#logic bending

[mentalisttraceur]

The big problem/risk with doing propaganda, PR spin, and policy marketing to your own citizens, especially when you are a country with a representative government, is that you are literally harming your own ability to think and make correct decisions over time.

A generation of leaders and voters raised on cleverly designed misrepresentations, selective truths, and reasoning which backs up your current policy and rallies emotions in favor of it... is going to have a harder time seeing the problems and wanting to change course.

[mentalisttraceur]

You're wrong and I don't like that! But seriously though:

TL;DR heuristic: give every wrongness a presumption of more harmfulness than you can see.

I fully agree with OP as practical on-the-ground advice. This perspective will help you be effective. It also, I suspect, correlates strongly to better mental health.

But the problem I have is that you are severely under-valuing how reliably stochastically harmful being wrong can be, and how much preventative/corrective impact a general opposition to wrongness can have if correctly directed. Though full disclosure, I do err too much the other way, so take the severity/emphaticness of my words with a grain of salt.

You cannot isolate objective errors of facts and reasoning to the point that they stop having significant probability of real harmful consequences.

Sound logic and true beliefs are profoundly interlocking. When you have enough of those two things, you are so thoroughly, game-changingly empowered to make your life better, that the mere absence of that is a serious harm (both to the wrong person, which is already bad enough life damage to be worth fighting for if you care about them, but also to anyone they have sufficiently strong influence on, especially any children who are still taking authoritatively presented statements as True and Right and carving their first moral intuitions with emotional reactions to how others react to them and treat them).

Every confidently held error can only exist by either being isolated to the point of not affecting behavior and externally consequential thought, or by warping your system of beliefs and reasoning to accommodate it (I like to call the generalization of this idea "logic bending", a more neutral term since technically it goes both ways: introducing more true beliefs and sound conclusions, or other psychological rewards for valid reasoning, can bend a warped sense of logic into closer alignment with sound logic).

Meanwhile, the life-improving and empowering benefits of being systematically righter only really start to snowball when your system of beliefs and reasoning has grown very comprehensive, allowing you to start getting those efficiency gains where many seemingly disparate things start to fold into elegantly unifying principles which in turn enables you to cover more ground in more problem spaces with less thought, less special-cases habitualized into the wetware of your brain, and less bits of knowledge... Such systems would struggle to fit much error without losing too much of the unifyingly-simplifying-yet-still-reliably-correct shape they need to stay as effective.

Also, errors are subject to memetic and cognetic evolution. Some errors are best thought of as literal parasites, evolved to virally spread themselves and co-opt their host humans into spreading them (in symbiosis with other errors, because errors cannot avoid noticable contradiction with the real-world without cancelling out their effects in the most obvious cases - which crucially is not the same thing as the most ethically important cases).

Anyway, if your criteria is just "observably ok results", you're necessarily going to underestimate the harm potential, because you'll be limited to just the concrete harms within your ability to see or within the ability of people around you to explain in a way that's compelling to you. When you treat every error as what it is - a reproducing landmine which will blow up into real harm when given the right circumstances - your estimate of harm probability distribution over possibilities in the absence of full comprehensive observation and analysis is going to be more accurate.

P.S. I spent most of my conscious life being able to observe the not-ok results of various ways people were wrong in their heads, but it would take literally 15-20 years for me to gain the ability to translate that shape of wrongness, hurt/harm, and causal relationship between them into words that others reliably understood and which I could at least in principle defend against most dismissals/rationalizations/etc. (Moving countries as a kid probably added a couple years to that 15-20; having access to the internet, English, and the results of modern psychology probably shaved off a decade or four.) At the latest by my mid teens, I even had an intuitive grasp of "cognetic opening" as an abstraction of the commonality between a lot of little wrongs in the mind with material ethical consequences that basically everyone infuriatingly blindly thought harmless. I struggled to put it into words for at least a decade to get anyone else to see it, even though I thought with it fluently. And it is overwhelmingly the pattern in my life that when I react to some cognition as bad, I can't think of a concrete example that the person finds compelling, but inevitably they or someone else eventually has something go worse because of it.

