Lefty Enervation Packet
There is an old suite of ideas from a different time:
What appears to be coordinated is actually emergent.
What appears to be malice is actually incompetence.
What appears to be a pattern is generally random.
What appears to be doable outside of markets isnât worth attempting because it canât be coordinated and/or it is against human nature and/or has too many unintended consequences. ââ
When enough people were educated to believe that suite as a sign of membership in the sophisticated elite, it then became possible to weaponize those ideas because they all shared a hidden feature: enervation.
People too sophisticated to believe in conspiracies, blame, patterns or the possibility of change will not only tend to do nothing, but they will tend to ensure that nothing can be coordinated around them except by narrow self interest. Which means markets/commerce/business is the only thing left.
In this clip, âIs Google trying to influence the 2024 election.â Chris is struggling to point out that it doesnât require a conspiracy. Of course that is true.
But it is much more helpful to notice that if you have a portfolio of explanations and with allocations to emergence vs coordination, it would be insane to have a zero allocation to conspiracy.
Moral: Learn how to be a responsible conspiracy theorist. There are no lizard people. But there are sure a lot of back channels and algorithms you know nothing about.
NOTE: Zuckerbergâs letter pointing to such a coordination in an earlier election appeared after this was taped. SoâŠ
August 27, 2024
âNever attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.â -Hanlonâs Razor
âNever stupidly apply Hanlonâs razor to a series with large N where perhaps an N of at most 3 could plausibly be explained without malice, giggling & winking.â -Weinsteinâs Correction
Nov 17, 2019