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Religious texts, advertisements, and tall tales have been "egging people on" to do things they otherwise would not for thousands of years. Judas Priest and Inte

Religious texts, advertisements, and tall tales have been "egging people on" to do things they otherwise would not for thousands of years. Judas Priest and Internet message boards are not new in this respect. There is something unique, I think, about these message boards, though. I think most people would agree, the overwhelming majority of humans are reasonably decent—they're not going to murder others, are not overtly racist, etc. And throughout human history, these truly 1-in-a-million horrible people have been isolated, unable to find fellow horribles to befriend and egg each other on. The internet has changed that. No matter how unusual or awful your interests may be, it's trivial to find another group of people who share in these thoughts and interests. I don't know what the solution is, or if there even is one, but this does feel like something truly new.

mindslight 7y ago
This "egging on" has been going on throughout the centuries, and has mainly been getting more centralized. Nowadays most people seem reasonably decent, but when exposed to a repeated message of "social consensus" will still generally support going to war against a foreign country. The novelty is that violence is now being mobilized against subcultures within larger society, rather than comfortably against foreign cultures in far off lands. What we're witnessing is the democratization of media-incited violence, from the general democratizing aspect of social media. Previously, the privilege was reserved for large corporations that paid the traditional media big bucks to support their massive wars. Now individuals can invest sweat equity in a microcult to accomplish the same on a small scale. And the reason we keep hearing so much about it is that the incumbent gatekeepers are not happy about the competition!
- Psyonic 7y ago
  I found this really insightful. The parallels are definitely there.

mindslight 7y ago

This "egging on" has been going on throughout the centuries, and has mainly been getting more centralized. Nowadays most people seem reasonably decent, but when exposed to a repeated message of "social consensus" will still generally support going to war against a foreign country. The novelty is that violence is now being mobilized against subcultures within larger society, rather than comfortably against foreign cultures in far off lands. What we're witnessing is the democratization of media-incited violence, from the general democratizing aspect of social media. Previously, the privilege was reserved for large corporations that paid the traditional media big bucks to support their massive wars. Now individuals can invest sweat equity in a microcult to accomplish the same on a small scale. And the reason we keep hearing so much about it is that the incumbent gatekeepers are not happy about the competition!

Psyonic 7y ago
I found this really insightful. The parallels are definitely there.