The Distributed Idea Suppression Complex (The DISC)

What is the DISC?

The distributed idea suppression complex (The DISC for short) is a concept invented by Eric Weinstein that is heavily discussed in episode 18 of The Portal.

00:18:14

The most important ideas are likely to be the ideas that are most disruptive. What if the entire food pyramid, for example, was wildly off? What if fats were not the great danger we thought they were, and those waving fields of wheat that are fabled an American song, in fact, give rise to carbs, which are very dangerous to us all? So if everything were inverted, let's say, we're in a world where instead of banishing volatility during the so-called great moderation before 2008, we were actually building the tinder for the world's largest financial forest fire. What if in fact we had all sorts of things exactly backwards and completely wrong? What if diversity wasn't always a sign of our strength, but sometimes a sign of our weakness? What if, for example, immigration, far from being an issue of xenophobes versus xenophiles, was actually an instrument of redistribution having very little to do with xenophobia or xenophilia to begin with?

00:19:14

These sorts of ideas can't be entertained inside of the Gated Institutional Narrative. And that's where the gating function comes in. What was originally a function intended to ensure quality control of the narrative became an instrument for something else. And this is where I want to introduce the most important concept that I think we will be dealing with on a going-forward basis in 2020 on this program, the DISC. What is the DISC? The DISC stands for the Distributed Idea Suppression Complex.

00:19:49

Now, taking it apart, the center of it is idea suppression. Not all ideas are good. And so, idea suppression is very frequently understood as an important concept when we're talking about something like bigotry, where we're talking about something like violent ideology. Of course, you want to suppress certain ideas. But these are not the ideas that are principally important inside of the disk. The disk is actually a complex. It is a large collection of different structures, and it's not controlled in any one place. Many of these have emerged separately. But what makes an aspect of the DISC—what shows you a particular component, is that it protects institutions from individuals who are making valid and reasonable points. So, if you imagine that the institutions have become incredibly fragile because they're in fact built for growth, and that plan for their growth obligates them to tell untruths, and to hide certain characteristics, because they are not, in fact, able to grow at the rates in which they are supposed to—you need some complex for making sure that that information doesn't reach the bottom entrance to a pyramid structure.

This is the DISC:
Don’t ask your questions.
Don’t admit you don’t understand.
Don’t question experts.
Don’t listen to heterodoxy.
Don’t associate with iconoclasts.
Don’t befriend the other party.
Don’t criticize your own fringe.
Don’t self-promote.
Don’t be gauche.
Die silently.
-Eric Weinstein

Eric's Twitter Threads

This is the DISC

Jamie Dimon/Len Bole. David Baltimore/Margot O’Toole. Biden/Yang. Institutions/Individuals

A hyper specific allegation that the @NSF and GUIRR inside the @theNASEM in 1986 directed an internal economic analysis to figure out how much they would have to pay STEM workers in the future.

Chavez Ravine

@ScottSantens' compilation of #YangMediaBlackout examples

DNC's online “counter disinformation team” overseen by a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer.

Peer Review

Other Examples

Joseph Parrish: Encountering the DISC in the Democratic Party

List of Suppressed Ideas

People in the Discord were saying that it might be a good idea to start compiling this list. Hit edit to add things here.

We should aim for more descriptive lists of proof (using The Yang Media Blackout as a reference, where specific examples are evident)

Yang Media Blackout
- A visual history of the Yang Media Blackout[1]
The Media Ignoring Tulsi Gabbard
- The Establishment Media's Hatred for Tulsi Gabbard[1]
- Tulsi's comments on Rude Reception on The View [2]
Healthcare Economics
- Lord Voldemort's Senate confirmation [3]
Joe Biden’s troubling history with young girls and women