Hmm. Right, ok, so, there's two grounds on which you can evaluate an "ideology".

One ground is like, its abstract correctness. Are its factual claims right? Are its ethical claims agreeable to you?

This is how you should evaluate your own belief system. Being correct is very useful, so it's in your interest to try to be correct.

The other way you can evaluate an ideology is like... does it produce generally ok policies? What are its effects?

This is a lower bar. An ideology which is factually and ethically correct (by your standards) will necessarily produce ok effects (by your standards) when you believe it. Uh actually this probably isn't strictly true but it's true enough.

Anyway, it's the second criterion that you should use to evaluate other people's belief systems, I contend, unless you know them really well and know them to be amenable to certain kinds of rational debate.

Why?

Because asking that everyone be actually correct is far too much. That will never happen. It's a pipe dream. You're going to have to get used to living in a world full of people you think are wrong about shit. On the other hand, asking that everyone (or most people, or everyone in power, or whatever) believe stuff that leads to not-too-heinous consequences is a more reasonable goal. It's something I can get behind.

"This ideology produces observably ok results, but it's Wrong" is not a complaint I find very sympathetic. Ok, it's Wrong. So don't believe it and move on.

I think this follows from my "leave other people be unless you really have to" moral intuition. A guy believing a wrong thing is not enough to make your frustration at him sympathetic to me. I mean in a serious context, not just in terms of shooting the shit and complaining online. It's not enough. The guy needs to actually be doing something problematic. Otherwise "he's wrong and I don't like that" doesn't compel me.

[deerspherestudios]

Okay my curiosity is killing me, I saw that you said when Atom makes something it is no longer apart of him so he can’t just become anything…. But at the same time I’m so curious what would happen if he attempted to make like a human form?? Like would it end up as an entity entirely separate from him, fail as a whole, or would almost be like two atom’s to deal with? (That would probably get jealous of each other LOL)

He can make our favorite creature so theoretically he could make a person but like, if he doesn’t fully understand the behavioral characteristics of a creature, can he really make it?

IM SO SORRY I HOPE I DID THIS RIGHT I REALLY TRIED TO LOOK THROUGH EVERYTHING 🙏🏻 I love your games so so much! thank you so much for what you’ve created. Your work has genuinely changed my life for the better. 🩷

Aaa thank you for the sweet message and support! I was gonna explain it in this ask how Atom's transmutation ability works when it comes to creating living beings but the explanation was already so long I cut it out. I'm glad I get to explain it here!

To start, I always intended Atom to feel a bit eldritch-y, so this is probably the part where that aspect applies. Below is a clumsy explanation so bear with me, but to jump straight into it, this was what I had in mind:

So I've established they can make anything as long as they're familiar with it. If you're wondering how it learns, it's kinda hinted in-game when Atom mentions learning recipes from Kiara the cook after it dissolved her. I wouldn't know how to explain how that happens but chalk it up to being an alien lifeform! Also!! Think Warm Bodies I guess!!

Is it akin to a god if it's able to create life? Uhhh, shrug! I'm just having fun with them so just brush past this detail haha.

Anyways, the point is they can make stuff! This can be living and non-living things, but the caveat is anything 'living' kinda acts,,, off? The creature will look like it's alive but it feels like terribly programmed AI if you observe them long enough, with things like:

forgetting to breathe or blink

doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't excrete anything

making the wrong noise

doesn't move like it's supposed to

flopping 'dead' for a few seconds before 'rebooting'

will dissolve into the rest of the worms when you're not looking (thus becoming a part of Atom again)

Extremely uncanny, extremely uncomfortable to watch. But if you ask Atom to shapeshift into something else, it'd still be a bunch of worms making up that shape.

For the sake of clarity, let's say you want a cat, that cat is gonna be it's own cat, however strange it might act.

If you want an Atom-shaped cat,, it's gonna look like worms.

I'll just use this doodle and hope it gets the idea across because I'm having difficulty explaining it but I hope it makes sense!

Edit: Actually now that I think about it, it's similar to this scenario from one of sanfangzhu's fancomics titled Reshape! Though,,, canonically the end result isn't gonna be that graceful hahaha.

