Session 27 September 2025
- Thread starter Laura
- Start date
The Lake Mungo geomagnetic excursion | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences https://share.google/UtUnDUsE4eZ2SeX22
When the C's said to get off social media, my first thought was, "Right, for our safety... like people being arrested for retweets in the UK."
My second thought was that maybe there's more to it than that... Getting off social media may be necessary for the protection of our own psychic/psychological health. The "doom-scrolling" and echo chamber effects are getting bad in many cases.
Well, there might be something to that... Everyone IMO needs to read this article on SOTT:
www.sott.net
It's about Nikita Bier, who is apparently the current "head of product" at X. Excerpt:
IOW, at this point, there is no 'reaching people' on social media - just the illusion of it. Worse yet, active participation in the whole thing makes it worse, not better, and may even lead to screwing with our heads in rather sneaky ways.
How beautiful it would be to create a control system that is so 'perfect', everyone in it believes they aren't being taken in because they're smarter than that - when in reality, the only way not to be taken in is not to participate. As long as everyone is believing SOME lie (big, small, whatever), they're controlled...
My second thought was that maybe there's more to it than that... Getting off social media may be necessary for the protection of our own psychic/psychological health. The "doom-scrolling" and echo chamber effects are getting bad in many cases.
Well, there might be something to that... Everyone IMO needs to read this article on SOTT:
The Behavioral Architect
How Nikita Bier spent a decade perfecting psychological control on teenagers — and now deploys it on everyone at X "Rethink Democracy." That was the tagline for Politify back in 2011. A Berkeley student project that went viral during the...
www.sott.net
It's about Nikita Bier, who is apparently the current "head of product" at X. Excerpt:
IOW, at this point, there is no 'reaching people' on social media - just the illusion of it. Worse yet, active participation in the whole thing makes it worse, not better, and may even lead to screwing with our heads in rather sneaky ways.
How beautiful it would be to create a control system that is so 'perfect', everyone in it believes they aren't being taken in because they're smarter than that - when in reality, the only way not to be taken in is not to participate. As long as everyone is believing SOME lie (big, small, whatever), they're controlled...
When the C's said to get off social media, my first thought was, "Right, for our safety... like people being arrested for retweets in the UK."
My second thought was that maybe there's more to it than that... Getting off social media may be necessary for the protection of our own psychic/psychological health. The "doom-scrolling" and echo chamber effects are getting bad in many cases.
Well, there might be something to that... Everyone IMO needs to read this article on SOTT:
The Behavioral Architect
How Nikita Bier spent a decade perfecting psychological control on teenagers — and now deploys it on everyone at X "Rethink Democracy." That was the tagline for Politify back in 2011. A Berkeley student project that went viral during the...
It's about Nikita Bier, who is apparently the current "head of product" at X. Excerpt:
IOW, at this point, there is no 'reaching people' on social media - just the illusion of it. Worse yet, active participation in the whole thing makes it worse, not better, and may even lead to screwing with our heads in rather sneaky ways.
How beautiful it would be to create a control system that is so 'perfect', everyone in it believes they aren't being taken in because they're smarter than that - when in reality, the only way not to be taken in is not to participate. As long as everyone is believing SOME lie (big, small, whatever), they're controlled...
As I was reading this, had the thought that they will maybe set up a government owned and controlled social media app. That's the only way that banning under 16's makes sense with the above article in mind and how they can influence the younger generation.
And also that this must be associated with the increase in negativity pointed out by C's on August 23 of this year.
Since then, social media has become unbearable, constantly polarizing and irritating people. You can no longer stand the flamewars in the comments, the biases, the mixture of truths and lies. It even irritates you to read people who have very good ideas in their analysis of reality, but at some point end up inserting or projecting their own problems into their ideas, and that can be demotivating.
I was reading a Facebook page by a woman with very good political ideas and fairly objective criticism. Until she contacted me via chat and we started talking.
Leaving aside some details, she reached a point where she started talking to me about her personal situation... and by the time I realized it, her proposals were being conditioned by her personal (subjective) experiences. She made comments, for example, about how she would ban live-action movies... because she finds them disgusting and they make her anxious.
