Venkat notes “the culture war” is not actually about culture, or politics, or indeed anything other than itself. Internet conflict is non-referential addictive behavior.
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Replying to @Meaningness @vgr
I'm not sure how non-referential it is. I think beefs can be proxies for political sides, which have real world political agendas. Climate change can be a proxy for a call to wealth redistribution, for example. The conspiracies are subconscious, because human condition.
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Yes, what I said was characteristically exaggerated. But, there’s a bunch of research that shows most people evaluate policy proposals entirely on the basis of “Is this the Good Tribe’s position or the Bad Tribe’s?”
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Replying to @Meaningness @vgr
Yes, but let's not forget that alliances to the "good" tribe are far from accidental. Some ally with the wealth redistribution tribe for reasons that are more than social. Subconscious social scheming can be quite calculated. Not dumb tribal instincts.
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The famous example of political allegiance changes coinciding with income changes.
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I would explain socialist tendencies in rich elites as a subconscious conspiracy to become a class of administrators and bureaucrats; more equal than others.
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What we get with political affiliation is multiple divergent self interests, from the puppet masters all the way down to the dupes, subconsciously integrating into collusion. Looks like conspiracy, but more like social insects; the brain emerges.
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Saying that there is no brain there misses the big picture. There is a brain there. It's emergent, and it is a conspiracy.
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This seems like an incisive analysis! My take seems to be darker than
@vgr’s (and I mistook him as sharing it). Like you, I think “the culture war” is primarily an emergent dynamic, independent of individual volition—although some individuals do deliberately coordinate it some.1 reply 1 retweet 0 likes -
Replying to @Meaningness @vgr
I suspect we could dig out self interested motives in most rational and irrational political stances. Motives that are not merely social. In that respect it is a type of volition. Subconscious volition.
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Yes, that also. I’ve been digging around to find my standard quote about this but mysteriously it has hidden itself! … found it! https://meaningness.com/counterculture-war …pic.twitter.com/0x9hr7C7xM
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