I am the optimist with which you did not converse, and I believe my optimism is quietly, even secretly, shared by many.
Yes, things may get worse, but not catastrophically. And we will (in the West, anyway) continue our 2-steps-forward-1-step-back progress.
Still, I will not support my optimism with argument (here anyway), and in any case, I acknowledge I could be completely wrong, but I do feel the need to express this opinion to you now, and really, I wonder why that is.
Perhaps, as I enjoy your writing, I feel the urge to cheer you up! I judge you deserve a better future than all those pessimists are forever worried about.
I did not know Ted K. was a cult hero to some millennials. Interesting. Also made me think, on MLK day, of his statement linking violence at home with the violence the US empire fosters abroad.
"I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world - my own government." MLK
Nice write-up. The mild analogy of what that psych study did to Kaczynski, and what online combative discourse could do to an equally unstable person, is on-point for me. I’d like to add, that the same stressors could drive the occasional person to greatness. There’s those stories as well. Sometimes pressure shatters things, sometimes it makes diamonds. Doesn’t make the combative form/format necessarily healthy, but interesting nonetheless.
Yeah, Ted K or Luigi the CEO slayer are the "bad ending" despite the edgy posting. I remember watching a documentary about a guy who had a very similar background to Kaczenski but instead he moved to the wild and started a nature preserve. We always have a choice.
This article was written eons ago, but it’s the one that made me subscribe. I think it's especially interesting how different types of violence are idolized by different sectors of society.
People in my classes who enjoy True Crime tend to be women. This was the case in both high school and college. There’s almost something parasocial about it, too—”I could’ve fixed Ted Bundy!”—but not always. Recently, I was conversing with someone really into true crime, and tried to continue the conversation by mentioning that I thought Ted Kaczynski was spot on in some parts of his analysis of modern society, but she wasn’t familiar with the guy. Later, it turned out that few of the girls in my class knew of Kaczynski.
Joker and Drive are also both examples of movies that had a predominantly male audience (and Ryan Gosling starred in The Notebook, so it can’t be chalked up to “killer + dreamy = liked”). Maybe an article titled the "Duality of Ted" would uncover the mystery? Haha..
This is a good article. It made me reflect on how, despite the stark contrast in the quality of Luigi’s and Ted’s manifestos — with Ted’s being thoughtful and principled, and Luigi’s being brief and lacking substance — both men ultimately met the same tragic and unnecessary fate. In the end, they threw their lives away by targeting people who had no real connection to the source of their grievances.
I'm not quite sure it is "melodramatic" to make the connection between MKULTRA, and social media engineering our attention. I'd be willingly bet some of these Silicon Valley start ups that created the first social medias were funded by a branch of the government or that that money was laundered through a business by the feds, as the CIA is known to have done during MKULTRA. Black Rock would be the perfect company because they are just a big "asset manager". The fact you think that is some exaggeration of the truth is naive. I think it is highly likely.
I think one issue with online discourse is that most people are terrible at expressing themselves literately. The write like they speak and then rarely edit or consider the message they're sending. they write with the expectation that sarcasm is obvious; they can't moderate tone yet expect it to be inferred. And to further the problem, these behaviors are rewarded by algorithms that expressly promote hot-takes.
Obviously this isn't the only issue, just one of many, and as bad as people may be at writing, they're just as bad at reading.
I was alive during the Unibomber days and remember his arrest. I remember the manifesto being printed in the NYT. I've read it. I thought it was pretty low quality, but I can understand why it seems fresh to young eyes. I'd have to dig it up and go through it again to find the points I disagree on, but my memory is that his analysis is correct but his conclusions are primitive and narrowly focused on his grievances.
Look carefully all the time everywhere for sociopaths lurking...because it's definitely not the government with billions of dollars that go towards weapons. But watch out! Those bogeymen are coming for us sometime soon!
Thank you, PJ'sR.
I am the optimist with which you did not converse, and I believe my optimism is quietly, even secretly, shared by many.
Yes, things may get worse, but not catastrophically. And we will (in the West, anyway) continue our 2-steps-forward-1-step-back progress.
Still, I will not support my optimism with argument (here anyway), and in any case, I acknowledge I could be completely wrong, but I do feel the need to express this opinion to you now, and really, I wonder why that is.
