Why Conspiracy Theories?

[version]

"It's amazing! They've told me how great this toothpaste is and I really do think that this is the best toothpaste on the market!"

 

[Clinamenic]

Yeah I do have serious doubts about the prospects here, but it does feel good to hear these things about digital natives voiced in this setting, even if such information doesn’t come out the other end of the gauntlet.

 

[luka]

Oh Luka!
[queue laugh track]

im not fully committed to this idea that she is fake its mostly a response to your willfully naive response to the entertainment package she is starring in. i am interested in what makes these things seem so fake though

 

[luka]

"It's amazing! They've told me how great this toothpaste is and I really do think that this is the best toothpaste on the market!"

thats literally it, exactly nailed it. its extraordinary that anyone could be this simpleminded

 

[version]

im not fully committed to this idea that she is fake its mostly a response to your willfully naive response to the entertainment package she is starring in. i am interested in what makes these things seem so fake though

It may all be genuine, but American society is now incapable of producing anything which appears as such.

 

[luka]

the things that make 'things like this' seem fake are i suppose largely to do with media training, how to present yourself to an audience, how to signal sincerity and emotion (emotions which, needless to say can never exist under present day conditions, emotions as a category being obsolete), the consciousness of the camera and so on and so forth

 

[version]

thats literally it, exactly nailed it. its extraordinary that anyone could be this simpleminded

It's like one of us watching Boris and going "Well, I don't know about you fellows, but he has me convinced. To leveling up!".

 

[luka]

all the coaching that goes into a performance of this kind and the assumptions that training is based around and the models that training aspires towards (models which are largely fictional or figments of the mass media)

 

[version]

the things that make 'things like this' seem fake are i suppose largely to do with media training, how to present yourself to an audience, how to signal sincerity and emotion (emotions which, needless to say can never exist under present day conditions, emotions as a category being obsolete), the consciousness of the camera and so on and so forth

 

[Clinamenic]

This is where I insist on treating the system like it has some promise, out of pragmatism. Especially with new horizons being defined online, which now seem better regulated by private executives than by public officials.

Id rather have a developing sense of strategy and literacy in these areas, I.e corporate and political procedure, if even naively, then simply assume nothing is worth moving towards.

And yes I still am deeply naive so I’ll take the flak because I think it is warranted.

 

[version]

I get the argument, but, knowing what these people do with power, there's also an appeal to disorder and nobody quite having a handle on things.

 

[Clinamenic]

She did seem locked and loaded with some of these ideas, and maybe I’m giving her too much intellectual credit here, I.e I assumed she was an ambitious systems thinker and thought through many of these questions.

I don’t know what other interests there are for taking down Facebook, but I’d be surprised if there weren't any. But going through life as if it is all a plot against you seems more of a psychological reflection of our Information Age, than does it seem an accurate conception of reality. It also just seems like it would fuel its own suffering.

 

[Clinamenic]

She’s arguing for deeper regulatory practices, and I’d rather go about analyzing her points based on what working understanding I have, then operate on paranoid and unfalsifiable speculations.

 

[version]

You can't consider this stuff in a vacuum either though.

 

[Clinamenic]

This is why I don’t count myself among the conspiratorially inclined. I prefer an epistemology that respects facts over one that doesn’t, even if that entails trusting public officials. I’d rather have a technical basis for making decisions, one subject to empathy but not blindly dictated by feelings.

Also I take seriously the social impact these platforms have on young people, and I think that alone warrants intervention.

 

[version]

There are enough facts out there to suggest you can't ever really trust public officials.

 

[Clinamenic]

There are enough facts out there to suggest you can't ever really trust public officials.

I agree, that seems obvious to me, which isn’t to say that it shouldn’t be stated, but rather to convey just how much I agree.

But I believe the best way of optimizing the system-wide dynamics of trust, is to optimize the code and the architecture of the government.

 

[Clinamenic]

But even if complete distrust is warranted, how pragmatic is it?

Thats also a critical point for me, just the long term consequences of our settling into certain conclusions.

 

[Clinamenic]

I think if you can think like a capitalist shark, you’re paradoxically better off in terms of positively impacting society, because to whatever degree, you can anticipate some of the resistance that will be met.

 

[version]

I don't really think there's anyone that can be trusted with the kind of power these people are seeking.