Sheeple

[[File:Goatride.jpg|thumb|165px|right|[[Goat]]le are clearly superior to sheeple.]]
{{languagenav}}
{{cquote|im the only guy who knows how to call out the [[Bullshit|bull shit]] of society the smart way. and against all odds i do it for free|||wint<ref>[https://archive.ph/NX6oD im the only guy who knows how to call out the bull shit of society the smart way. and against all odds i do it for free] by wint (@dril) (8:24 PM - 19 Jun 2017) ''Twitter'' (archived from 9 Jan 2018 00:44:36 UTC).</ref>}}
{{cquote|Meek and obedient, you follow the leader<BR>
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel<BR>
What a surprise|||Pink Floyd<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GE-sfEbJ7I "Sheep"] by Pink Floyd (Jan 8, 2016) ''YouTube''.</ref>}}
{{hatnote|For the bleating animal, see [[Sheep]].}}
'''Sheeple''', sometimes spelled sheople, is a [[portmanteau]] of the words "[[sheep]]" and "[[people]]" used mainly by political [[crank]]s to describe the great unwashed masses that are blissfully "unaware" of whatever [[fringe]] issue the crank wants to publicize. 'Sheep' or 'cattle' in obvious reference to people has the same implications.

Analogous in use is the word "[[zombie]]", a word (as of recent years) trending in popular culture and video-games, which has been picked up by [[crank]]s like [[conspiracy theorist]] [[Mark Dice]] in order to try to lure people closer to his [[Bullshit|worldview]]. [[Godspeed]], Mark.
The Internet has also spawned a [[meme]] known as the "NPC" or "Non-Player Character" to describe the unconscious, script-running [[brainwash]]ed masses; [[Alt-right glossary#NPC|this was subsequently adopted by the alt-right]] as a way to attack anybody who doesn't see the world their way.

==Origin==
The term was, according to some sources, popularized in the late 1980s by [[William Cooper]],<ref>[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sheeple&defid=3510786 Sheeple] at urbandictionary.com.</ref> but it appeared earlier than that in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' in a 1984 article attributing the term to the [[John Birch Society]]<ref>[http://wordspy.com/index.php?word=sheeple Sheeple] at wordspy.com.</ref> (founded in 1958). The earliest known occurrence according the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1945 by an arts critic, "The People, as ever (I spell it ‘Sheeple’), will stand anything."<ref>"Round about Radio" by W. R. Anderson (1945) ''Musical Times'' 86(1225):84. doi.org/10.2307/933326.</ref><ref>sheeple, ''n.'', ''Oxford English Dictionary''.</ref> The earliest use of the term is sometimes falsely attributed  to {{wpl|E. C. Segar||,}} the creator of the Popeye comic strip. In the mid-1930s, an episode dealt with Popeye becoming the king of a remote island whose inhabitants blindly follow his orders, however bizarre they were. Popeye began calling them "my sheeps".<ref>The early {{wpl|Popeye#Thimble_Theatre_and_Popeye_comic_strips|Thimble Theatre}} comic strips by E.C. Segar were reprinted in ''The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye'' series by Fantagraphics Books in the 1980s. Volume 5, {{isbn|0930193296}}, presents the debut of Popeye. See also Volume 6 {{isbn|0930193512}}, Volume 7 {{isbn|093019358X}}, Volume 8 {{isbn|0930193938}}, Volume 9 {{isbn|0930193938}}, Volume 10 {{isbn|1560970138}}, and Volume 11 {{isbn|1560970154}}.</ref>

The metaphor of sheep standing for the clueless public believing everything their political masters told them was of course used by [[George Orwell]] in his 1945 fable ''[[Animal Farm]]''.

==Usage==
{{cquote|You are not a [[horse]]. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.|||[[Food and Drug Administration]], telling [[antivaxxer]]s not to use a veterinary drug to treat [[COVID]] in sheeple<ref>[https://archive.ph/R43jD You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.] U.S. FDA (4:57 AM - 21 Aug 2021) ''Twitter'' (archived from 23 Aug 2021 19:20:08 UTC).</ref>}}
It is a favorite of uneducated teenage [[YouTube]] commenters and [[libertarian]] [[conspiracy theorists]] who use it to describe anyone whose heart does not skip a beat in love every time [[Ron Paul]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h6irU93jzc Re: Bernanke to the sheeple: don't even THINK about auditin] by fainly161 (Feb 16, 2010) ''YouTube''. "Ron Paul Warns of Cming{{sic}} Social nd{{sic}} Political Chas"{{sic}}</ref> or [[Rand Paul]]'s<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210825073041/https://wakeupsheeple.net/rand-paul-resist-the-great-reset-they-cant-arrest-us-all/ Rand Paul: ‘Resist’ the ‘Great Reset’ – ‘They can’t arrest us all’] (August 12, 2021) ''Wake Up Sheeple!'' (archived from August 25, 2021).</ref> name is mentioned — in other words, those who don't blindly and slavishly agree with the aforementioned. [[Michael Savage]] uses it as well.<ref>[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32bgfy Michael Savage — Welfare Crybabies & The Sheeple] ''Daily Motion''.</ref> It is most commonly used by cornered [[cranks]] who are running out of false facts or have had all their "[[bullshit|evidence]]" debunked, or as a last ditch attempt to substitute actual evidence.<ref group=note>See also "[[escape hatch]]".</ref> The [[irony]] in this is that most conspiracy nuts that whip this word out are commonly, ''blindly'' following a 'theory' without having even a smidge of evidence supporting it, and sometimes, not even understanding it (in the case of technical matters, such as the [[9/11]] collapses). [[William Cooper]]'s [[unified conspiracy theory]] book ''[[Behold a Pale Horse]]'' makes frequent reference to sheep (and to a lesser extent to cattle) in the sheeple-sense of the word.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/pdfy-fK_LIU_yIP8YBTfX/mode/2up ''Behold a Pale Horse''] by Milton William Cooper (1991) Light Technology Publishing. ISBN 0929385225.</ref>{{rp|64-65,73,159-161,234,297,317}}

