A meta analysis of agora's meta analysis

[explorAR]

I love agora road for its willingness to think of society through different lenses and consider the context of almost any behavior or tendency and try to relate it to something else or come up with some sort of meaningful explanation (whether it be based in truth or something personally validating). I particularly like the lean that most threads on here take, and also that there isn't a completely homogenized opinion that is prevalent throughout the entire website. It is genuinely refreshing.

That being said I will say that there is a general line of thinking that is prevalent on here and elsewhere on the current form of the internet. I was particularly inspired to make this post because of the thread on here titled The internet is made of demons. The type of thinking exemplified here is pretty cool, it is relating modern phenomenon to ancient and esoteric practices/knowledge. It is a cool way to observe the world and I think a lot of new and interesting perspective can be gained from looking at modern happenings through this type of scrutiny.

Getting to the broader point of my post. This type of thought, this type of angle, I have seen becoming more and more prevalent on the internet, esoteric knowledge/schizo-posting. It's type of prevalence and grounding in immediacy reminds me of how the internet thought of being purely logical and scientific back in 2006-2012ish. I remember back then that people would critique human behaviors in a semi-comical way and say that they weren't logical. This is definitely the origins of what we find annoying about modern day redditors (and also associate this type of content with shows like the big bang theory and millenial stereotypes). Personally I fell right in step with this type of thinking because I was raised Christian and part of me getting out of that mentality and beginning to question the world around me was me having an atheist phase heavily predicated on youtube content.

Thinking about this further made me kind of realize what I find magical and special about the internet, it is a place for outcasts and new ideas. Both of these systems of thought (whether you think they are cringe or not) are coming from a place of not belonging to the status quo. They both are seeking to explain why there is a mismatch between the author of the observation and the larger society around them. They follow almost opposite approaches to come to some form of explanation for an answer, but both have similar sentiments.

After realizing these are coming from similar places I began to ponder why things progressed in this manner. Why did we go from "scientifically" based rational attempts to explain everything in rational thought to exploring the deeper connections of human happenings to the universe, the subconscious, and the mystic traditions around the world?
This is the question I would like to here other perspectives on.

Now my rant about my personal take on all of this...

This wheel is every completed movement of thought or life, twenty-eight incarnations, a single incarnation, a single judgment or act of thought. Man seeks his opposite or the opposite of his condition, attains his object so far as it is attainable, at Phase 15 and returns to Phase 1 again. - W.B. Yeats

I think that pure rational thought and pure subjective ethereal exploration both have merit and have both given us a greater understanding of the world around us. Neither one will ever give us the complete picture of reality on their own. Also as humans we have a strong desire to change, modify, and tweak the world and ourselves. Because of this we don't often like to let things be (obviously this changes over the course of our lives and depends on a lot of different factors interpersonally and geopolitically) so we end up yearning for whatever we aren't at that time, for better or for worse. I think this phenomenon is nothing new and is also well researched and documented (hence the inclusion of W.B. Yeats's work), but it is interesting to see it happening before our eyes over such a short span of time and over a completely unconnected group of people.

Last thing I want to remark upon is that I love that the internet was founded and saturated with outcasts and those who think differently. I was scared for a while that this unique spark had been completely snuffed out and that the internet was irreversibly turned into a microcosm of the real world, but places like agora make me hopeful that we can still have the older internet as it was. I know it is easy to fall into the trap of complaining about the normies and brain dead consumers, but I find that for anything there is always only going to be at most 20% gems among the trash. So I find us quite fortunate that we all found ourselves down here on the outskirts of the clearweb.

 

[Some_porcupine]

"culture of agora" thread, you missed out that one
(same, similar vibe)

 

[explorAR]

"culture of agora" thread, you missed out that one
(same, similar vibe)

I'll look it up

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

Never really noticed the shift from "scientific reasoning" to "schizo interpretation" until you mentioned it but you're definitely right, I was the same way for the longest time.

Thinking about this further made me kind of realize what I find magical and special about the internet, it is a place for outcasts and new ideas.

It gave the outcasts an equal voice that was normally drowned out or suppressed by the guardians of mass information and opinion. 4chan caught on for exemplifying this, with nothing more than the merit of the individual post mattering. But doesn't really feel like the case these days on there. What was once fringe 4chan lines of thinking seems to be taking root amongst people in day to day convos.

Why did we go from "scientifically" based rational attempts to explain everything in rational thought to exploring the deeper connections of human happenings to the universe, the subconscious, and the mystic traditions around the world?

I think there's a few reasons for this. One of the major ones being the diminishing trust in the broad field of science (and institutions in general.) More and more so called "scientists" and "experts" are used to peddle narratives contradictory to day to day observation, perhaps this increased use of appealing to ethos is a result of how prevalent it was online amongst millennials, it was deemed the most effective form of propaganda to push. When the so called "science" stops aligning with reality, or is grossly manipulated for ulterior motives, it leaves people to have to come up with unconventional answers to compensate.

And it's not that the unconventional answers are inherently wrong, I find them more effective than the so called scientific answer because it leaves more room for nuance and debate. Scientific reasoning does not adequately accommodate the spectrum of humanity's capability for good or evil.

Here's an example of the methods (scientific vs schizo):

• We are addicted to smartphones because of the dopamine release
• The smartphone is a portal to an evil, soul sucking dimension one struggles to escape from

Given most online platforms contain an algorithm that boosts posts based on engagement (clicks, likes, replies both for and against) which of the two provided are more likely to get boosted in said algorithm despite getting at the same point? The later, obviously. It's more sensational, it's more eye catching, it's a well known tidbit phrased in a manner that makes you think more about the underlying message. The algorithm is the global consciousness, and right now it is actively promoting/validating methods of thought that lean into the esoteric.

 

[explorAR]

And it's not that the unconventional answers are inherently wrong, I find them more effective than the so called scientific answer because it leaves more room for nuance and debate. Scientific reasoning does not adequately accommodate the spectrum of humanity's capability for good or evil.

This is a big part of it for me. I think another part of all of this is that these scientific principles that these large establishments have discovered are now regularly used to oppress and keep us addicted to their products. So a large part of this shift is probably our attempt to shake free of these dopamine riddled shackles that are created in labs and test groups in order to keep our attention and take our money. Looking to the human tradition and our own context in the greater human experience offers a reason to stop the mindless consumption and also provides methods for defying our id's and rebelling against fruitless actions like doomscrolling and gooning.

Really good point, nice contribution.