Imagine my WTF face...
I'm not talking about a very young woman. I'm talking about someone in her thirties.
People are broken by things that time and the simplest of self-care can heal, and they get caught up in the diabolical game of social media, taking advantage of that to extract the emotional juice...
And in turn, it harms you, also extracting your energy through the exhaustion of the condition itself. Social media has definitely become a toxic, life-sucking swamp, and you don't want to interact with anyone anymore.
When the C's said to get off social media, my first thought was, "Right, for our safety... like people being arrested for retweets in the UK."
My second thought was that maybe there's more to it than that... Getting off social media may be necessary for the protection of our own psychic/psychological health. The "doom-scrolling" and echo chamber effects are getting bad in many cases.
Well, there might be something to that... Everyone IMO needs to read this article on SOTT:
The Behavioral Architect
How Nikita Bier spent a decade perfecting psychological control on teenagers — and now deploys it on everyone at X "Rethink Democracy." That was the tagline for Politify back in 2011. A Berkeley student project that went viral during the...
It's about Nikita Bier, who is apparently the current "head of product" at X. Excerpt:
IOW, at this point, there is no 'reaching people' on social media - just the illusion of it. Worse yet, active participation in the whole thing makes it worse, not better, and may even lead to screwing with our heads in rather sneaky ways.
How beautiful it would be to create a control system that is so 'perfect', everyone in it believes they aren't being taken in because they're smarter than that - when in reality, the only way not to be taken in is not to participate. As long as everyone is believing SOME lie (big, small, whatever), they're controlled...
Thank you for articulating this so clearly, Scottie, that sott/substack article is definitely a must-read. I’ve had scattered thoughts about this theme myself but just haven’t managed to put it into words like this.
What stands out to me is how deep the psychological engineering runs. These platforms don’t just “harvest behavioral data” — they feed it back into the system to shape behavior, to guide emotional states, and to sustain engagement. The machinery is invisible, but it works perfectly because it gives us the feeling of agency. You think you’re participating, influencing, doing something when in reality, the system is already steering the outcome, or at minimum just tiring people out.
That’s what makes it so powerful. It isn’t just about what people believe, it’s about convincing them that they’re making a difference inside a structure designed to absorb and redirect all input. The endless scroll, the short bursts of outrage, the irritation (also at the laugh-out-loud emojis from the trolls), the “interaction” that never actually moves anything. All of it keeps people busy while the architecture quietly maintains compliance.
Over time it wears people down. Not through censorship alone, but through exhaustion via constantly pulling attention and emotion into a space where nothing really changes. It’s a psychological loop disguised as participation.
Most of us here strive to keep our intention firmly in mind, knowing we are not there to change things as ‘trying to change things’ can really take a toll on the psyche. It may be an appropriate time, considering the comment by the Cs, to look again at our intentions when on social media and how this intention matches with our overall Aim and purpose, keeping in mind the potential detrimental effects on our psychological hygiene.
axj
The Living Force
There is probably a big difference between "consuming" social media in a mostly passive way and actively sharing insights that can help others who are open towards new perspectives. I think that is why Laura was sharing a lot on Twitter/X until recently.
EmeraldR
The Living Force
Thanks Scottie - I resonate so much with what you shared -When the C's said to get off social media, my first thought was, "Right, for our safety... like people being arrested for retweets in the UK."
My second thought was that maybe there's more to it than that... Getting off social media may be necessary for the protection of our own psychic/psychological health. The "doom-scrolling" and echo chamber effects are getting bad in many cases.
Well, there might be something to that... Everyone IMO needs to read this article on SOTT:
The Behavioral Architect
How Nikita Bier spent a decade perfecting psychological control on teenagers — and now deploys it on everyone at X "Rethink Democracy." That was the tagline for Politify back in 2011. A Berkeley student project that went viral during the...
It's about Nikita Bier, who is apparently the current "head of product" at X. Excerpt:
IOW, at this point, there is no 'reaching people' on social media - just the illusion of it. Worse yet, active participation in the whole thing makes it worse, not better, and may even lead to screwing with our heads in rather sneaky ways.
