James TindallNov 26, 2024

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
Show threadJames Tindall
@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.
Nov 27, 2024 at 9:20amWeb
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.