Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Part of it, I think, is that we're now well established in this 'information economy', in which having knowledge, and being able to leverage and manipulate it, is the main way of making money, in a way that manufacturing goods and trading in them used to be, and owning and exploiting land used to be before that. But information, unlike goods and land, is both intangible and inexhaustible, and is being generated at an exponentially increasing rate. It's also available to virtually anyone, and at little or no cost - even a homeless person with cheap, second-hand smartphone, as long as they have somewhere to plug it and can find a free wireless hotspot, can access far more information, and far more easily, than a computer scientist or data analyst could 30 years ago.

But people don't feel wealthy because they have access to a wealth that everyone else has access to - if a $100 bill materialised in the back pocket of every adult on earth, nobody would, as a result of that, be any richer than they were before, in comparison to anyone else. So nobody feels special because they possess a piece of information such as "the earth is approximately spherical". However, a piece of 'information' such as "the earth is flat" makes people feel special, because if gives them the feeling of belonging to an elite. Now the vast majority of people (I hope) will dismiss this as disinformation, or a delusion, or simply a lie, but another effect of the ubiquity of information has been the degradation of the idea of objective truth to the status of a personal opinion.
 
Last edited:

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yes so the critical faculties are being overwhelmed through sheer volume but also very clever targeted malicious destabilisation of Information
But why do so many succumb? Have they always been susceptible and now the perfect tools are here? Or is it that people have become (on average or on the whole) more susceptible to this stuff?
 
and then there’s information as entertainment. A ghost story is scarier and more effective and spreads further with elements of truth, or the feeling that it might be true. Conspiracy theories function in a similar way, propagated and believed in for all sorts of reasons... some political motivations, some money making, some simplistic misunderstandings, sometimes because they give a more interesting explanation of complex phenomena. Aphex said believing this stuff is like the best sci fI ever, luka will prefer the esoteric explanation to the empirical or scientific

you could say that thing “it’s not a bug it’s a feature” we need to tell stories with heroes and villains, were innately paranoid and racist and tribalistic
 
Yes. This is why logic or just scoffing is not enough. It’s like trying to convince someone who’s in love or afraid of flying with facts and statistics, it doesn’t work because their ego and nervous system is too entangled in the story, they’ve been seduced, they’re obsessed.

So what is the belief or obsession giving them emotionally? With conspiracy:

A sense of superiority - ha, i see behind the curtain, sheeple don’t
An excuse to do nothing - the illuminati control everything, it’s all pre-determined
A thrill and a fright - it’s a real life scary movie that evolves with current affairs!

What else?

what else? pain. Emotional pain, terror. and also a slither of hope of a way out for the truth seeker. But the pain is key for people coming back I think, same with many addictions
 
But why do so many succumb? Have they always been susceptible and now the perfect tools are here? Or is it that people have become (on average or on the whole) more susceptible to this stuff?

we have always been susceptible yes. Our account of the world is stabilised by community, by tribes, by controlled flows of information through hierarchies we trust. But we’re increasingly isolated and overloaded in the Information age with decreasing trust in and community and institutions ... and the corruption and paedophilia and propaganda exists too! All of the place! It’s confusing and scary. What’s going on
 
And when people are scared and confused they’re suggestible. And this suggestibility and paranoia is capitalised on to win elections and sell nootropics
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I think I just had this naive idea that if someone told someone something one day, and then something different the next day, and even something that contradicted both the next day, then most people would say "hang on a minute" at some point... obviously that was totally wrong.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah I know I know. I just kinda thought when the contradictions got soooooo big there would come a point... but nope.
 
This is why luka made a good point (even tho he’s straw manning a bit) when he said I was positioning myself above. We’re all susceptible to this, do it all the time. We’re all more paranoid than we admit, but we usually have our suspicions quelled (or maybe managed, controlled) by social pressure and friendships...
 
And when we don’t have a stabilising system of thought to pop our dafter balloons they drift off into the stratosphere! No actually that’s a shit metaphor, I see people wanting a new priest, a new father once trust is broken by an institution or person... someone must have it right, and that someone is probably the one saying the ones I lost trust in, who hurt me, have it wrong. even worse they duped me!
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But some people are more able to filter and moderate using... their brain, common sense, logic etc etc but it feels that this is a skill that is vanishing increasingly rapidly.
 
I wouldn't say it's about loss of skill, more increasing complexity.The ground becoming shakier, in the logic sequence theres more ifs and sos and thens and common sense relies on common experience, common inputs common outputs common results... but we're more isolated and more overwhelmed, more options more explanations, groundlessness
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
But when you have things like the Epstein case coming to light, how can you really be sure anymore? I mean, flat earth is one thing. But shadow cabals and nwo agendas don't look all that far fetched anymore, do they?
 
I'm consciously not talking of specific conspiracies, but a palpable increase and acceptance and indulgence in the mindset. we cant be sure anymore is the crux
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Right yeah. I've found myself reading r/conspiracy loads lately. It's amazing to see how creative it all is. There's no doubt in my mind that the moment is being capitalised on. And who the fuck knows by who. But if I was a corrupt, high poisiton government agency bod you can be sure some of my resources would be going towards keeping the Internet busy.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Right yeah. I've found myself reading r/conspiracy loads lately. It's amazing to see how creative it all is. There's no doubt in my mind that the moment is being capitalised on. And who the fuck knows by who. But if I was a corrupt, high poisiton government agency bod you can be sure some of my resources would be going towards keeping the Internet busy.
So metaconspiracy right?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But when you have things like the Epstein case coming to light, how can you really be sure anymore? I mean, flat earth is one thing. But shadow cabals and nwo agendas don't look all that far fetched anymore, do they?
But I suppose I'm really focusing more on the ones like flat earth.... how do they succeed?
 
Top