Among [[survivalism|survivalists]], it is a reference to those who are Not Prepared for the Great Calamity Which Is Coming Shortly and who instead assume the [[government]] will take care of them in case of a disaster, ''à la'' [[Hurricane Katrina]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130924151101/https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/what-are-sheeple/ Monday Potpourri: Sheeple and a Backdoor Survival Roundup] by Gaye Levy (July 11, 2011) ''Backdoor Survival'' (archived from September 24, 2013).</ref>{{efn|Hey, wait a minute, the government ''did'' take care of them, didn't it?}} Common to dealing with persons in all these categories and more is the strong impression that one is in the presence of a frustrated would-be shepherd. Essentially, you're a sheeple if you believe what anybody else tells you to believe, but not a sheeple if you believe what I tell you to believe.

While it is true that the majority of Americans fail to understand even the most basic facts about civics,{{efn|For example: "Despite nearly constant news coverage since [[Iraq War|the war]] [[Iraq|there]] began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the [[Middle East]]."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060513032559/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_geography.html Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests] by John Roach (May 2, 2006) ''National Geographic'' (archived from May 13, 2006).</ref>}} [[Argumentum ad populum|reality is not a popularity contest]]. The level of acceptance of an idea among greater society does not have significant bearing to the merits of the idea — [[Galileo]] and [[Charles Darwin]] went through significant backlash to their [[scientific theories]] in their lifetimes, but their ideas have gained wide acceptance in the scientific community. On the one hand, American culture needs to value [[knowledge]] and intellect more, so that people can hold honestly-informed opinions about society. On the other hand, the reason why so many sheeple are rejecting the crazy conspiracy theory of the week could be ''because the theory is simply a lie or with very little basis in fact''.

===Russia===
Similarly, in post-[[Soviet]] [[Russia]], the term ''bydlo'' (быдле), literally 'cattle' but sometimes translated as 'sheep', has been used in the Orwellian sense.<ref name=khazanov>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210414120230/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4680&context=edissertations ''Russia Eternal: Recalling The Imperial Era In Late- And Post-Soviet Literature And Culture''] by Pavel Khazanov (2017) University of Pennsylvania, doctoral dissertation.</ref> The term ''temnoe bydlo'' (темное быдло), literally dark cattle, was also used in [[Bolshevik]] poetry.<ref name=khazanov/>

Russian [[fascist]] [[philosopher]] {{wpl|Ivan Ilyin}} {{lived|1883|1954}} developed the non-factual idea that the Russian people, as well as the Slavic people of [[Ukraine]] and [[Belarus]], are inherently innocent.<ref name=unfreedom>''The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America'' by Timothy Snyder (2018) Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 0525574468.</ref>{{rp|22-23}} The fiction of Russian innocence that Ilyin developed is one that can be exploited by a fascistic (or [[Kleptocracy|kleptocratic]]) state that never delivers improvements but only maintains the status quo ("eternity politics" in historian Timothy Snyder's parlance).<ref name=unfreedom/> It is no coincidence that Ilyin is [[Vladimir Putin]]'s most esteemed philosopher.<ref name=unfreedom/>{{rp|16-35}}

==What is the singular form?==
Q: If sheep is the singular of… sheep, and person is the singular of people, it is not clear what an individual within the sheeple herd is to be called — "sherson"? "Sheepson"? "Sheerpson"? Or perhaps just "sheeple"? (Although the latter just seems like grammatical error.)

A: A sheep.

==More lulz==
A surprising number of folks who brand their opponents as "sheeple" are themselves members of the [[Religious Right]], who view the [[Bible]] as the [[Biblical literalism|inerrant word of God]]. [[Irony|Their Bible encourages the followers of Christ to behave like "sheep" in the care of their "shepherd"]], avoiding false shepherds that turn out to be wolves in sheep's clothing.

==Wake up, sheeple!==
[[File:XKCD wake up sheeple.png|center|frame|You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter—a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors.|link=http://xkcd.com/1013/]]

==See also==
*[[Wake up]]
*[[Useful idiot]]
*[[False consciousness]] — the [[Marxist]] view
*[[Psychological projection]]
*[[Special:MyPage|<span class="myName">You</span>]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Memes]]
[[Category:Neologisms]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

Categories: Memes, Neologisms, Political terms, Conspiracy theories