Postdiction: Modern “cancel culture” was mostly a consequence of new communication systems (social media, etc.) rather than a consequence of “naturally” shifting attitudes or politics.
The European wars of religion during the 16th to early 18th century were plausibly caused or at least strongly fanned by the invention of the printing press.
That would also explain why the culture was so heavily concentrated in tumblr (where the way to express anger and disagreement with a post is to share the post to all your followers with your comment tacked on to the end) and later twitter (same, but now the platform also notices you engage with stuff that makes you angrily reply and shows you more of it).
I think the new communication systems could be a catalyst, but that stopping at this conclusion obscures the actual cause of cancel culture. I think the answer is something like what Kaczynski said about oversocialization, and that social media somehow worsens the social dynamics responsible. I think it’s an interesting question how exactly these dynamics work socially and psychologically, so for me, “it’s the new communication systems” is not a conclusion but a possible first step in finding the answer
Postdiction: Modern “cancel culture” was mostly a consequence of new communication systems (social media, etc.) rather than a consequence of “naturally” shifting attitudes or politics.
The European wars of religion during the 16th to early 18th century were plausibly caused or at least strongly fanned by the invention of the printing press.
What is the next step in this direction? Neuralink? I wonder what horrors it will bring.
source?
my brain (2007, Alexander et al.)
et al (!)
can you tell I exclusively publish in the Journal of My Brain 🧠
I don’t mean to be obtuse, but how could we tell whether this is true or not?
That would also explain why the culture was so heavily concentrated in tumblr (where the way to express anger and disagreement with a post is to share the post to all your followers with your comment tacked on to the end) and later twitter (same, but now the platform also notices you engage with stuff that makes you angrily reply and shows you more of it).
I think the new communication systems could be a catalyst, but that stopping at this conclusion obscures the actual cause of cancel culture. I think the answer is something like what Kaczynski said about oversocialization, and that social media somehow worsens the social dynamics responsible. I think it’s an interesting question how exactly these dynamics work socially and psychologically, so for me, “it’s the new communication systems” is not a conclusion but a possible first step in finding the answer