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> prop up the status quo. > play to the confirmation bias of their audience I wonder how much overlap their is between the two. It seems to me that lately, i

> prop up the status quo. > play to the confirmation bias of their audience I wonder how much overlap their is between the two. It seems to me that lately, if anything, the media pushes the narrative that the status quo is hopelessly corrupt in order to confirm to their audiences conformation bias. People on all sides of the political spectrum are eating up stories about who's to blame, whether it's the government or the billionaires or probably, more typically, both with the assumption that whatever both are doing is at the expense of the common man. I'm not trying to imply that those stories are accurate or inaccurate, just that they are the stories you see rising to the top of reddit or FB or other social platforms as proof of what the poster believes.

beaconstudios 6y ago
It gets interesting when the status quo becomes "everything is corrupt, including the status quo". See also: selling of expensive anticapitalist clothing, revolution as a brand, etc. Self referentiality and the emptying of meaning from symbols is an important symptom of postmodernism. > People on all sides of the political spectrum are eating up stories about who's to blame, whether it's the government or the billionaires or probably, more typically, both with the assumption that whatever both are doing is at the expense of the common man. I'm hoping that the dam breaks and systems theory and postmodernism drive a new cultural revolution, but I'm not holding my breath. The truth is usually that bad things happen because of unintended consequences of systems behaviour, not because of conspiracy, but to look for an agency behind these things is what people tend to do.
- nineplay 6y ago
  I sometimes go through the thought exercise of making myself responsible of decisions with wide-ranging consequences. I'm sitting here architecting a little project here and I had plenty of bad ideas and assumptions. In my space, that's fine, it's part of the design process. If I was head of the CDC and trying to figure out how to handle this unprecedented global pandemic I'd also make plenty of mistakes and missteps. In this case, however, mistakes and missteps mean criticism from all sides and probably people dying. It's a horrible responsibility and it's sure that rather than people are going to call it encroaching socialism or government incompetence or corruption.
  - beaconstudios 6y ago
    yes being a decisionmaker in charger of a large organisation must be hard because you are given responsibility for its failings, and you aren't directly in control - you are in that you can make rules and whatnot, but rules are really just guidelines and fall apart when they make contact with reality. But we all know this is true, but we still act the same way and then get mad when the leader fails to perform magic. It's 21st century scapegoating. Sadly we do actually have tools for fixing big problems but we seem to prefer scapegoating to actually doing anything.

beaconstudios 6y ago

It gets interesting when the status quo becomes "everything is corrupt, including the status quo". See also: selling of expensive anticapitalist clothing, revolution as a brand, etc. Self referentiality and the emptying of meaning from symbols is an important symptom of postmodernism. > People on all sides of the political spectrum are eating up stories about who's to blame, whether it's the government or the billionaires or probably, more typically, both with the assumption that whatever both are doing is at the expense of the common man. I'm hoping that the dam breaks and systems theory and postmodernism drive a new cultural revolution, but I'm not holding my breath. The truth is usually that bad things happen because of unintended consequences of systems behaviour, not because of conspiracy, but to look for an agency behind these things is what people tend to do.

nineplay 6y ago
I sometimes go through the thought exercise of making myself responsible of decisions with wide-ranging consequences. I'm sitting here architecting a little project here and I had plenty of bad ideas and assumptions. In my space, that's fine, it's part of the design process. If I was head of the CDC and trying to figure out how to handle this unprecedented global pandemic I'd also make plenty of mistakes and missteps. In this case, however, mistakes and missteps mean criticism from all sides and probably people dying. It's a horrible responsibility and it's sure that rather than people are going to call it encroaching socialism or government incompetence or corruption.
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  yes being a decisionmaker in charger of a large organisation must be hard because you are given responsibility for its failings, and you aren't directly in control - you are in that you can make rules and whatnot, but rules are really just guidelines and fall apart when they make contact with reality. But we all know this is true, but we still act the same way and then get mad when the leader fails to perform magic. It's 21st century scapegoating. Sadly we do actually have tools for fixing big problems but we seem to prefer scapegoating to actually doing anything.