"What do we believe? Why do we believe it?"
About this Quote
Two questions, six words, and a quiet threat: your convictions might not survive a basic audit. Coming from Joey Skaggs, a celebrity provocateur best known for culture-jamming hoaxes that bait newsrooms and audiences into swallowing nonsense, the line reads less like philosophy and more like a trap door. It’s the kind of prompt that sounds wholesome on a poster but functions, in Skaggs’ hands, as a stress test for credulity.
The specific intent is diagnostic. Skaggs isn’t asking for your “values” in the abstract; he’s demanding a chain of custody. Where did that belief come from: lived experience, inherited loyalty, algorithmic repetition, the pleasure of belonging to a team? The first question maps the content of our faiths. The second interrogates the machinery that manufactures them. That pivot is the whole trick, because it exposes how often belief is an aesthetic or social choice dressed up as reason.
The subtext is accusatory without being preachy. “We” implicates the speaker, which disarms defensiveness while still indicting the audience. It also mirrors the dynamic of a good hoax: everyone is invited in, and everyone is responsible when it works.
Context matters: a late-20th-century media ecosystem that rewards speed, outrage, and novelty. Skaggs built a career demonstrating that institutions don’t just make mistakes; they have incentives to. These questions don’t offer comfort. They offer a mirror, and the mirror is timed to a culture where belief spreads faster than verification.
The specific intent is diagnostic. Skaggs isn’t asking for your “values” in the abstract; he’s demanding a chain of custody. Where did that belief come from: lived experience, inherited loyalty, algorithmic repetition, the pleasure of belonging to a team? The first question maps the content of our faiths. The second interrogates the machinery that manufactures them. That pivot is the whole trick, because it exposes how often belief is an aesthetic or social choice dressed up as reason.
The subtext is accusatory without being preachy. “We” implicates the speaker, which disarms defensiveness while still indicting the audience. It also mirrors the dynamic of a good hoax: everyone is invited in, and everyone is responsible when it works.
Context matters: a late-20th-century media ecosystem that rewards speed, outrage, and novelty. Skaggs built a career demonstrating that institutions don’t just make mistakes; they have incentives to. These questions don’t offer comfort. They offer a mirror, and the mirror is timed to a culture where belief spreads faster than verification.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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