Disillusionist

Thank you for kicking this hornet’s nest. There is a lot of great info and enthusiasm here, all of which is sorely needed.

We have massive and widespread attention paid to every cause under the sun by social and traditional media, with movements and protests (deservedly) filling the streets. Yet this issue which is as central and crucial to the notion and practice of freedom itself as any rights currently being fought for (as it intersects with each of them in very clear and direct ways), continues to be sidelined and given the foil hat treatment.

Discussions around disinformation, political extremism, and even mental health all can not be adequately had without addressing our technical and digital context, which has been hijacked by these bad actors, robber barons selling us ease and convenience and promises of bright, shiny, and Utopian futures while conning us out of our liberty.

With the widespread, rapidly declining state of society, and the dramatic rise and spread of technologies like AI, there has never been a more urgent need to act collectively against the invasive practices violating our most fundamental human rights.

Those of you whose eyes are open to this crisis are needed. Your voices are too absent from the discussions surrounding the many problems and challenges we face at this critical moment. Public awareness is needed for any real hope of change to occur.

As many of you have pointed out, the most immediate step people need to take is disengagement with the products and services that are surveiling, exploiting, and manipulating us. Deprive them of both your engagement and your data.

Keep going, keep resisting, do the small things you can do. As the saying goes, small things add up over time. Keep going.

Hilarious. I bite my tongue so often around these kinds of situations it has permanent tooth imprints in it. But you’re right, someone needs to figure out how to get them to stop tolerating this horrific nonsense.

The more people who demand better out of their employers (and services, governments, etc.), the better we’ll get of those things in the long run. When you surrender your rights, you worsen not only your own situation, but that of everyone else, as you validate and contribute to the system that violates them. Capitulation is the single greatest reason we have these kinds of problems.

We need more people doing exactly as you did, simply saying no. Thank you for fighting, and thank you for sharing. Best wishes in your job hunt.

I do think you’re absolutely right. I know people doing exactly that — checking out — and it does seem like a common response. It is understandable, a lot of people just can’t deal with all that garbage being firehosed into their faces, and the level of crazy ratcheting up through the ceiling. And that reaction of checking out is one of the intended effects of the strategy of “flooding the zone”. Glad you pointed that out.

No secret, ML is Marxist-Leninist. They tend to have a similar focus and way of framing things as what I’m picking up from you.

Odd statement to cut and flip around out of all of that text. Reminds me a lot of ML.

I wouldn’t put much past the current American administration. I haven’t been able to shake this impression that we might really be looking a the telegraphing of an invasion. From what we know and have seen, the administration is very much itching to apply the fullest extent of its powers. It’s defined by unprecedented and extraordinary use of extralegal action and complete disregard for how it might be seen by the world at large.

They said for years that Russia wouldn’t move on Ukraine, and then green men marched in and took over Crimea. It’s no secret how much America is becoming increasingly like Russia in every way. US already has significant military presence in Greenland — a green men play would be really easy. And Greenland also has a surprising number of politicians who openly say that they prefer the security offered by Trump’s America over Denmark, even as they declare that they want independence (experts argue that independence might make them even more vulnerable to takeover right now). It’s easy to assume that at least some Greenland doors would open up to an American green man advance.

Also, as far as consequences for taking over Greenland, we seem to be primarily looking at a breakup of NATO — something that is also on this US administration’s longstanding wish list. Experts don’t seem to think it’s ultimately likely to result in an actual war so much as make it crystal clear that the old rules no longer apply, and that the US isn’t a friend (the Article 5 debate is shaky, especially against the prospect of actually going to war against America, and especially while NATO is also dealing with the Russian war in Ukraine). On paper it kind of reads like a win-win-win situation for the current brazen, imperialist, and isolationist American kleptocracy.

I’d say we at least need to take this stuff seriously.

This reminds me of an article someone posted titled Homo Stultus: The Case For Renaming Ourselves. It mentions that Homo Sapiens means “wise man”, but:

The more fitting name is Homo stultus—“foolish man.”

To most people I’m sure that might sound a bit misanthropic, but:

To rename ourselves Homo stultus is not mere cynicism. It is an act of moral realism. Names shape identity, and identity shapes behavior. To be “wise man” is to assume that wisdom already defines us; to be “foolish man” is to recognize that it does not. Such recognition could mark the beginning of genuine wisdom—the kind born of humility rather than hubris.

I think it’s actually a pretty valid wake up call. The article brings up a lot of good points.

Here are a couple more quotes talking about the problem:

The root of our folly lies in the myth of human exceptionalism

Anthropocentrism, in other words, is a kind of education—a cultural conditioning that replaces empathy with hierarchy.

I’ve actually started thinking we’re due for a name change now myself. It’s like holding up a mirror that confronts us with an image that maybe most of us never look at very honestly if we can avoid it. It might help if we started looking at ourselves as we are demonstrating ourselves to be by our actions, rather than the more comforting yet ignorant narratives we tell ourselves. Maybe then we can start trying to become actual Homo Sapiens.

Shining a light on a problem is good, directing people to resources where they can seek help is also fine. The problem I have with this article is that it steers into policy with statements like:

“Experts are urgently calling for a national strategy on pornography”

and the ambiguous claim that:

"the government aren’t doing [enough].”

What role are they implying that government should have in any of this? By and large it seems like governments generally tend to respond to “addiction problems” with some form of ban. Anti-porn legislation seems to amount to poorly drafted, ill-considered blunt instruments that also seem very likely to cause more problems than the issues they claim to address (and often backed by dubious special interests that clearly have other agendas). They present the claim that it’s:

“Not an anti-porn crusade”

But the article doesn’t mention any other kind of action or involvement the government might take in response to the problem.

Articles that cover subjects as controversial and consequential as this should be especially careful and informative in the way they discuss them otherwise they run the risk of merely fanning the flames.

[Edited for clarity]