at the cutting edge, and bleeding

Enshitification is a process by which the quality of a service or product gradually decays as a result of shifting business interests and values. A business may begin by optimizing their products for their users/customers. The first phase of enshitification is when they shift from a consumer-forward mentality to optimizing the product for business partners such as advertisers or add-ons. From there, it is just a matter of time before the business begins maximizing for short-term profits by cutting support for the product, firing personnel, increasing subscription costs while inundating users with targeted ads, etc.

The road of enshitification ends in a corporate shit stain: a product or service that no one likes, but one that makes a small handful of people lot of money.

Now what if that product or service has become so ubiquitous that by the time it fully enshitifies you have no option but to continue using it?

You can probably name several examples from your own life right now.

The main example I wish focus on is social media.

a day in the life

I remember when the biggest problem with social media was the fact that everyone used it to post the highlights of their life, which created a false-positive reality, one where everyone you knew was having the best day of their life all the time.

It was depressing as hell. The grass was exceptionally green everywhere except on your side of the fence.

Now, we experiencing an odd inverse of that problem. We witness pandemics, genocides, and wars all on our devices. You could be leisurely scrolling through social media, and in between GAP commercials and targeted ads for plushy dolls you come across a reel in which a refugee is literally begging for their life ("please like, comment, subscribe") against a backdrop of bombed-out rubble.

It even more depressing than hell. It's televised Armageddon.

Social media is everywhere, it's fully enshitified, and it is televising every world crisis all at once (side-by-side with our favorite content creators).

but is this real life?

The philosopher Jean Baudrillard coined the term hyperreality. Hyperreality is the point at which you can no longer distinguish between reality and virtual reality. It's when our simulations (video games, holograms, AI generated images, etc.) are sophisticated enough to fool even the most discerning eye.

"The power to create a crisis merges with the power to direct the movie about it..." said one commentator about the Gulf War. They were referencing the way the Gulf War was filmed, edited, and portrayed on television. In other words, the very forces who caused the war also controlled the flow of information. Footage of the Gulf War presented a skewed and propagandized version of events, one that portrayed the United States military as a behemoth of military might and moral superiority whose soldiers never died and whose enemies always perished.

But who could tell the difference? If this version of event was, in any way, less true than the reality of the situation, how would you know? Short of traveling to Iraq yourself during the U.S.-led coalition of military powers in the Fall of 1990 and witnessing the war first-hand, how else would you have learned of the events that transpired there?

Now, if it was difficult to differentiate between reality and simulation back in 1990 during the Gulf War, how much harder will it be in the near future as AI-generated images and videos become more and more sophisticated?

It's worth noting, too, that this is happening simultaneously with the gutting and defunding of our educational systems, and thus, a gradual decline in literacy and critical thinking skills.

"The power to create a crisis merges with the power to direct the movie about it..." When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, one of FOX News' favorite talking points was who would play Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the live-action movie of these events.

Hyperreality is here. It's in our pockets, before our eyes.

The good news: maybe the world isn't ending. Maybe it can still be saved. The bad news is that as long as a few really powerful people financially benefit from you believing that there's no hope left, they will manufacture more crisis and flood your feeds with doom-core content. Either that, or they will distract your line of sight away from their actions with something easier on the eye and fun to look at.

It is each individual person's responsibility to discern for themselves what is real. The moment you pass that responsibility onto others you are exposing yourself to those who might benefit from blurring your perceptions between reality and simulation.

Education is key. Investigate the sources of your information, learn critical thinking skills, stay curious.

at the end of the day...

I'll conclude with a quick aside. One of the many hallmarks of a fascist regime is its chaotic mixed-messaging:

• we are both the best country in the world AND our country is being ruined by x, y, and z kinds of people

• the enemy is both a feeble wimp AND the greatest existential threat we've ever faced

• our country is both the best it's ever been AND we need to make it great again

• everything is awesome AND we are all doomed

et cetera, et cetera...

George Orwell, in his novel 1984, called this Doublethink: the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accept both as truth.

I want to be very clear about this: two things can be true at the same time. Seeing nuance where others see black and white binaries is a sign of intelligence and critical thinking. The problem with doublethink is believing whatever the powers that be want you to believe, even when it contradicts itself. Therein lies the vital difference.

At the end of the day, no one can decide what is true and real on your behalf. You have to do that work yourself. Social media makes it really easy to surrender the power and responsibility of discernment to others who might not have your best interests—or the best interests of the climate, the working class, and human beings all around the world—in mind.

For the sake of our collective future, keep both hands on the wheel of your mind. Educate yourself. Ground yourself in what is real.

And fuck AI.