Echo Chamber
Flaw · 4 pts
You surround yourself with groupthink. All opinions on important topics (politics, religion, magick, and so forth) must remain unified. No disagreements on such matters are permitted within this echo chamber, and anyone who bucks that decree is shown the door – often with great force – and shunned, probably vilified, afterward. Loyalty to the group is measured by the devotion each member shares with regards to the “truth” as your group understands it. As a result, that “truth” soon gets distorted. Like an echo reverberating within a closed space, it verges into a distortion of the original source, growing wilder and more extreme until something has to give. Will that breaking point be you? Gods forbid…
Essentially a story-based Trait, this Flaw cuts your char acter off from information that runs contrary to the group’s determined “truth.” Characters and data that disagree with that “truth” must be pushed aside, ignored, silenced, possibly attacked, maybe even destroyed “for the good of the group.” Because isolation breeds distortion, the Storyteller should gradually make “the truth” seem more extreme than it once had been. Anyone – especially a player character – who disagrees with “the truth” should be punished by the group; the more extreme the distortions become, the harsher the punishment becomes as well. Eventually, the distorted “truth” will require distorted acts as well: assault, torture, murder, terrorism. At that point, any character who tries to step away will become the enemy too (possibly receiving the Flaw of that name) – shunned by former friends at the very least, probably disgraced socially, and potentially even attacked physically for being a traitor to the cause.
This Flaw reflects a social phenomenon that’s increasingly common in the twenty-first century, though it’s certainly not exclusive to our era: a social group committed to enforced orthodoxy and the removal of dissent. The group in question could be a religious or military order, a socio-political activist tribe, a corporate office, a think-tank, an art collective, a fan nish subculture, a media outlet, mystic sect, or Political Action Committee – any social clique that holds “certain truths to be
self-evident” and vital to that group’s existence could become an echo chamber. “Us” and “them” is a ruling principle, and if you’re not one of Us, then you’re one of Them.