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Damnit, I had a couple of great turns of phrase I was thinking of for additional points, but then got distracted by something and forgot them. Now unless I remember them, you'll all have to do without them.
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AH YES I recall one of the phrases. Problem aestheticization. Instead of solving a problem, you make it look prettier. Many grifts are based on problem aestheticization. It's literally palliative to sensory trauma. It's like painting a house but billing the cost of the house.
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Problem aestheticization is a great way to construct a grift because it at once presents a cheap thing to sell, and a clear audience that will buy. There are 2 kinds of people concerned by a problem. People concerned about consequences. People concerned about ugliness.
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The thing is, people concerned about the consequences of a problem going unsolved tend to investigate and think through boring, wonky, solution options. You do NOT want these people if you're a grifter. You want those emotionally traumatized by the *symptoms* of the problem.
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If you're a woke grifter working in the racism market, you do NOT want to focus on say incarceration rates because that problem is literally locked away out of sight. There is no opportunity to aestheticize the problem. You want to focus on say casting decisions in hollywood.
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Aestheticization of a problem immediately soothes the emotional trauma of those who can't deal with ugliness. But will they buy the bullshit non-solution? Yep. They are also the most likely to be values-based idealists who will stan causes with beautiful performative actions.
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Aestheticization, performance, theater, emotional trauma, values, signaling. These are all aspects of the UX design of life. The producers of grift are ideological UX designers. The consumers of grift are people acutely sensitive to the sensory presentation of problems.
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Ultimately what you're selling as a grifter is a self-image as an integrated, good person who has agency and exercises it wisely and morally. The buyers are precisely people who both lack that self-image and not inclined to poke beneath surface appearances.
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Note: this is not exclusively restricted to sensory beauty. Certain kinds of abstract beauty work too. You can aestheticize a problem with beautiful spherical cow economics, and paper over the problem with lovely infographics and chartporn. That's aestheticizing a problem too.
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