trying to communicate in an age of hell
some very incisive contemplations on twitter. how it works, what it does. i will be adding to this as i find more. my own contemplations will live below the links. or, because of the way the editing process function, an entirely new post. the cross compatibility issue is built in, a function of capitalistic competition. we need open source tools, instead, we are NIMBY-fying everything as good little psychos do.
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2022/04/28/elderblog-sutra-13/
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3. https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/lost-thread/
alright, lets try actually writing in this thing. i’m using my ipad, google chrome. substack doesnt have an app, so perhaps things may go better if in the future i write inside a writing app, then copy paste here. the travails i tell ya. this will be both a critique and conversation around digital communication (mainly focused on facebook and instagram, but including other platforms and formats) as it applies to social behavior in imperialist white supremacist usa, and how that is perceived through my lens of nondual animism, queer ecology and disability justice. aka a queer mixed race urban Dharma or whatever.
one thing that strikes me as i exit facebook and instagram, is that for as much benefit i received, i also recieved many burdens. the gamification of attention lends itself to hyperbolic manipulation of language, posts and article headlines that are inflammatory and vague in nature, priming ones perception to immediately go into gossip mode, which is also blame mode, hate mode, enemy mode, outrage mode.
its one thing to be able to disagree and use those disagreements to refine ones communication towards collective benefit. but if a majority of people are not focused on collective benfit, but instead personal benefit, then we must step back and re examine how we are to proceed within such a predatory worldview and culture.
the voices that rise to prominence are those that collaborate with the algorhithms, the same algorithms designed by people who want to steal our attention from us, and point it at products and at conflicts (instead of conflict transformation). we live in an age of the demogogue, of the “free speech” supremacist, of the “well meaning” fascist.
facebook, the place where i became a little bit more well known for my writing and poetry, has now become a loathsome place, filled with little hitlers with their little opinions, and its a very serious matter of life and death whose opinions are seen as valid and whose are seen as delusion. we have so called comedians targeting trans folk and women, we have inter poc oppression and colorism, we have libertarian fascists using eugenics philosophies, weve given everyone a microphone and we wield them with uneven virtue.
our ancestors knew that speech is energy and energy is power, energy affects reality. words are magic, are spells, and we can use them to indoctrinate or liberate, with so many choosing the former.
we are not prepared enough or skilled enough to handle this much attention used so poorly, this kind of free speech will only cause more and more harm to minds that are neither fully developed nor skillfully trained in the use of language. everyone has a voice, but systemic oppression menas not every voice is equally respected.
next, we have the targeted ads, further invading our visual field, requiring energy to make micro decisions about the worthy or unworthiness of their content. constantly tempting us, stoking our envy, jealosy, fear, greed and hunger/desire. a constant barrage of materialism and fake social status promises.
plus we have hackers spamming our inboxes with manipulative trickery.
but let me pose a very real question about the many long distance relationships we think we have built. what happens when real shit happens? do we really know who we can trust to not develop a cannibalistic habit? perhaps the word trust is even a red herring… perhaps we can never know which of us will lose basic sanity under pressure.
we dont know the merit of our fellow person, we only know the persona they have curated online.
then theres the audience part. and the audiences who dont have the skill to be a decent audience part. like, the vast majority of people being deeply ignorant, blind to their own worldview, and indoctrinated in this weird conservative christian meets neo lib the customer is always right way. as if the entire world and “all the darkies” & queerdos are just servants catering some product for the white suburban american gaze.
just as there are likely only 30% of americans that are completely psychotic/psychopathic/sociopathic (i.e conservative fascists), those 30% game the systems. they rise to positions of power they do not deserve, merely because the positions of power err in favor of narciistic, psycopathic behaviors. the systems are designed to privelege people who use power for personal rather than collective wellbeing.
ive said it a million times, the ignorance we are facing must be vigilantly excised from our decision making processes, because these kinds of trauma responses (yes, narcissism is a kind of trauma response) are neurologically addicting, meaning the addictive compulsion to act on the delusional impulse is too pleasurable physiologically to resist, because it has been bonded conceptually with a survival/victory and high status identity narrative.
the cesspit of anti social behaviors thrives in the thunderdome esque arena of facebook, instagram and twitter. it mimicks the worst aspects of our religious and political institutions. it is anti transparency. the only way it ever works for mutual benefit os if the communicator AND the listener have a high degree of self eflective virtue: the capacity to accept responsibility for their interpretations and the impacts of their actions, and the creative flexibility to avoid high intensity narratives such as shame, blame, guilt and domination, either-or thinking, and lingusitic double binds.
if what im saying seems a bit hyperbolic, it may be because this medium and this language isnt built for the kind of nuanced, grounded, centered attitudes that are required to BE HUMAN TOGETHER.