Trivialization against the Victims of Neoliberalism

Mocking or belittling the human cost of neoliberal policies as the complaints of the “uncompetitive,” the “resistant to change,” or those who “can’t keep up.” It portrays the gig economy, student debt, and housing insecurity as lifestyle choices or youthful struggles, not structural traps.

Trivialization against the Victims of Neoliberalism Example: Calling millennials struggling with debt and rent “the avocado latte generation,” suggesting their precarity is a result of frivolous spending, not stagnant wages and asset inflation. This trivialization turns a systemic economic condition into a moral failing and a punchline.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Trivialization against the Victims of Late-Stage Capitalism

The mocking, aestheticized dismissal of the system's most grotesque outcomes as lifestyle quirks, generational memes, or personal brand opportunities. It turns systemic despair into a series of ironic jokes ("I can't afford to retire, lol"), viral challenges, or content about "quiet quitting" and "bed rotting," thereby dissolving collective rage into atomized, consumable experiences. The violence of the system is trivialized into a mood.

Trivialization against the Victims of Late-Stage Capitalism Example: A viral TikTok trend where users humorously list their "five side hustles" while showing their maxed-out credit cards, set to an upbeat song. The trivialization converts the brutal reality of wage stagnation and the need to work multiple jobs to survive into a relatable, funny personality trait, deflecting anger toward the system into a performance of resilient irony for likes.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Trivialization against the Victims of Anti-communism

The rhetorical minimization of anti-communist persecution, either by mocking its severity, reducing it to a historical curiosity, or treating its contemporary legacy as a joke. It dismisses the lasting trauma of blacklists, ruined lives, and state violence as "ancient history," "political correctness," or the over-sensitive whining of "tankies" and losers, thereby preventing serious moral reckoning.

Trivialization against the Victims of Anti-communism *Example: Responding to a discussion about the millions killed in the anti-communist massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66 with a comment like, "Old news. Should we also cry about every medieval war? Move on." Or, making light of the McCarthy era with a meme about "naming names" at a Hollywood party. This trivialization treats genocide and political terror as trivial footnotes or edgy humor, actively stripping them of their gravity and ongoing political relevance.*

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Cognitive Trivialism

The belief that all human problems, emotions, and experiences can be reduced to needing therapy, needing medication, or fitting into a psychiatric diagnosis. Cognitive trivialism flattens the complexity of human existence into clinical categories: grief is depression, political anger is delusion, existential confusion is anxiety, different thinking is schizophrenia. It's the intellectual equivalent of a hammer seeing everything as nails—every human difficulty becomes a disorder requiring professional intervention. This worldview is comforting to those who hold it (complexity is reduced to simple labels) and devastating to those subjected to it (their genuine experiences are pathologized, their valid concerns dismissed as symptoms).

Example: "When she expressed anger about social injustice, he responded with cognitive trivialism: 'You're clearly projecting your childhood trauma. Have you considered therapy?' Her political analysis was reduced to personal pathology; her valid anger became a symptom. Cognitive trivialism had done its work: dismissing substance by pathologizing emotion."

by Abzugal February 19, 2026

Pathology Trivialization Bias

A form of bias and meta-bias where one dismisses another person's views, disagreements, or different perspectives by casually labeling them as mentally ill, unstable, schizophrenic, delusional, or otherwise pathological. The bias trivializes genuine mental health conditions while weaponizing them against anyone who disagrees. It's the logic of "you must be crazy to believe that" applied to every difference of opinion. Pathology Trivialization Bias allows its user to dismiss any challenge without engagement, to pathologize dissent rather than address it. It's especially common in online arguments, where "touch grass," "seek help," and "you're clearly mentally ill" serve as conversation-enders that require no thought, only dismissal.

Pathology Trivialization Bias Example: "She presented a well-reasoned argument for electoral reform. He responded with Pathology Trivialization Bias: 'You're clearly delusional. Have you tried medication?' Her arguments went unaddressed, her reasoning unchallenged—just dismissed as symptom. The bias had done its work: turning disagreement into disease, dissent into diagnosis. She wasn't wrong; she was just 'crazy'—which meant nothing she said mattered."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026

Trivial Pathologization Bias

A variation of pathology trivialization bias where the pathologizing is explicitly trivial—casual, offhand, dismissive. "You're so OCD about that." "Are you schizo?" "That's literally insane." The bias treats serious mental health conditions as casual insults, as throwaway dismissals, as ways of saying "I don't agree with you" without having to think. Trivial Pathologization Bias is epidemic in online discourse, where clinical terms have been stripped of meaning and repurposed as weapons. It harms both those who suffer from actual mental illness (by trivializing their conditions) and those who are simply trying to have a conversation (by having their views dismissed as pathology). The bias is so common that most users don't even notice they're doing it—which is what makes it so insidious.

Example: "He called her analysis 'literally schizo' because he disagreed with one point. Trivial Pathologization Bias had done its work: dismissing her argument without engaging it, trivializing schizophrenia in the process. He didn't mean it literally; he meant it as an insult. That was the problem—mental illness as shorthand for 'I don't like what you're saying.' The bias was invisible to him, which is how it worked."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026