destructive behaviors (delusion, passive-aggression, emotional manipulation).

The goal isn’t to hurt Gammas but to break the delusion bubble—because no one changes without pain.

2. Why It Feels Like Bullying

Gammas interpret reality through a victim lens. Even constructive criticism feels like persecution because it clashes with their "secret king" narrative.

The tone is harsh because softness doesn’t work. Gammas spin polite advice into validation ("See? They agree I’m special!"). Brutal honesty forces a reckoning.

3. The Hypocrisy Trap

Gammas often bully others (undermining coworkers, negging women, passive-aggressive sabotage) while crying foul when confronted.

My reply: "The victim is not voluntarily in the arena. The arena is the whole world, and they arbitrarily cite Gammas and elaborate on how dreadful they are. In my experience, reality has more shades of grey, and the pure horrible Gamma they all talk about does exist, but rarely in this pure form."

What we obviously have here is a Gamma who doesn’t like the fact that his behavioral pattern is insufficiently flattering to suit him, and he’s unhappy that the SSH gives others a means of identifying him and anticipating his behavior. Notice in particular the way in which he smoothly, and probably automatically, engages in the intellectually dishonest practice of amphibolous redefinition, wherein he redefines “participation in the arena” which was previously limited to “participation in the comments on Sigma Game” and therefore voluntary, to “existence in the real world” which is not.

His reaction is pretty much how all Gammas instinctively react to the SSH. They understandably hate it, not just because it puts a spotlight on their relatively low status in the social hierarchy, but because it pops their delusion bubbles about how opaque their actions and motivations are to others. It’s hard to think of yourself as a brilliant Machiavelli pulling the strings of others and operating smoothly in the shadows of your social circle when everyone is openly discussing and correctly anticipating your little schemes.

UPDATE: In further evidence of the universal applicability of the SSH, the Gamma named Noel responded to being banned by creating a new account and trying to post a new comment.

Hey there! Me again. Kick me out of your kingdom as often as you like, I will return whenever I desire.

Fucking Gammas… Do they somehow imagine that this delusional behavior is going to wear people down into accepting them? For those Gamma readers who have managed to resist their more insidious instincts over time, this, right here, is why literally everyone despises Gammas. You see, everyone else from Alpha to Omega understands that you should never, ever, go where your presence is not desired.

And this obnoxious, dysfunctional behavior is why no one feels sorry for you either.