Was writing a comment to @ek in his latest post and once again it got too long, and turned into its own thing.
To not acknowledge that only proves my point even more that we're not that different.
I strongly agree with this, and now am trying to think of a subculture that positions themselves oppositionally to normies, and has a similar sense of superiority as bitcoiners en masse, but who are (unlike bitcoiners en masse) just in their assessment -- who really are that superior to everyone else, whose smugness is warranted.
None of the ones I can think of survive much scrutiny.
Like, there's a big keto contingent of researchers and scientists, later branching into carnivore, who believe they're right about everything, and have some compelling evidence that makes them feel smart and proud. Personal testimonials, etc. They think everyone else is so deluded! I used to be in this group.
But it's only a short jaunt over to the plant-based people where you find comparable stories of transformation complete with before-and-after photos, comparable (even superior) science, and comparable smugness. You choke on it.
The nature of human affairs is that neither group can acknowledge the merits in the other. They are memetically sealed. And how could they not be? Once a movement acquires enough energy, other ideas become threats with potential to upend the established power structures in the subculture in question, won through blood and battle. Most of the calories of this life stage are spent defending against transgression, or mounting an offense to bring the fight to the hated enemy.
Of course, the more they fight, they more each side is entrenched. So long as neither is annihilated, both thrive, after their fashion. Holy crusaders in each group grow prominent. They get elected to office or spin up their own podcasts and YouTube channels. Everyone gets to be somebody.
Maybe it's just the story of Kuhn's paradigms playing out, and the true heart of every subculture (e.g., proponents of the germ theory of infection; or heliocentrism; or anti-slavery; or bitcoin) eventually win out so thoroughly that people don't even consider alternative ideas to be thinkable thoughts; what remains is groups fighting around the edges of some conquered territory long after the meaningful battles have been won.