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I like to call these "thought prions" - infectious thoughts that near-permanently alter the way you perceive the world. I've seen several extended family member

by umvi 5y ago

I like to call these "thought prions" - infectious thoughts that near-permanently alter the way you perceive the world. I've seen several extended family members (on both sides of the political spectrum!) completely alter their worldviews based on political thought prions planted in their minds during covid.

Angostura 5y ago
The word "meme" as originally defined by Richard Dawkins (in The Selfish Gene) fits the role well - a self replicating belief or set of belief. He gave religion as the prime examople of an infectious meme - 'you must believe these set of things - you must also transmit the beliefs to others, or they risk eternal damnation'.
anonporridge 5y ago
Red pills might be another term.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
throwaway81523 5y ago
The novel "Snowcrash" is about something like that. It is great.
- fineIllregister 5y ago
  My recollection is that the process in Snowcrash is different in a significant way. The language that hacks people's brains is a protolanguage which the people hearing and speaking it don't understand. That limits who can wield it for their own ends. It works on a subconscious level. Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them.
  - ben_w 5y ago
    > Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them. Some memes work like that — pictures with text in particular — but “common sense” is also a set of memes, memes which are, in my experience, mostly approximations with failure modes that (in any given instance) most people are ignorant of, and where those with knowledge can exploit that ignorance. “Everything that goes up must come down“ except spacecraft. “You can’t be in two places at the same time” except where your body is straddling the border between the two places, or one place is nested inside the other, or places like the Hala'ib triangle where two countries both claim sovereignty. And stage magic, street magic, and scams like the shell game or Victorian seances, where “common sense” denies the audience in the first two cases and the victims in the last two any significant awareness of the effort put into the illusion. Or the homeopathy, Bach flower “remedies”, “healing” crystals, etc. that my mum believed in. And then you have cognitive stop signs and applause lights: politicians saying “for national security”, “think of the children”, “brexit means brexit”, or even just “9/11”.
    - HPsquared 5y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3...
HPsquared 5y ago
I think "mind virus" is the most commonly used term. That or "meme".

by umvi 5y ago

Angostura 5y ago

The word "meme" as originally defined by Richard Dawkins (in The Selfish Gene) fits the role well - a self replicating belief or set of belief. He gave religion as the prime examople of an infectious meme - 'you must believe these set of things - you must also transmit the beliefs to others, or they risk eternal damnation'.

anonporridge 5y ago

Red pills might be another term.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

throwaway81523 5y ago

The novel "Snowcrash" is about something like that. It is great.

fineIllregister 5y ago
My recollection is that the process in Snowcrash is different in a significant way. The language that hacks people's brains is a protolanguage which the people hearing and speaking it don't understand. That limits who can wield it for their own ends. It works on a subconscious level. Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them.
- ben_w 5y ago
  > Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them. Some memes work like that — pictures with text in particular — but “common sense” is also a set of memes, memes which are, in my experience, mostly approximations with failure modes that (in any given instance) most people are ignorant of, and where those with knowledge can exploit that ignorance. “Everything that goes up must come down“ except spacecraft. “You can’t be in two places at the same time” except where your body is straddling the border between the two places, or one place is nested inside the other, or places like the Hala'ib triangle where two countries both claim sovereignty. And stage magic, street magic, and scams like the shell game or Victorian seances, where “common sense” denies the audience in the first two cases and the victims in the last two any significant awareness of the effort put into the illusion. Or the homeopathy, Bach flower “remedies”, “healing” crystals, etc. that my mum believed in. And then you have cognitive stop signs and applause lights: politicians saying “for national security”, “think of the children”, “brexit means brexit”, or even just “9/11”.
  - HPsquared 5y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3...

HPsquared 5y ago

I think "mind virus" is the most commonly used term. That or "meme".