Thread by @KrisAtLarge

"magical thinking" is a term that's difficult to talk about in Western culture, because (as with most if not all abstract concepts in Western thought) "magic" has no honest or certain meaning in mainstream Western discourse. but I will make some attempt to explain.

(1/x)

let me start with an example: the television. television—the sending of video images over long distances to a dedicated "set" for viewing them—is long-established technology. TV video may be communicated through a variety of media—radiofrequency broadcasts were the first.

(2/x)

the television itself isn't "magic" (...I don't think), but established and well-understood technology that achieves some sort of *approximation* of a thing that might, in a myth or a fantasy story, be achieved through magical means: viewing things from a long distance.

(3/x)

it'd be fair to describe the achievement of television as "magical"—in a poetic sense, I suppose. it was a startling technological jump, going from audio-only broadcasts to video.

but television itself is still a *limited* thing, with numerous technical constraints.

(4/x)

there's complex apparatus necessary both for broadcasting or sending television signals long distances, and for receiving them into a TV set at home. this machinery can only do certain things in a certain way.

anything *outside* this expected behavior _could_ be "magic".

(5/x)

Sadako, from the superb horror film _Ringu_, supplies us an example of *magic* (or something supernatural at any rate) involving a television: somehow a recording of her (with no certain source) can function as a medium for her, allowing her to jump from place to place.

(6/x)

TV and video recordings were not designed to work in such a strange fashion; therefore—in the fictional universe of _Ringu_, anyway—the TV is being used in a supernatural or *magical* manner.

there's numerous other fictional examples of televisions as conduits for magic.

(7/x)

but that's fiction. Sadako has never emerged from any ordinary television set, that I'm aware of.

however...there are people who make promises about #technology that amount to the promise of *supernatural powers* of some sort, achieved through technological wizardry.

(8/x)

this is "magical thinking" about technology: assuming, or hoping, or claiming, or *selling* the notion that technology can do things that no physical apparatus can possibly carry out. @elonmusk's promises about #Mars, for example, amount to "magical thinking".

(9/x)

but @elonmusk is in good company: #capitalism and #marketing have furnished a fruitful growing medium for "magical thinking" about science and technology. people in #business and #finance (and, sadly, in #computers as well) tend to be thunderously ignorant about science.

(10/x)

they *do* know it's capable of marvels; therefore it's easy for them to pretend that it's capable of ANY marvel. @elonmusk is one of a long line of scam artists of this type—celebrity CEOs or dodgy "inventors" making claims that they couldn't possibly follow through on.

(11/x)

so the real question is...

...why hasn't American #media and #journalism collectively noticed this? why has @elonmusk benefited from so much uncritical coverage? yes, he's gotten some damaging investigative pieces written about him, but they've gotten no traction.

(12/x)

Americans like to pretend that they're wise to con games, even as they get suckered again. @RonaldReagan was a scam. @realDonaldTrump lives for scamming people. so does @elonmusk—so where's all the *skepticism* about all these people? where's the journalistic scrutiny?

(13/x)

I suppose we all know the answer (@mtaibbi maybe hasn't caught the clue yet.)

@RonaldReagan and @elonmusk and the rest of them have been *protected* in the press. even while Musk AND the @GOP both continue to rail against The Media™ for hating them and being biased...

(14/x)

...the corporate power structures of American #media, all those managers and executives who control most of the world's presses, have bent over backwards to accommodate their wishes. if the press had been honest, @elonmusk would be a nobody—because Elon Musk is a fraud.

(15/x)

he's only famous now because #journalism hardly tried to stop @elonmusk, *or* @realDonaldTrump, *or* @RonaldReagan. it was especially nauseating to see the press going along with the illusions about Reagan—keeping up the pretence that he wasn't a scripted dummy President.

(16/x)

so why'd this happen?

probably it's easy to guess. #capitalism, of course, has a lot to do with it.

~Chara of Pnictogen

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