Baldur BjarnasonOne of my realisations I've come to during my newsletter/blogging pause is that the vibes crowd has thoroughly won, both in tech specifically and in general. Facts don't matter. Research doesn't matter. If it has research aesthetics and has the vibes you like, people treat it as truth. Motion and churn with the right vibes count as progress. Revenue is treated as evidence of inevitable future profit, no matter how irrational the underlying economics are.
There's no convincing or reasoning with people if they think your facts have a bad vibe. Explaining things, with references, has no impact because the references are gauged based on vibes and not how well the studies were structured or how well the paper is argued. There is no difference today between decision-makers in tech and the antivaccination crowd. They both operate on the same epistemology and worldview
What's worse is that most of the popular critics of this worldview and state of affairs are running largely on vibes as well. Same methodology. Same cherry-picking of references. Same kind of reasoning through showmanship.
It's quite disheartening on the whole and makes me question the point of writing essays like I have over the years.
The Craiger
Alex / catileptic@baldur I think that Meredith Whittaker's talk from this year's CCC Congress (38c3) might be a good companion to these thoughts: https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feelings-are-facts-love-privacy-and-the-politics-of-intellectual-shame
It speaks about this concept of "the politics of intellectual shame" and how the tech industry profit-making is predicated on shaming people into quiet cooperation or support. The opposite of that, of course, is "saying the quiet part out loud", expressing dissent and the kind of "thinking in the public space" that your articles are so good at!
Feelings are Facts: Love, Privacy, and the Politics of Intellectual Shame
@catileptic Oh, Iād missed that one. Looks absolutely on point. Will have a watch. Thanks! š
GinevraCat@catileptic @baldur Wow!!! That's a really thought-provoking, dense talk. Thank-you for highlighting it.