Thread by @KrisAtLarge

I've been cogitating a strange notion lately—an intuition, one that's a bit tricky to explain.

permit me to state my assumptions: I believe that it's possible to assign the general label of "Christian God" to something *concrete*, and which is in fact quite small.

(1/x)

this is where I've always differed from the atheists: I've always felt that "God" wasn't a nonexistent entity, but rather an entity that was something different, something smaller and more limited, than what #Christian doctrine (and Western culture) claims about their God.

(2/x)

Dr. @RichardDawkins supplied a hint: it's possible that "God" is memetic in nature.

Dawkins hasn't (to my knowledge) ever analyzed the matter further—maybe because it threatened the rigidity of his #atheism to admit that God had *some* sort of existence, even a weak one.

(3/x)

that's always been my problem with atheists: they want to *reject* the notion of God, and seem unwilling to discuss the concept of God even in irreligious terms. to me that's a sign of intellectual fear. refusing even to *think* about God as an abstraction is timidity.

(4/x)

let's start with the meme idea. we intuitively understand a "meme" to be a packet of information that, when imparted to a living being, provokes self-replicating behavior.

that is to say, the person carrying the "meme" tends to speak it and spread it without much thought.

(5/x)

that @Western_Trad account I was making fun of earlier—there's thousands exactly like it, which is a clue—is a superb embodiment of a memetic packet of information: an exquisitely limited subset of photographs of museum pieces, more or less, meant to be endlessly copied.

(6/x)

a photograph of an old statue or painting is (usually) not very memetic in itself.

(arguably no object is entirely free from memetic traits; both humans and other animals are irrepressible *mimics*, keen to copy anything.)

but the @Western_Trad collection *is* memetic.

(7/x)

the activity of @Western_Trad and other accounts like it is intensely repetitive, monotonous even—endless postings and repostings of from the same limited subset of "classic" artworks, ornamented with a few objects of designated hatred. there's a cultlike quality to this.

(8/x)

more to the point, @Western_Trad and other similar accounts apply a certain *spin* to the material they're copying—some flavor text, a comment or two pitched towards the likely audience of bıgots and fascıst chunkheads who want to pretend they're super smart and cultured.

(9/x)

that is to say, the photos of old statues and paintings are being used as #marketing fodder. this is the marketer's art: presenting the susceptible viewer with photographs (or other media) within a carefully calculated emotional context, one you're invited to agree with.

(10/x)

where's the mimesis occurring? I don't know the mechanism but it must have something to do with "marketing psychology"—the body of practical psychological and behavioral knowledge amassed by the marketing industry—the lore that tells them how to *make people want things*.

(11/x)

I would hazard to guess that #marketing people already have a fair understanding of "memes" in the @RichardDawkins sense—likely not a fully scientific understanding, but #advertising people have been studying how to sell things for a long time. they know a lot of tricks.

(12/x)

a successful ad campaign is a memetic ad campaign, i.e. one that has good "word of mouth", one that people remember easily and tell other people about, because it's funny or tragic or whatever.

let's just say, for the moment, that memes have some *psychological* reality.

(13/x)

psychological realities are still real—although right-wing cranks like @jordanbpeterson tend to be rather *sloppy* about remembering this simple fact. "it's all in your head" is usually spoken in dismissal, but human thoughts and feelings are in fact quite powerful.

(14/x)

#marketers know this: skillful manipulation of thoughts and feelings can effect massive, worldwide change.

so if "God" is but a meme, and a meme is some psychological entity—a particular manifestation of human thought let's say—then "God" could be in a sense "real".

(15/x)

at least God is as real as any thought or idea. thoughts and ideas cause human beings to *act*. people *do things* in certain ways—often with extreme stubbornness and determination—because of thoughts and ideas. the "God" idea is certainly one of the most powerful.

(16/x)

God's influence is worldwide...

...but then, so is the influence of _Treponema pallidum_, and that's a very tiny thing indeed.

~Chara of Pnictogen

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