Paranoia can itself constitute being fucked over by an agent that can induce it while not being weakened by it, a la cults encouraging their members to broadly distrust the world leaving the cult as the only trusted source of information, or political players inciting purges that’ll fall on their enemies.
Yeah, this is a big thing that I hope to write more about. Like, a huge dynamic in these kinds of conflicts is someone reinforcing the paranoia, which then elevates more flailing, causing someone’s environment to become more disorienting, which causes them to become worse at updating on evidence and become more disoriented, which then makes it easier to throw them off balance more.
Like, as is kind of part of this whole dynamic, the process you use to restabilize yourself in adversarial environments can itself be turned against you.
Paranoia can itself constitute being fucked over by an agent that can induce it while not being weakened by it, a la cults encouraging their members to broadly distrust the world leaving the cult as the only trusted source of information, or political players inciting purges that’ll fall on their enemies.
Yeah, this is a big thing that I hope to write more about. Like, a huge dynamic in these kinds of conflicts is someone reinforcing the paranoia, which then elevates more flailing, causing someone’s environment to become more disorienting, which causes them to become worse at updating on evidence and become more disoriented, which then makes it easier to throw them off balance more.
Like, as is kind of part of this whole dynamic, the process you use to restabilize yourself in adversarial environments can itself be turned against you.