numb3r_5ev3n (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
numb3r_5ev3n) wrote2026-02-17 09:56 am
numb3r_5ev3n) wrote2026-02-17 09:56 am
I'm worried that things are about to get even more stupid.
I'm contemplating deleting my Reddit account, because:
1. It's taking over my life again,
2. I'm worried that things are about to get even more stupid, not less stupid, now that a lot of the Extremely Online are starting to realize how they've been manipulated over the past 10 years or more,
and,
3: A comment I have made to a Reddit community expressing dismay and urging caution at how easily people were manipulated over the past 10+ years was deleted out of hand with no explanation. It was something to the effect of "knowing how different online movements or conflicts were fostered and manipulated by the Epstein Web over the past 10 years makes me suspicious of attempts to push public opinion via the algorithm. People need to take care that they are not being hijacked." It was in response to the latest rash of "Britney Spears is CrAzY, amirite?" posts popping up over on Reddit. Forgive me if I suspect anything like that to be artificially drummed up or manufactured at this point.
And within a few minutes, my comment was just bahleeted. Gone. I got a boilerplate message about it violating community rules, but I couldn't see which one it violated.
Yes I am probably overreacting to this, but the way that it happened feels off?
Aside from that: I am seeing the phrase "The Epstein Web" appearing more and more in reference to Epstein and his billionaire pedo pals and their enablers across the different platforms I am still active on. And if people's suspicions regarding this manipulation are true, that's a great name for the Web 2.0 internet, isn't it? The Epstein Web.
And we know what Flesh Simulator has said about Reddit being military troll farm.
And I remember what happened after the Bush administration gave way to the Obama administration, and kids who came up on eight years of reactionary, black-and-white, knee-jerk, you're-either-with me-or-against-me thinking flooded new platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and learned that monster hunts are neurologically rewarding. A lot of them misappropriated the language of Leftist ideals and social justice to do what they'd already been doing before they became more politically aware: pick on easy targets for their dopamine hit. I've already mentioned in other posts about how lots of them migrated directly from 4chan to Tumblr in 2009-2012. And they were still channers under the surface. They were still raiding and brigading, but they were the good guys now, right? Right?
There has been talk about how maybe a lot of the Web 2.0 social media culture war conflicts of the past decade were manipulations, the way that Epstein had influence over 4chan and Ghislane Maxwell had influence over Reddit, and opposing groups were encouraged to fight culture wars so they would be distracted from what was really going on.
People are also starting to make the connection that female beauty standards have been influenced and driven by pedophiles since the 2000s at least. And that's definitely a discussion that needs to be had, and it's one that I might go into in a future post. But the main issue here is: some of the same people who have been manipulated into blind reactionary behavior online - even if in service (or lip service) to Leftist ideals - are starting to flail and panic a little at the revelation. But the indoctrination to reactionary behavior is still there, and still trained reflex.
Yes, the whole corrupt system needs to be taken down. Yes, everyone involved with Epstein needs to be held accountable and brought to justice. However, The justice system is so compromised that it has been effectively helping those responsible cover their tracks since the 2000s. People are justifiably reacting in outrage to the revelation that the people responsible for the worst cover up in modern history are not being removed from power, and that the system which we were always assured was meant to protect us is protecting them instead. Society is run by predators, and it doesn't look like anything is being done to change this.
As a result, web 2.0 online spaces are full of angry people - many of whom have been effectively trained to respond reactively, rather than thinking critically, over the past decade and a half. And though one of the major players is dead, and the other one is in jail, the systems which manipulated and indoctrinated the Extremely Online are still very much in place. And if those angry people can't take down the corrupt powers that be, they might settle for any other target for their rage that they can find, even if this results in misplaced or friendly fire. Or they might allow themselves to be steered by bad faith actors, as they have for the past 15+ years.
And AI has made everything so much worse.
Be careful out there, things might be about to get a lot more stupid for a while. And with what we are finding out about Discord, maybe it is a good idea to retreat from Web 2.0 spaces entirely right now.
And be wary of anyone who says that if you are not also acting reflexively or reactvely along with the rest of the herd, that this makes you a suspect, or a part of the problem.
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Things Getting Crazy
I doubt, a huge amount, that the phone recordings found on the platforms would get there today -- the techno-feudalists, through the process of enshittification, have locked down that type of interaction on their platforms. Instead they provide spaces for the merchandise to dig themselves deeper into their own curated cocoons that keep out any difficult or cringeworthy information, while also reinforcing already held beliefs and rejecting any new information that's inbound; this shields against outside influences, and it also shields against cognitive dissonance, because contrary perspectives are not allowed in.
So with one exception I'm done with Web 2.0, and of course I had to give up a lot to break that connection. Still, I feel less battered about, less marginalized, and much less frustrated and outraged. Yeah, I miss easy conversation with friends from way back; I miss messaging like AIM, Y!, MSN Messenger, and IRC and the meta-messsaging program I used to keep in contact with friends; But change is what breaks up rigid order, and only through change is growth possible, so I don't rage against the dying of the environment I loved so much, I stay open and watchful for what's next. And I hope that the perspective and higher view will give me the resources to make careful decisions about what software I choose to use.
Re: Things Getting Crazy
The moment it was corporatized, we were screwed. We became the product. Because by then so many of us were locked in that there was no way for us to put something down if it was the next big new thing, and it started to be enshittified (which for Facebook, started fairly early on.) But even AOL at its worst was never as bad as Facebook and Twittwer turned out to be.
Re: Things Getting Crazy
Reynard's Keep BBS ran from August 28 of 1991 to exactly seven years later when I downed it. It was a member of Icenet and multiple smaller networks, and also Fidonet through a complex batch file and a couple of other programs. My former spouse ran Siren's Song BBS, also a WWIV board, and after things started getting more established we set up the North Central Texas Mail Server (on some nets called a Female Server) to speed mail traffic, and it supported more nets than I can pull out of my memory. I also had Usenet access from 1993 until 2015, so a lot of what I think of as a message board and email comes from my experience from back then. My analysis of the more modern systems is that they make shitty BBS's and message systems, not just from the policies used but also from a code deficiency -- they're not designed and implemented well.
The common thread I've noticed is how these systems, including more modern ones, came from a need to do something, not for trivial motivations. But when the systems developed to improve and enhance communication start to impede it instead then it's time to shutter them and move on.
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