lne

Will’s stance recites the core of liberal theories of politics, i.e. the marketplace of ideas, the notion that politics is primarily (and even naturally) decided by discourse and rhetoric, and this conception has been inherited by neoliberalism except they approach it much more cynically

who knew the most important thing we got taught in school for making it in the 21st century was musical chairs in kindergarten

in industrialized countries jic u wanna to get a gotcha skeet

believe it or not literacy rates weren’t ubiquitous until the 20th century

in the ancient world people used to recite long form epic poetry from memory. Crime and Punishment was serially published in a newspaper as entertainment for the literate. reading novels was commonplace over the last 100 years. don't project the present onto the past, we're on some other shit now

just using smartphones has forced a more intimate connection with suggestion and abandonment of our faculties to its assistance, so much so that people’s temperaments and attitudes are vastly different now, and its only been a couple of decades

people’s attention spans grow shorter. i have to worry ive already written too much to get my point across, even though i think this level of detail is important to consider. what happens when even the most mild suggestion is allowed to proceed over the course of centuries?

consider that the very definition of a mundane task shifts. could reading itself be a mundane task in the future if voice synthesis becomes the predominant way to consume digital content? this already seems be the case for people used to watching tiktoks and yt videos as their primary info sources

we’ve observed the consequences of propaganda, or of the effect that machines have had on the labor process. we observe what consumerism has done to promote a certain sort of culture

corporations and the state are a sort of AI, a primitive form to be sure, composed of neuronal networks of people and with dynamics that evolve in relation to their environment. we observe changes in people’s behavior in line with the imperatives set by these agents over long timescales

of course theres the possibility of technology to improve standards of living, but the history of industrialization is also the history of the political control over the form and function of tech. the problem with AI as we are is that the timescale of capital is much longer than of people

given a long enough timescale the mundane things in life are the decisive ones

One reason I don’t like genAI is I think people have gotten way too comfortable passively consuming huge quantities of media and I think genAI is another big stride toward anti-intellectualism and abdicating thinking

Did I just see a video of a CEO being smoked on Bluesky

this is an excellent thread. even if a precise account does not yet exist of the ultimate motivations for this kind of social manipulation, it is good to see people catching on to it. it's not simply a matter of identifying the actors involved, but of building a social immune system to counter them

but of course

black mirror? this is straight out of hideo kojima's imagination

threads basically feels like x-lite

I think its time for bot blocklists

be thankful. not everyone has the conviction that their inner life and perceptions are meaningful and worth sharing with others in such depth and precision. personally, I contemplate what that means about our society and the times we live in

i know its like a trope now but i try to shift my focus towards being kind and not 'nice'. give your energy and consideration where you feel its warranted but treat it like what it is: a rare gift and delight. you can be moved to be generous in dispensing it but aren't obliged to do so

omg this is all so relatable idk ive just gotten used to the sense that i will be a polarizing person. but also in my 30s im realizing that theres no reason to explain so much because most people dont actually care enough to know the reasons for things

the cover of not like us, big house with a bunch of sex offender alert icons

2025 white house cabinet meeting

Never has a crime so obscene been so confessed to, so endlessly, so shamelessly, so proudly

people are saying this

no one ever seems to highlight the single best feature of this app, the one that hands down holds this place miles above every alternative: no fucking advertisements, none, zero, not every 3 posts, not every 3000 posts, no brand activity at all!! where else besides wikipedia has that kind of freedom

uncertainty can be terrifying. it has a positive side too: the future is open and unwritten. what you need to buy is time for yourself, so you can find the others like you to write it together. you have many paths available to this end, so best to pay attention so you can take them when they appear

the fifth thing is that this means no one really knows what's going on, because the people who are responsible for the mess have a false impression of their own strength, while the people who are going to be decisive aren't yet aware of each other. they can only go up, while the former make blunders

the fourth thing is that this necessarily means that your perception of the state of things is manipulated, just as the perception of the strength of the "powerful" is being artificially inflated. if they were truly powerful, they wouldn't need to make the effort to inflict all this suffering

the third thing is that you're not alone -- that there are many people feeling exactly the way you do. otherwise it wouldn't be good business. but it is the case that if the cruel are meant to become emboldened and unified in their abuse, anyone else is made to feel isolated and despondent