How beautiful it would be to create a control system that is so 'perfect', everyone in it believes they aren't being taken in because they're smarter than that - when in reality, the only way not to be taken in is not to participate. As long as everyone is believing SOME lie (big, small, whatever), they're controlled...
imo its easy to feed the beast so to speak ! -
self reflective questions worth asking (im) are : whats my motive for being here on this .... website/media platform etc amd I contributing in a benevelont way ? Is it truly useful ?
heres the major question for me- what would I be doing with my attention and energy If i wasnt spending excessive amounts of time on social media stuff ?
Instead of over -investment with time wasted /spent on the internet - I could be maybe practicing more qigong /EE, tidying the house !!
? visiting folk in local community -etc etc
again its really down to percentages of time and energy spent
speculation can be quite an addiction if taken to extremes !
again is it useful ? whats its orientation sto or sts ?where does it take me ?(mental/physical/emotional/psychicically etc?)
It can be and has been for me very addictive and another way of ducking out of taking things further in my spiritual practice !!!
recently a group of us qigong practitioners decided to set up a zoom meeting every morning for 2 hours -its been a much appreciated jump start to my practice on all levels - and within that I ve lost alot of the compulsion /habit/tendency to jump on the internet to "see whats happening etc " - in a way its light turning round the polarity of focus from outside to inside -
as with everything Ive found theres a middle way in alot of this in terms of time/investment etc and personally Ive found a much more favorable balance with a greater sense of well being and more of an inclination to do more of whats good for me and others .
for me the thread on Charlie Kirke was quite a turning point as It showed me alot about how easy its to get overly locked into something and get pretty obsesed about it who what when and why -
I could give countless more examples of these type of scenarios and they are all over the internet /social media /news channels.
The Buddha taught that delusions, along with greed and hatred, are fundamental mental afflictions, often referred to as the "three poisons" or "three defilements," that fuel suffering and the cycle of rebirth. These delusions are not merely mistaken beliefs but deep-seated misperceptions of reality, such as the false sense of a permanent self or the mistaken belief that external things like wealth or status can bring lasting happiness. The Buddha described ignorance—often translated as delusion or mis-knowledge—as the root cause of all suffering, explaining that not knowing the true nature of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation constitutes ignorance. This delusion leads to craving and aversion, which perpetuate the cycle of samsara.
Delusions are likened to a vicious cycle where greed, hatred, and delusion feed upon one another, as depicted in the Wheel of Life with a rooster (greed), a snake (hatred), and a pig (delusion) consuming each other's tails.
The Buddha's teachings suggest that these mental states are not inherent but arise from a distorted perception of reality, making them a primary target for spiritual practice. Rather than being permanent flaws, these defilements are seen as "gifts" that point the way out of suffering when acknowledged and examined. The path to liberation involves recognizing these delusions, letting go of attachment to them, and cultivating wisdom, generosity, and lovingkindness as antidotes.
The metaphor of "feeding" delusions is used to describe how nurturing these harmful mental states leads to negative behaviors and future regret, much like consuming poison eventually causes sickness.
The Buddha emphasized that the senses themselves do not experience attachment or delusion; rather, it is the mind's conceptual elaborations and stories about experiences that create these distortions. Therefore, the practice involves becoming aware of these mental constructions and choosing not to feed them with attention or belief. As one source notes, "Don’t eat delusions," suggesting that avoiding the mental consumption of false narratives—such as the idea that traditional Buddhism is inherently unequal or that personal problems are solely individual—is essential for a more truthful and fulfilling path.
That's the double-edged sword. Because there are many who seek a clear picture of reality and events, minute by minute, to know where they stand and take the necessary actions. So you have to separate truth from lies, and that consumes a lot of mental energy.
Seato
Jedi Master
During the Iran twelve-day war in June I struggled to control myself from constantly looking for updates as to what was happening. It was difficult to reign in my anticipation to the point I almost felt I was wanting things to happen to relieve the uncertainty.
