lol, true. That's fair enough, I apologise for being glib and rude. I'm used to people fixating on and reacting purely to the aesthetics despite how boringly predictable it is. I feel like I'm usually the one pulling my hair out like "YES OF COURSE HES RED AND ON FIRE AND HAS A POINTY TAIL WE HAVE TO MOVE PAST THE BANALITY OF EVIL" which is usually useless because it turns out half the population seem to literally believe in demons and the power of blood sacrifice and take the whole thing as proof of that.
I don't mind the discussion on hexbear for the most part but I checked out a linked r/epstein thread to find out about an apparent alarming pattern of "pizza" code phrases in the released docs and the discussion was indistinguishable from watching 4chan do pizzagate the first time.
Posters scaring and outraging each other with the most helen lovejoy ass interpretations of mostly benign things in a feedback loop.
I'm not saying there isn't some pizza code shit and I'm not saying there isn't some of it in the emails, but the way people are jumping at shadows and amplifying each other's freak outs seems to be occurring very similarly to pizzagate 1 and qanon's genesis.
We never left lib derangement country tho, I think this is just the most important thing to be deranged about for them right now.
Edit: cynically, it obviously serves the perpetrators for the public to be irrational about the epstein scandal, so if we're gonna be conspiracy brained maybe that's the vector to examine.
one of the first things someone asks me after learning that I'm trans is my opinion of children's medical issues = we are not cool and you don't have my back.
the rich and powerful actually meet up in the middle of the woods once a year for a several-days-long bacchanalia and we all just know it and pretend it's not happening?
And the poor and powerless actually meet up in the woods to hit each other with foam swords. Who gives a fuck about the theme of their annual LARP, if people weren't so distracted by fears of demons and black magic maybe they'd recognise the most damning aspect of things like Bohemian Grove is that the participants all let their hair down and stop pretending they aren't on the same side, regardless of their public political ideology and kayfabe conflicts.
IMO its subtle but if you look at first post and second post effects studied on sites like reddit, this sort of thing can be used effectively for narrative hacking / consent manufacture etc, or more commonly just for digital marketing.
Probably doesn't matter much at the current scale of federated social networks, but reddit wasn't that big back in the day either and it is worth learning from and designing against these exploits where possible.
Yes this can definitely happen. You're pretty much observing the engagement algorithm shit working as intended.
Content on the major social media sites is (as a rule) optimised for emotional engagement, positive, negative, doesn't matter, but something base and intense and mammalian. Even more so for short form content like YT shorts, TT etc. Being exposed to an endless feed of emotionally provocative messaging is likely very fatiguing for the mind and not good for mental health.
To an extent its "the algorithms" and it is possible to clear your viewing history or create a new account if you want to repopulate your feed with less toxic additions. But recommendation algorithms can just as easily relearn that you are receptive to this sort of emotionally predatory stuff if you aren't selective about what you view and engage with routinely. If you can manage it, it's better to find alternatives to algorithm driven content entirely or at least try to stay away from short form content and engagement bait when you do use those sites.
I have a very lib coded but relevant video I watched the other day about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d43tivfx0qw (specifically about short form video content / emotion hijacking / burnout)
and this, about (allegedly) the role of "boredom" in a healthy mind, which mind likely isn't spending enough time doing while you consume content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uoJNv9ufjM
It is possible to avoid recommendation engines while still getting enough content slop to fill a day, but it's inconvenient and annoying and technical. Easier to learn better content habits and hygiene imo.
:kelly: immortal science