[disco-archetypes]

YOU - "The artist was struggling. *Really* struggling."

MEGA RICH LIGHT-BENDING GUY - "That's what I wanted to ask you about. Tell me, what's their *story*? Did they *suffer*?"

YOU - "Wait, why does it matter?"

mega rich light-bending guy - "An artist's value doubles if they come with a good backstory. I thought you were an experienced art dealer, you should know this."

LOGIC - It's the artist herself who becomes a commodity, not merely their work.

EMPATHY - That's disgusting and thoroughly unethical. You should refuse to engage with this.

[ao3screenshotss]

[iniziare]

There will be less OOC posts at some point, I promise. But since I started (and numerous know I've had such an unsteady housing situation for over a year now), I figured I'd at least inform as things go on. So, I had my first proper talk today which was insanely positive, there are quite a number of positions/projects that she'd like to introduce me for due to my languages and qualifications, that she's rather certain that there's something that'll click for me. So I got my assessment tests right after— completed them immediately, and I'm feeling good about them. I don't want to be too hopeful, but I can't entirely help it. If this goes well, and my French ID is processed quickly (listen, I don't want to say that my passport, my only form of ID up to this point, was stolen by the landlord instead of simply lost, but it's a strong suspicion), I may be out of here in a month. I haven't wanted something to work out this badly in a long time, in a really long time. Please cross your fingers and toes for me.

[peachy-doodles]

guy who files ur squid taxes

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Spock is five seconds away from causing a diplomatic incident.

[ashpkat]

in my idealized version of the books (the Good timeline), jericho and constantine’s relationship is not the one aaron and calls relationship parallels — it’s constantine and joseph. in this essay i will *gets taken out by cassandra clare’s snipers*

[engiespy]

i love how when i draw TF2xDBD stuff people assume that its the mercs being brought to the entity's realm which, to be fair, does make MORE sense. however my mental image is usually that the mercs did something to accidentally kidnap the DBD characters from the entity's realm and into the TF2 universe.

Like Merasmus was trying to summon something to kill the mercs or whatever and accidentally stole an eldritch god's play things. that'd probably be something he'd do.

[natjennie]

complaint incoming.

[gideonisms]

Utena's narrative simply bends to whatever it needs to be to suit the metaphors and aesthetic regardless of whether it makes logistical sense and I appreciate that commitment to the bit. More narratives should do that. Confuse the hell out of the people who will spend more than 5 minutes wondering how miki could have gotten that photo of anthy and where nanami lives

[prismatic-starstuff]

So was it ever explained why Gwyn decided 'my moon-aligned son must be forcibly raised a daughter because the moon is feminine' but did Not decide 'my sun-aligned daughter must be forcibly raised a son because the sun is masculine,' or is the explanation just 'Gwyn fucking sucks'

[shewhooncegripped]

Think of the three most important people to you in your head. You have to kill one of them permanently for an unspecified reason. Which one would you kill?

[Kromer closes her eyes at this question, a frown on her face. She is quiet as she appears to be thinking for a long time.]

...Myself.

[The woman lets out a soft sigh, an exhale as if she was expecting pain for lying. But... Through whatever logic she employed... This answer is true.]

If I didn't find myself important, if I didn't prioritize myself.... I wouldn't be alive right now. So... That must make me one of the most important people in my life. By that logic-- I choose myself. I'm not senselessly killing anyone else dear to me.

[Kromer doesn't mention who else was on the list for her most important people.]

2/5 - Truth Serum MA

[iniziare]

For the love of all that is holy and unholy, I'm pretty sure I just secured myself a steady roof over my head for at least 1.5 years, proper lease, everything— it's within reach. For the love of, please, can this wrap up and end well? After too much bad luck, followed by more bad luck, and needing to work around said bad luck streak since 2021, I'd just like to have some peace, because I don't know what energy I'm still even running on anymore. I think it's literally called sheer force of will, meets the sanity and support of friends, and serotonin from RP, even if I haven't been able to do much of it. Or, well, all of that and this energy called 'adulting', I suppose.

