underappreciated fact: your ideaspace is bounded more by experience than by intelligence
continuing with ideaspace metaphor: experience broadens your base, while intelligence helps you ascend (to meta)
meta-knowledge is useful predictively but is also fallible. otoh nobody can tell you your experience was in-itself invalid, only the conclusions you draw.
the more meta you go, the less emotional weight your knowledge carries. this has led to both miraculous success and extreme tragedy.
because it lacks emotional weight, "going meta" can be a psychological defense mechanism. you can ignore a depressing experience by justifying it through a conceptual framework.
thanks to mass media, we witness more suffering than ever. as a result, ideologies have become more abstract and more totalizing. they perform for us more emotional labor.
although meta-knowledge dulls out emotional responses, no ideology can absorb them. our collective witness of suffering manifests as pervasive low-grade anxiety and depression.
many have an expectation that a scapegoat will work, that we can absolve our emotions by hurting the target.
but the scapegoat will not work unless blood is spilled. and online, suffering has no witness (except performatively, which doesn't count).
but the scapegoat will not work unless blood is spilled. and online, suffering has no witness (except performatively, which doesn't count).
it is commonly recognized that those who shout the loudest online are also the most unwell. why do they? because they have the strongest desire for absolution.
Religious practice is informed by scapegoats. Their power lingers: fast on Yom Kippur, feel yourself become renewed.
But real suffering (such as through collective fasting) must be experienced for these rituals to work. A call for suffering is not enough.
But real suffering (such as through collective fasting) must be experienced for these rituals to work. A call for suffering is not enough.
The emotional tenor of websites is determined by their interfaces, e.g. Facebook limiting "react" emojis to limit expressive range.
Most websites implicitly "ban" suffering. What would a website that allows it look like?
Yes, like Discord. Suffering is something people will only express in the context of persistent relationships. This requires spaces that encourage persistence, which can also only be done by building walls. Discord gives you tools to build walls.
Certain "raids" conducted by 4chan and tumblr are remembered partly because they were effective.
Raiders went into "othered" spaces with persistent membership and turned them into scapegoats.
Raiders went into "othered" spaces with persistent membership and turned them into scapegoats.
Funny idea: spaces where you can fuck up the participants to make yourself feel better, but they're all AI so nobody actually gets hurt.
Oh wait, those are called "video games".
Oh wait, those are called "video games".
Some interesting data on "producing hate material online". Note the inverse correlation with playing first-person shooters. 🤔
(methodology warning: study simply asked participants if they'd done hate speech, might mean underreporting for naive cases) doi.org/10.1089/vio.20…
(methodology warning: study simply asked participants if they'd done hate speech, might mean underreporting for naive cases) doi.org/10.1089/vio.20…
How might we combat online hate speech? Require pauses before replies in heated threads. Give people better emotional outlets and encourage their use (state sponsored gaming rigs when?). Let people build themselves better walls in social media spaces.
Intelligent people: if you want to do good, expand your ideaspace (through experience!) and tend your walled garden by creating good truths.
We are not post-truth. We've merely lost our institutions of truth, and must instead rely on our social spheres.
To lead by honest truth-creation is an act of goodness.
To lead by honest truth-creation is an act of goodness.
Great follow counts require great responsibility. You control what is true for your followers. Your philosophy becomes reality. Don't fuck it up.