With another round of conflict on the horizon amidst all the other developing chaos of the world it can be easy to get swept up in things. It’s best to let things unfold naturally in reality uncorrupted by our prejudice and desires.
With most events such as Charlie Kirk’s assassination though sad it isn’t so much a problem these days for me to observe the procession of events. I was rather anxious around the 2020 US election but when it came to 2024, I found myself able to sit back and watch with a willingness to accept whatever outcome the universe would bring. But wars, particularly in the early stages, can be so chaotic with a lot of uncertainty about how far and wide things may proceed.
So much of the internet news and social media is all focused on keeping people as reaction machines. With Laura’s recent Grok discussions on the matter coming to mind.
Trump embodies this element of culture in a way in his sudden bombastic statements and constant flip flopping. The world is watching him but anyone investing too heavily in his words is going to end up on an emotional roller coaster. This is visible among masses on social media but also world leaders. Look how panicked the EU leadership and Zelensky have been chasing after Trump trying to pin down his support. The impact may be more pronounced among extreme ideologs but many people who just try to follow events or understand the intent of American Government are getting pulled along for the ride. Trumps art of the never let anyone know what you are gonna do tomorrow is triggering people’s reaction machines and facilitating negative feeding dynamics on the world stage.
Alex Christoforou of the Duran comes to mind as someone once sympathetic to Trump who I have seen over the last year getting more confused and distraught as he has tried to understand Trumps nonsense over the months.
dredger
The Living Force
The article that Scottie posted + some following answers (or excerpts) strongly resonated within me. I saw it yesterday on X, posted by Laura that I follow, I then searched on the forum and found that it's Scottie who posted it here. That was for yesterday.
And yes, i plead guilty about some topics which directly trigger within me some negative emotions, one of the strongest topic which trigger them actually is about the ukraine war, and just today, when i opened X, the first posts i had displayed on my page were posts about the incoming move of Putin to Hungary : posts from the propaganda or brainstormed people which directly trigger within me the ... kind of need or necessity to answer, to counter-argue ... like a compulsive response or habit, and I often do it.
But this time i refrained having in mind the article. I also wondered why X showed me these posts first ? What i did, for all these posts of propaganda, despite the big ... wish or better say "need" to answer them, to "do something", was to click on the "3 dots button" on the top-right of the tweet and select the option "Ce post ne m'intéresse pas" (I do not know how it's translated when you have X in english, something like "I'm not interested in this post.").
Because of these few pro-ukraine/pro-was/anti-russian/anti-Putin posts displayed on my X page, this made me think back about the article and came back to this thread to read the few new responses just above and reading them almost shocked me. This is it, this is really it, this need to open X the morning, after having parsed my mails about work and do some other habits, it became one new habit. I quoted some sentences from answers above that triggered this awarness, I put some bolds :
That's it ... thanks for having found the key words that helped me to make this ... self-observation.
But as @axj answered , how to balance keeping oneself informed and at the same time avoid to fall in this psychological trap ?
I wonder if the answer is something like : you have to inform and learn how is your reality going on, but It's like a dangerous job. There are hazards, and you need to know what they are so you can avoid them. Here, the hazards are like psychological traps or pitfalls, like bait. I had the following picture in my head : it's as if we were like fishes in a river/lake and that we have to resist to swallow the beautiful worm dangling on the surface with a nice hook waiting to grab you.
How i see this now that i just understood this, it's that it'll be like a mental fight in my head to resist to these compulsive "need" to answer, to argue, to participate. This topic could be further analysed, or let's say case per case, some topics are worth to be discussed, some people asking question are worth to be answered, and i would say that truth has to be defended or backuped, but am i right ? It's a difficult question or answer : to which extent do we have to help truth to be spread, or, said otherwisely, to counter lies and propaganda on any type of topic/subject ? What are the reasons why so many people are waking up nowodays ? Does it come mainly of a personal understanding of people, or is it because many people like many of us here a like "fighting" to help more truths to be known and help to spread them ?
