[subego]

The Toxoplasma Of Rage | Slate Star Codex

It manages to coherently tie PETA, Ferguson, Eric Garner, terrorism, the recent rape article in Rolling Stone, tumblr, and epidemiology.

[subego]

This guy just ripped open a little window into the Matrix.

I'm not kidding.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Makes sense to me, "They may be right in some ways, but they're d-bags so f*** them!" That's an extreme oversimplification, of course, but paring that down to an easily digestible snippet would be essentially impossible.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Good read (well, skim if I'm being honest). Executive summary (and please correct me if I overskimmed), the nature of human interest favors and reinforces acrimony, like a parasite, and social media is both a victim and an amplifier of this phenomenon.

My first reaction is that I think I'm a victim of a parallel memetic parasite, the one in which people who (by choice or by accident) are devoid of social media suddenly feel superior, and this feeling of superiority causes us to redouble our rejection of the blogosphere (is that even the right word?). I wonder how many are on my side of the divide...

[smacintush]

The common cause I see in every one of these examples is nihilism. Then again...hammer/nail...

Also, people use Tumblr for things OTHER THAN PORN?!

[subego]

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton 

Good read (well, skim if I'm being honest). Executive summary (and please correct me if I overskimmed), the nature of human interest favors and reinforces acrimony, like a parasite, and social media is both a victim and an amplifier of this phenomenon.

My first reaction is that I think I'm a victim of a parallel memetic parasite, the one in which people who (by choice or by accident) are devoid of social media suddenly feel superior, and this feeling of superiority causes us to redouble our rejection of the blogosphere (is that even the right word?). I wonder how many are on my side of the divide...

You more or less got it.

What I hadn't put together is the part about signaling political identity. The more incredible one's claim, the more they indicate devotion to their principles. The more likely one is maintaining their position in the face of being wrong, the more credibility they demonstrate with regards to their willingness to fight for the cause.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

Makes sense to me, "They may be right in some ways, but they're d-bags so f*** them!" That's an extreme oversimplification, of course, but paring that down to an easily digestible snippet would be essentially impossible.

If you've been on Reddit lately, there's a lot of... you can call it racism, but I don't think it's that simple. There's an "I'm tired of this shit" tone to it which full-on racists at most only pretend to have.

What's happening on Reddit feels suspiciously similar to what he's proposing.

[subego]

Originally Posted by smacintush 

The common cause I see in every one of these examples is nihilism. Then again...hammer/nail...

I'm not sure I get it.

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by subego 

I'm not sure I get it.

It's like to old saying: When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. I tend to think of every issue from a philosophical point of view.

[subego]

I mean, I'm not sure I see the nihilism.

[subego]

I'm still trying to reduce the most important points of this article into as few words as possible.

It's obviously tossing a lot of nuance out the window, but I think I can condense the point about signaling I discussed above to:

Being aggressively wrong shows off your commitment.


This explains so much behavior which until now I've found completely and utterly incomprehensible.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Being aggressively wrong shows off your commitment.


This explains so much behavior which until now I've found completely and utterly incomprehensible.

"It takes balls to execute an innocent man."

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by subego 

I'm still trying to reduce the most important points of this article into as few words as possible.

It's obviously tossing a lot of nuance out the window, but I think I can condense the point about signaling I discussed above to:

Being aggressively wrong shows off your commitment.


This explains so much behavior which until now I've found completely and utterly incomprehensible.

Maybe it's trolling begets trolling

PETA trolls people (chooses tactics that will get a reaction, not ones that are the most accurate or conscientious), while that other group mentioned (I forgot them already) gets forgotten. Race activists troll people (choose cases that will spark a reaction, not ones that are unambiguous), while other cases get forgotten. Tumblr trolls people (causes inflammatory content to be copied to people who are susceptible to become inflamed by it). Terrorism trolls people (designed to get a reaction of "terror") who then troll right back ("shock and awe") turning more non-trolls into trolls. Technology improves communication, and since trolling is mediated by communication it gets improved along with it. Not much way to avoid that.

[Waragainstsleep]

Can we call it 'The Troll Cascade". That sounds cool. Any kind of cascade sounds cool.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Can we call it 'The Troll Cascade". That sounds cool. Any kind of cascade sounds cool.

Cascade dishwasher detergent.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Cascade dishwasher detergent.

I don't think we have that in the UK. Still sounds cooler than Finish.

[Uncle Skeleton]

cascading style sheets?