Frankfurt school trolling

Sadness is like a shadow

This sadness is like a shadow cast over me.
Its dark and cold umbra is a shroud that I cannot shake.
I take actions, hoping to outstep its cold, dark grasp.
But try as I may this shadow is never far away.

Midnight

"It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvelous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realize all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it all." (p. 153)

From Dr. Seward's Diary in Bram Stoker's Dracula

beauty

Beauty is askew of geometry.

Life

Life is a genetic hologram.

Community

Community is the waste heat of bodies rubbing together.

Subtle algorithmic tuning

"I fear the subtle algorithmic tuning of feeds more than I fear blatant dark ads. It used to be impossible to send customized messages to millions of people instantly. It used to be impossible to test and design multitudes of customized messages, based on detailed observation and feedback from unknowing people who are kept under constant surveillance.

"It might turn out that a certain font around someone's portrait on a certain day makes a small percentage of people trust that person just a little less. Maybe the same font showed up in a popular video about an unpleasant topic that same day. No one will ever know why the font has the effect it does, though. It's all statistical." (p. 78)

From Jaron Lanier's "Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now"