by GetThemOutOfYOurLife June 11, 2025
Get the <.7.9.7.6.>I WIsh I Can Change THe Status Quo Of Things<.7.9.7.6.> mug.Hym "Well, I guess if the status quo is people like me not getting paid... Then the only way to upend it... Is for me to get paid! And I can't prove I'm better than Thomas Sowell at doing nothing if I... You know... Do more than nothing. That would defeat the entire purpose of this this I'm doing! Which is: proving that I'm better than everyone. Especially Thomas!"
by Hym Iam September 20, 2023
Get the Status Quo mug.Quo Pretio (At What Cost) is a logical fallacy where you attempt to derail or invalidate an argument by obsessively focusing on irrelevant, minor, or speculative costs, consequences, or details instead of engaging with its core merit. The classic move is to respond to any proposal or point with a skeptical "Yes, but at what price?" and then list a bunch of tangential downsides—like administrative hassles, potential for minor misuse, or aesthetic complaints—as if they are fatal flaws. It’s a cheap debater’s trick that avoids addressing whether the main idea is good or true by pretending to be the sober adult in the room worrying about the forgotten fine print.
*Example: "When I suggested upgrading the office coffee machine, my boss hit me with Quo Pretio: 'But at what price? Better coffee means more caffeine, which means more bathroom breaks, higher utility costs, and what about the syrup spill potential on the new carpet? The fiscal and sanitary ripple effects are unknowable!' He didn't argue against better coffee; he just drowned the idea in a flood of irrelevant cost-anxiety."
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
Get the Quo Pretio mug.The blind, quasi-religious belief that the existing social, political, and economic order is not just the best possible system, but the only natural and correct one. Change is seen as inherently dangerous and unnatural. This dogma often appeals to "tradition," "the way things have always been," or "human nature" as immutable laws, treating any proposal for reform as a foolish rebellion against the cosmic default settings of society.
*Example: "His status-quo dogmatism was exhausting. 'Why should we change the zoning laws? Suburbs and cars have worked since the 50s! Why have multi-family housing? That's not how it's done!' He couldn't conceive that the 'way it's done' was itself a choice, not a law of physics."*
by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026
Get the Status-Quo Dogmatism mug.The aggressive policing of any deviation from established norms and traditions, punishing even mild reforms as contaminating a supposedly pristine, stable system. This goes beyond resistance to change; it's an active crusade to purge "impure" elements—be it new cultural ideas, technologies, or social roles—to maintain a frozen, idealized version of the past. The goal is a museum-diorama society, sterilized of dynamism.
*Example: "The neighborhood association was a cult of status-quo purity. They fined a homeowner for a non-beige mailbox, fought a new bike lane as a 'moral decay vector,' and demanded the book club remove a novel published after 1995. Their mission wasn't stability; it was the militant preservation of a specific, curated year no one actually lived in."*
by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026
Get the Status-Quo Purity mug.