The Mark of the Beast: Labels

What is the mark of the beast if not a tool to confuse, divide, distract, conquer, pigeonhole, and manipulate?

This symbol from revelation is a metaphor for branding people into boxes. Marks. And if you can simplify a person down to a label, you’re basically saying that you’ve figured them all out. It is identity stamped onto thought, and once branded, you are sorted, simplified, and dismissed before you even speak. The beast’s marks have spoken. You are either with us or against us.

In clear terms devoid of religious interpretation; humans are complex and messy. Labels are simple and clean.

What does the word “libertarian” tell you? What does the word “liberal” say? How about “left” or “right”? Do you understand the meaning behind these terms and how to use them? Do you realise that labels are often not binaries?

Someone can be libertarian with socially liberal values. You can also be fiscally conservative while holding socially left beliefs. Someone can support economically right-wing policies while fighting for left-wing social causes. Someone might call themselves a leftist while recognising hierarchical (right-wing) importance.

Maybe somebody wants people to have less power socially—through religious, nationalist, or family ideals (social conservatism; rejecting modernity)—but empowered economically through wealth redistribution, social safety nets, and collective ownership (economic populism; rejecting the harmful effects of capitalism). We might call this, as a whole, communitarianism.

The point is, labels only work when they’re used correctly and are broadly understood. In conversations with people who mostly consume mainstream media or seek outlets to confirm their biases (and don’t read critical theory), labels are weaponised for agendas and bastardised to muddy the waters. If you watch SkyNews, you may see “the left” as meaning “communists.” If you watch an esoteric leftist video essayist, you may see “the right” as “fascists.” Both are untrue.

Where things might be unclear, or the context demands it—when you know the person you’re talking to doesn’t have foundational knowledge of the terms you’re about to use—labels should be used sparingly, with context. Or don’t use them at all. Otherwise, the conversation often becomes about definitions rather than ideas, and that usually turns combative and unproductive.

It isn’t enough to state a label and expect people to know what you mean, because labels carry baggage. Whether that baggage is correct depends on cultural, political, and social factors—injected, manipulated, or reinforced through media and social dynamics.

In many cases, defining the concept behind the label without actually using the label will lead to more agreement than you expect. Someone may call themselves a conservative, but if you poke at their shell without labels, you might find egalitarian views hidden underneath—views they’d never admit to as “left-leaning”, because they’ve been conditioned to hate “the left.” The content of their beliefs tells you what label you could apply, but using it directly becomes a barrier to common ground.

Labels are useful insofar as both parties understand them in the same context. If you know the person consumes a particular news outlet, you can anticipate where a label will backfire and mitigate it by avoiding or reframing it. When in doubt, articulating the concept without assigning labels tends to be more fruitful—unless your goal is to antagonise, in which case people understand a label’s pejoratives better than its nuance.

Are labels useful? Yes, of course. Are they also a hindrance? Also yes. Throwing labels around in casual conversation will almost always land you in a grey area where both sides assume the other’s position.

We are lazy pattern matchers in a complicated and ever-changing world. Labels help us identify with our tribe—cognitive shortcuts, trading accuracy for emotional certainty. Stripping them from the lexicon exposes the humanity beneath the veil of predisposition.

Labels divide faster than they define.

Express what you mean before using labels, or don’t use them at all unless you know they’ll land correctly. You might find that you have more in common with your neighbour than you think.

This is a secular exploration of language and politics. The biblical metaphor is used symbolically to convey the power of labels, not as a religious argument.