How Capitalists Use the Language of Cults

In her book, Montell offers evidence that these linguistic tactics have seeped out from cults and into wider society. Propelled by capitalist demands and the reach of social media, the language of cults, she says, is now everywhere. If you question the business model of a multi-level marketing scheme, well, that's just "stinkin' thinkin'," a thought-terminating cliche popular with MLMs like Amway. Similarly, when the predictions of QAnon and other conspiracy theorists don't come to pass, foll...

 Thought Terminating Cliche

Another trick in the cult leader's language toolkit is the thought-terminating cliche. These are sayings that end uncomfortable conversations or trains of thoughts. "It is what it is." "Everything happens for a reason." "Let's agree to disagree." They shut down argument and critical thinking, which is why they're so handy to authoritarians who don't like to be questioned. Charles Manson countered any rational objections to his ravings by saying, "No sense makes sense." Try arguing with that. ...

 Chengyu: Four-Character Chinese Expressions

心神不宁 (xīn shén bù níng): “to feel bad about nothing” 损人利己 (sǔn rén lì jǐ): “to seek benefit at the expense of others” 幸灾乐祸 (xìng zāi lè huò): “to enjoy others’ misfortunes” 力不从心 (Lì bù cóng xīn): “the qualities aren’t at the level of the aspirations” 亦步亦趋 (yì bù yì qū): “to blindly imitate someone” 桃李满天下 (táolǐ mǎn tiān xià): “to have pupils everywhere” 省吃俭用 (shěng chī jiǎn yòng)...

 Evaluating ChatGPT as a Bullshit Machine

The structure of the paper is as follows: in the first section, we outline how ChatGPT and similar LLMs operate. Next, we consider the view that when they make factual errors, they are lying or hallucinating: that is, deliberately uttering falsehoods, or blamelessly uttering them on the basis of misleading input information. We argue that neither of these ways of thinking are accurate, insofar as both lying and hallucinating require some concern with the truth of their statements, whereas LLM...

 ChatGPT is a bullshit machine

The idea of ChatGPT as a bullshit machine is a helpful one when combined with the distinction between hard and soft bullshit. Reaching again for the example of the dodgy student paper: we’ve all, I take it, marked papers where it was obvious that a dictionary or thesaurus had been deployed with a crushing lack of subtlety; where fifty-dollar words are used not because they’re the best choice, nor even because they serve to obfuscate the truth, but simply because the author wants to convey...

 Cultural Preservation is an Ongoing Effort

“Historical oblivion is the default, not the exception” to the human record, writes game designer Jordan Mechner in his contribution to this report.13 Be it natural elements like fire or water, negligent or intentional people, or simple forgetfulness, practically all human expression will disappear or change without human intervention. Only through acts of repair and digitization will materials such as a grandmother’s cookbook, a groundbreaking game ahead of its time, or endangered lang...

 Corporations Controlling Culture

Corporate interests, alongside changes in media distribution, are eroding the public’s ability to construct and access its own cultural record. As more digital content is being provided to individuals, libraries, and archives solely through streaming and temporary licensing deals, rather than through permanent ownership, cultural objects such as sound recordings, books, television shows, and films are at constant risk of being removed from platforms without ever being archived. This means t...

 Star Trek as an Addictive Drug

Why Some Cyberpunks Love Star Trek Even Though It Sucks, When Cyberpuks Always Diss What is Lame and Useless The secret is that Star Trek, in all its generations and spinoffs, was designed to be habit-forming. Star Trek is the first virtual designer drug. Like the cousins of opium, a Star Trek episode induces a pleasurable buzz for a programmed length of time. Like the opiates, it does so by raising your gullibility levels and jamming your critical factulties, thus lowering your pleasure thr...

 Communities That Can't Grow Through Biological Reproduction

There's a membership problem. Haqr society is like the Shakers--the community can't grow by the usual primate strategy--biological reproduction is right out--so its continuation depends on the faithful going out and bringing in new recruits from the general population. Yes, we're saying it out loud: Haqrs recruit. Haqrs are intrinsically subversive to the young. Haqrs are conscious role models for haqr glory. If that weren't enough, haqrs actively seek to conver the imaginative and the credul...

 How Steroids Produce Rage in Users

I pride myself on never losing my cool I've never screamed at anyone I've never gotten physical with anyone but the ideas in my head that tell me to do things tell me to do unspeakable things like what they're unspeakable I'd have to speak them you really want to know Mum I'm also [ __ ] weird so just remember that no we bit most people uhprobably don't have this severity but I'll read a comment on social media directed at me I guess about me um and it's from like you know nameless faceless ...