Pathologically Online
Is being too-online a disease? That the path of the hurricane leaves behind not only very real physical destruction but also a path of mental catastrophe throughout the media landscape is a sign of the times. When things get too real, a certain kind of crank jacks into cyberspace and fast-tracks wackadoodle paranoid delusions for a willing captive audience because ad revenue; like, for example, that the hurricane is a super weapon made by the government (or anti-trans fearmongering; or the now classic “they are eating the cats, they are eating the dogs”). The disturbing bit is just how large and how willing the audience. How can so many people be so wackadoodle?
If we were being generous we might say these paroxysms are the break-up of the hoary old reality itself (this is certainly true regarding anti-trans rhetoric). As the dominant fantasies of a bygone era are being literally torn apart by unrelenting extreme weather events, the true believer must double down on their own precious resentment by finding more of same in the manosphere, hellsite, dumpster-fire or where ever. Being too-online means plugging into the matrix to escape an unacceptable reality (a reality with too many independent women, for example); retreating into a dank cyber-bunker of one’s own anger and misery; just chowing down on poop and pee sandwiches made at scale by the billionaire lords of misrule—it tastes pretty good if everyone is doing it. I say “generous” because unfortunately these same overlords have incredible amounts of money, power and influence and also happen to be extremely well-armed and are willing to go to great lengths to keep the bad old reality intact, never mind if it no longer keeps out the rain.
Our beloved internet, once heralding the dawn of a free and open society, is now the principle means by which to keep a weary populace as confused and agitated as possible. I know this first hand for my own mother is very confused. The great wizard of AI only compounds and speeds this confusion turning an already fraught media landscape into a sea of slop and chum. The bad old reality is not collapsing, just upgrading.
Considering our own mental precarity, would it not be prudent to log-off? To remain deliberately offline? To withdraw from all forms of social media absolutely, if not the screen itself?
the mental topography of being too-online
See also:
(sadly my prediction came true) Exiting the Vampire Castle