Perhaps, as I enjoy your writing, I feel the urge to cheer you up! I judge you deserve a better future than all those pessimists are forever worried about.
Thanks! I always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. But maybe a little more optimism would serve me well
I’d like to think that we’d all get our own personal radicalized domestic terrorist but I haven’t read a manifesto that I agree with (yet)
I did not know Ted K. was a cult hero to some millennials. Interesting. Also made me think, on MLK day, of his statement linking violence at home with the violence the US empire fosters abroad.
"I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world - my own government." MLK
Good article. Keep 'em coming!
You would be surprised. Very good quote from MLK- especially these days!
Good article, but I need to add a correction.
Ted Kaczynski’s idiomatic gaffe was to write “EAT your cake and HAVE it, too.”
Although this seems reversed to many, it is actually the way the phrase was originally intended.
Nice write-up. The mild analogy of what that psych study did to Kaczynski, and what online combative discourse could do to an equally unstable person, is on-point for me. I’d like to add, that the same stressors could drive the occasional person to greatness. There’s those stories as well. Sometimes pressure shatters things, sometimes it makes diamonds. Doesn’t make the combative form/format necessarily healthy, but interesting nonetheless.
Yeah, Ted K or Luigi the CEO slayer are the "bad ending" despite the edgy posting. I remember watching a documentary about a guy who had a very similar background to Kaczenski but instead he moved to the wild and started a nature preserve. We always have a choice.
Sometimes just slaves to our own wiring
This article was written eons ago, but it’s the one that made me subscribe. I think it's especially interesting how different types of violence are idolized by different sectors of society.
People in my classes who enjoy True Crime tend to be women. This was the case in both high school and college. There’s almost something parasocial about it, too—”I could’ve fixed Ted Bundy!”—but not always. Recently, I was conversing with someone really into true crime, and tried to continue the conversation by mentioning that I thought Ted Kaczynski was spot on in some parts of his analysis of modern society, but she wasn’t familiar with the guy. Later, it turned out that few of the girls in my class knew of Kaczynski.
Joker and Drive are also both examples of movies that had a predominantly male audience (and Ryan Gosling starred in The Notebook, so it can’t be chalked up to “killer + dreamy = liked”). Maybe an article titled the "Duality of Ted" would uncover the mystery? Haha..
This was so on time.
This is a good article. It made me reflect on how, despite the stark contrast in the quality of Luigi’s and Ted’s manifestos — with Ted’s being thoughtful and principled, and Luigi’s being brief and lacking substance — both men ultimately met the same tragic and unnecessary fate. In the end, they threw their lives away by targeting people who had no real connection to the source of their grievances.
I'm not quite sure it is "melodramatic" to make the connection between MKULTRA, and social media engineering our attention. I'd be willingly bet some of these Silicon Valley start ups that created the first social medias were funded by a branch of the government or that that money was laundered through a business by the feds, as the CIA is known to have done during MKULTRA. Black Rock would be the perfect company because they are just a big "asset manager". The fact you think that is some exaggeration of the truth is naive. I think it is highly likely.
Coming back to this bc you know I always say that you are good at gazing beyond the curve and this right here proves it. Respect.
This was a great read, thank you for sharing
I think one issue with online discourse is that most people are terrible at expressing themselves literately. The write like they speak and then rarely edit or consider the message they're sending. they write with the expectation that sarcasm is obvious; they can't moderate tone yet expect it to be inferred. And to further the problem, these behaviors are rewarded by algorithms that expressly promote hot-takes.
Obviously this isn't the only issue, just one of many, and as bad as people may be at writing, they're just as bad at reading.
I was alive during the Unibomber days and remember his arrest. I remember the manifesto being printed in the NYT. I've read it. I thought it was pretty low quality, but I can understand why it seems fresh to young eyes. I'd have to dig it up and go through it again to find the points I disagree on, but my memory is that his analysis is correct but his conclusions are primitive and narrowly focused on his grievances.
Look carefully all the time everywhere for sociopaths lurking...because it's definitely not the government with billions of dollars that go towards weapons. But watch out! Those bogeymen are coming for us sometime soon!