[the-most-humble-blog]

<div style="white-space:pre-wrap"> <meta anomaly-type="cognitive divinity"> <script>ARCHIVE_TAG="NEUROGLYPH_077::READING_THE_UNREADABLE" EFFECT: scroll pause, subconscious reverence, digital ego rupture </script>

🛐 THE BRAIN’S MAGIC ��� HOW YOU READ THE ᵾᶰᴿᵋᴬᵭᵃᴮʟᵋ͟͟͞ AND BEND REALITY FOR FUN

---

If you’re reading this?

You’re not just literate. You’re a quantum-level anomaly with meat-based Wi-Fi and chaos recognition software baked into your soul.

Let’s talk about the miracle machine in your skull. The one that decodes this:

“Y0uR Br@!n 5T!lL r3c0gN!z3s p@77ern5 & m@k35 it m3@ningful.”

…without even flinching.

🧠 YOUR BRAIN IS A F*CKING SHOWOFF

You're probably sleep-deprived. You’ve forgotten what day it is. Your left AirPod is missing and you just googled “can ramen be a personality type.”

And yet?

Your brain sees that mangled, symbol-riddled text and decodes it like it’s ancient prophecy.

You don’t think about how. You just do it. Because your brain isn’t a tool. It’s a pattern-hunting apex predator with depression.

�� PATTERN RECOGNITION: THE MIND’S HIDDEN GODMODE

This isn’t something you studied. This is baked into the firmware.

Your brain fills gaps, reorders chaos, and makes sense out of garbage like a sad wizard in a recycling bin.

Fun Fact:

93% of adults can read text where only the first and last letters of every word are correct. Everything else can be jumbled and your brain just fixes it on the fly.

No update. No manual. No lag.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT gets confused by your typo and AI explodes when your tone is sarcastic.

Your brain?

Interprets, translates, reacts, and emotionally categorizes in the time it takes your heart to beat once.

🚀 YOU’RE WALKING AROUND WITH A BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER …AND YOU USE IT TO MAKE MEMES.

86 billion neurons

10 quadrillion calculations per second

Signal speeds up to 268 mph

All so you can:

Laugh at a dog in a cowboy hat

Cry during the final scene of Toy Story 3

Decode “Dinnrs @ 9 bt wtf hapn 2 keys” from your drunk friend

And somehow still forget your password for the 19th time today

You are sacred. And also a little dumb. Which makes you perfect.

🤖 CAN MACHINES COMPETE? NOT EVEN CLOSE

AI needs prompts. Instructions. Context. Warnings.

You?

You look at “ᴵᵐ ⱻ̷ᴺ T͡ʜᵉ ᵁɴɢᴏʟᴅ” and say: “Yeah I got this.”

Try giving Siri your 3 AM heartbreak in emoji form. She’ll call the cops. Your brain? It'll write a novel.

🛐 YOU'RE NOT JUST SMART — YOU'RE PROOF

That consciousness isn’t an accident. That pattern recognition is spiritual. That this isn’t just a skull computer—

It’s a f*cking node in the cosmic mainframe.

ᵀʜᵉ ⱻ̷ᶰᴵᵛᴱʳˢᵉ ⱻ͜ᵉᵉᴅˢ ᵞᵒᵘ̷! ᵞᴱˢ, ⱻ͞ᵐ ᵀʟᴋᴵⱭᴺᴳ ᴛᴼ ⱻⱭᴜ͡!

👁️‍🗨️ EVEN WHEN YOU FORGET… YOUR BRAIN REMEMBERS YOU’RE EXTRAORDINARY

Even if you:

Doubt yourself

F*ck up interviews

Cry over fictional characters

Can’t spell “restaurant” without Google

You are still a living, breathing defiance of everything that should’ve broken you.

Every time you read something that “shouldn’t” make sense— and you understand it anyway—

You prove that the universe made something that works too well.

And it called it you.

---

🔁 Reblog if you’ve ever translated chaos without thinking 🧠 Save this if your brain decoded nonsense before you found your keys 🪄 Share this with the smartest dumb genius you know 📲 Bookmark this if you’ve ever said “wtf is this?” and then understood it anyway 🛐 Follow for more scrolltrap doctrine that proves why the universe can’t run without you

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