And yes, i plead guilty about some topics which directly trigger within me some negative emotions, one of the strongest topic which trigger them actually is about the ukraine war, and just today, when i opened X, the first posts i had displayed on my page were posts about the incoming move of Putin to Hungary : posts from the propaganda or brainstormed people which directly trigger within me the ... kind of need or necessity to answer, to counter-argue ... like a compulsive response or habit, and I often do it.
But this time i refrained having in mind the article. I also wondered why X showed me these posts first ? What i did, for all these posts of propaganda, despite the big ... wish or better say "need" to answer them, to "do something", was to click on the "3 dots button" on the top-right of the tweet and select the option "Ce post ne m'intéresse pas" (I do not know how it's translated when you have X in english, something like "I'm not interested in this post.").
Because of these few pro-ukraine/pro-was/anti-russian/anti-Putin posts displayed on my X page, this made me think back about the article and came back to this thread to read the few new responses just above and reading them almost shocked me. This is it, this is really it, this need to open X the morning, after having parsed my mails about work and do some other habits, it became one new habit. I quoted some sentences from answers above that triggered this awarness, I put some bolds :
That's it ... thanks for having found the key words that helped me to make this ... self-observation.
But as @axj answered , how to balance keeping oneself informed and at the same time avoid to fall in this psychological trap ?
I wonder if the answer is something like : you have to inform and learn how is your reality going on, but It's like a dangerous job. There are hazards, and you need to know what they are so you can avoid them. Here, the hazards are like psychological traps or pitfalls, like bait. I had the following picture in my head : it's as if we were like fishes in a river/lake and that we have to resist to swallow the beautiful worm dangling on the surface with a nice hook waiting to grab you.
How i see this now that i just understood this, it's that it'll be like a mental fight in my head to resist to these compulsive "need" to answer, to argue, to participate. This topic could be further analysed, or let's say case per case, some topics are worth to be discussed, some people asking question are worth to be answered, and i would say that truth has to be defended or backuped, but am i right ? It's a difficult question or answer : to which extent do we have to help truth to be spread, or, said otherwisely, to counter lies and propaganda on any type of topic/subject ? What are the reasons why so many people are waking up nowodays ? Does it come mainly of a personal understanding of people, or is it because many people like many of us here a like "fighting" to help more truths to be known and help to spread them ?
For me it was in 2020, during March/April and part of May, i became completely obsessed by what was happening, and I would bet that many here were in the same "state". I was spending from 3 to 5h every day to follow what was happening, mainly by reading the BIG thead on covid, with 3 to 5 or even 6 pages of new posts each day (1 page = 15 posts). On one hand it was time/energy consuming, on the other hand ... i would answer that it convinced me of the evilness of all this earth wide experiment and it gave me many details that i could re-use to argue during discussions. At least, it was quite more sane than responding on X, because i was participating to the thread and didn't have to convince anybody, i was a group research. Around mid May (2020) i realised that i was spending too much time on it and stopped it, or at least the habit to spend X hours a day to read the latest news. There's indeed a question of applying a good balance .. but this is why we are here, to experiment, to learn from one's errors and improve.
axj
The Living Force
Yes, this is how I see it as well. Knowledge protects - in this case the awareness of these psychological pitfalls and traps in social media. When you are aware of it, you can make the choice not to automatically react to it and stay centered and present instead.
And it is not like social media is really necessary to follow what is going on. SOTT, RT, maybe some of the better Youtube channels and of course the discussions here seem to be more than enough.
Exactly what I'm thinking.
I think there are many social media sources that really do provide "breaking news" and better news than many news sites. On the other hand, there's also the question of spending too much time keeping up with that news. In other words, if I'm scrolling on social media 5 hours a day, maybe some of that time could be better spent - like posting on the forum, doing stuff in the 'real world', etc. The world won't go anywhere if I read that breaking news in 4 hours vs RIGHT NOW!
So, I wouldn't totally throw social media out the window because I think it IS necessary to be as aware as possible of what's going on. But now I'm trying to be more conscious of how I use it - and hopefully ensure that it doesn't end up 'using' me.
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