Hans OlischlägerNov 27, 2024
James Tindall

This post from @pluralistic
is honestly up there with his concept of enshitification in the degree to which it explains so much of the shitshow.

It implies a compelling argument against great inequity. Namely that great wealth creates a bubble of affordance that insulates the rich from discerning the immediate consequences of incorrect or damaging notions or actions so delaying recognition of errors and the need to alter course.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113548449727704405

Cory Doctorow (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Today's threads (a thread) Inside: Bossware is unfair (in the legal sense, too); and more! Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/ #Pluralistic 1/

Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net
Nov 26, 2024 at 3:23pmWeb
Show threadJames TindallNov 26, 2024

This also neatly overturns the awful claim that the masses are stupid and that's why evil fuckers win elections or too few appear to care about the unbearable suffering of others or the unrelenting destruction of the planet.

It's not the masses at fault but rather the influence of concentrations of capital and the bubbles of affordance that deludes the holders of it to the consequences and errors of their ways, that in turn exert a gravitational pull drawing the poor into the delusion.

Show threadJames TindallNov 26, 2024

This all resonates massively with events at cop29, Trump's presidencies and so much that has come to pass in recent decades.

Bubbles of delusion fashioned and inhabited by holders of vast capital, that --particularly in an attention economy-- draw huge numbers of the populous into zones of confusion.

Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024
@pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk
Thinking some more about the bubbles of delusion that envelope concentrations of capital and the attraction force they exert upon those without (capital). A significant factor here, especially in an attention economy and society of control whose labidinal flows are directed by the Advertising Industrial Complex, is concentrations of capital also have the power to distort the infosphere by overwhelming sense (of their failures) with a mirage of success.
Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024

@pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk

Enshitification, the Reverse Centaur, Accountability Sinks (or perhaps Impunity Ware), these concepts are extremely helpful. Feels like a quite coherent picture of 21st-century capital and its machinations is coming into view.

Just noticed the #treasure-what-you-measure anchor in the url which lead me to this old post I'd not seen before which is also excellent 😙🤌 : https://boingboing.net/2019/06/26/breaking-goodharts-law.html

You treasure what you measure: how KPIs make software dystopias

You treasure what you measure: how KPIs make software dystopias

Boing Boing
Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024
@pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk In other words, it's perhaps not just that concentrations of capital deaden the error correction feedback, in an insulating, passive way, to those on the inside, but also operates to actively distract, obfuscate and generally prevent the perception of any failures within the concentration of capital by those without.
Show threadDr Andrew A. Adams #FBPE 🔶Nov 27, 2024
@atomless @pluralistic @Axomamma @MattMerk
Too big to fail, too rich to jail.
Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024

@a_cubed @pluralistic @Axomamma @MattMerk

For sure.

And in order to secure such impunity capital must keep the workers divided and distracted, through Pharmakon, the simultaneous supply of poison and antidote, disease and cure, creating a world of destruction, hopelessness and despair while constructing dopamine, analgesic and narcotic Escape Space ever more exquisitely fine tuned to our individual cognitive attack surface.

Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024

@pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk

Case in point, in fact hard to imagine a more perfect example of a bubble of delusion arising through extreme concentration of capital that whilst in denial of its internal failures then operates to present a mirage of success.

Show threadJames TindallNov 28, 2024

@pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk

So much of this excellent piece from Dan Williams seems highly pertinent here. https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/strategic-paranoia-when-irrational

Strategic paranoia: When irrational fears serve rational ends

The role of strategic paranoia in witchcraft accusations, conspiracy theories, the Satanic panic, tribal narratives, the mafia, and sexual jealousy.

Conspicuous Cognition
Show threadildiavolorossoNov 27, 2024
@atomless @pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk should read “Read about it in the essay I forced the publication I own to publish.”
Show threadJames TindallNov 27, 2024

@ildiavolorosso @pluralistic @a_cubed @Axomamma @MattMerk

Exactly that.

Show threadDr Andrew A. Adams #FBPE 🔶Nov 27, 2024
@atomless @pluralistic
It's related to but a compounding factor that rich people tend to be surrounded by "yes people" which atrophies their cognitive abilities, particularly their ability to realise when they are or have been wrong.
e.g. https://www.oveo.org/fichiers/power-changes-how-the-brain-responds-to-others.pdf