Ancestors

Written by Marko Vujnovic on 2025-01-18 at 04:16

A term I just learned about that really describes everything right now: hypernormalisation. The elaborate pretense that clearly and obviously failing systems are not failing and everything is ok. Originally coined to describe life just before the Soviet Union collapsed, but also applies to late stage capitalism.

Crucially, it does not imply a conspiracy. It is engaged in by the majority of society, because the alternative is unbearable and unimaginable.

[#]uspol #canpol

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Written by John on 2025-01-18 at 05:45

@dawngreeter

Why are so many people so sure conspiracies don't exist, when we have proof that in the recent past they did exist and that they dramatically altered the US political landscape to benefit specific interests?

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Written by rootfake on 2025-01-18 at 12:18

@johnzajac @dawngreeter So, it's not that conspiracies never exist, obviously they do, it's that, at the scale that most conspiracy theories require, they're next to impossible to hide. It's the "two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead" thing, the vaster the conspiracy, the more leaky it gets. Take Snowden, for example. Most people working in tech knew that the NSA was snarfing a bunch of data, maybe not specifics, but it was more "oh, so that's what they were doing".

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Written by rootfake on 2025-01-18 at 12:35

@johnzajac @dawngreeter

The trick tends to be looking for the leaps in logic. A group of politicians banning a popular app all owning stock in it's primary competitor? Mundane claim, no real leap to say "they're probably not doing this for "national security"". However, a vast network of people, all with conflicting interests, working together to accomplish a goal with dubious benefit to any of them? It requires a lot more "okay but why?" and "is there any evidence of that?".

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Written by rootfake on 2025-01-18 at 13:06

@johnzajac @dawngreeter It's quite important to note how often conspiracy theories are people trying to rationalize systemic problems. Often, the theorist identifies a real problem, caused by incentive structures within society, but cant reconcile that with their worldview. Instead, they decide that it must be intentionally caused by "them". In so many cases, the real issue is "this makes more money and is allowed" or something similar (like 75% are just capitalism).

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Written by rootfake on 2025-01-18 at 13:14

@johnzajac @dawngreeter all this to say, most of the political influence ops in recent years have been open and blatant about what they're doing, it doesn't stop them from working, but they aren't really a secret. (they may also meet some definitions of conspiracy, but I assumed secret here) sorry for the infodump, I find conspiracy theories and why people believe them fascinating.

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Written by John on 2025-01-18 at 14:47

@rootfake @dawngreeter

The "leap of logic" rubric is interesting. Hadn't heard that. Thanks for the information!

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Toot

Written by David J. Atkinson on 2025-01-19 at 08:39

@johnzajac @rootfake @dawngreeter “Leap of Logic” gives new legs to LOL

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Descendants