So Much Nonsense
I’ve been really struck this month by the similarities of two different culture war battles: the Joe Rogan Spotify controversy, and then the Ottawa Truck protests. Both were complicated and complex situations. Both pushed people to incredible lengths to make coherent binary arguments where no binary argument could suffice. It reminded me of a comic I made six or seven years ago, when my brain was equally taxed and sad:
These new fights, however, featured a thousand different sheets all competing to be the only sheet covering the city. That mental image is impossible - and so were these chaotic “debates”. I could barely catch up to the rhetoric - every report I read forced me to dig deeper to try and find context, an exercise in diminishing returns - eventually leading me to spend time on Twitter, where I normally do not venture. None of the delving was worth much, except reaffirming my dislike for Twitter and incoherent, angry fights.
It might just be me, but both controversies felt terrible, and the swirling ideas around them both seemed to not help in either case. I know that I have the option to simply ignore these stories - they’ll pass, some other shit will take its place, and I’m not obligated to be concerned about either - but I didn’t want to. I wanted to understand. And what I came away with understanding is something I tend to think: the real intractable problems originate with bad-faith actors, ie. liars. Lots and lots of the conversation was honest attempts to determine a position, but drilling down revealed straight up lies.
Neither Joe Rogan nor Justin Trudeau are really interested in truth-seeking; they’re both involved in an economy that benefits from noise and mental pollution. One of them just likes to amuse himself with ideas while he smokes and laughs; the other poses next to ideas while he campaigns for power. Spotify has no morality - it pretends to be about music and ideas, while it is really just a tech-bro extraction technology. The White Supremacist organizers of the Truck Convoy are immoral and completely informed by ancient, evil lies. The angry, disappointed citizens who were used by them to fill out their ranks were fooled - and believed there was no other place to put their feelings. The twitter mobs in both cases argued vehemently over the details of a situation as filled with nonsense as it could be, not aware that they were all overwhelmed by “us vs. them” polar behaviour, and thus willing to gloss over any information they wanted to ignore. And the entire thing was informed by one actual fact - a pandemic-level disease with no opinions at all.
I shouldn’t have gone on Twitter. I don’t think I will again. I have never felt as close to “post-truth” as I do this week. As interests fragment further and further and faith in institutions of all kinds dies, this is what it sounds like: angry, insensible, enraged and blunt - like truck horns and chants and yelling.
The lessons I have taken from this era - and try to enact when I am able - are really clear: stop picking tribal sides, stop fighting over scraps of correctness, and listen and work in good faith to serve the interests of truth and love.
But I feel like that position will, going forward, seem like the blanket being laid over the complex cityscape. Maybe this is what happens when things fall apart. I find it overwhelmingly sad.
Thanks for reading. Peace out.
jep
Anybody who digs into it all like that deserves a medal for bravery. I hope the damage it did to you passes quickly.
You alluded to confirmation bias -- where people ignore everything contrary to their tribe's beliefs -- but it isn't new. Humans have lived with that kind of flawed thinking forever.
In the past it seems religion or a charismatic leader, combined with confirmation bias, led to the biggest troubles. Now we have something else: the algorithm that figures out how to keep you engaged in your social media feed. The algorithm literally amplifies your confirmation bias.
It's an extraction technology alright! Social media is designed to keep eyeballs where the ads are, and to hell with all the collateral damage.
Armed with the algorithm, a few sociopaths have perpetrated most of the hateful content, and made significant money doing it. So we have a DIY extraction technology, complete with slaves. On the horizon, more of the same, but in 3D and with even less distinction between reality and poisonous lies.
That's my party piece. Cheerful, I know. Please tell me I am wrong.