Holy crap this story knocked me over.

[lunareclipse@snug.moe]

@mttaggart learning some chilling historical facts

The unraveling doesn't happen all at once. It is a slow rot, a decomposition of confidence that the Germans call Zersetzung. Psychological decomposition. It was the method the Stasi used to break dissidents not with torture, but with gaslighting, with subtle alterations of reality until the subject lost faith in their own mind.

and from wikipedia

Zersetzung […] is a psychological warfare technique first used by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) to repress political opponents in East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. […] The Stasi used operational psychology and its extensive network of between 170,000 and over 500,000 informal collaborators (inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) to launch personalized psychological attacks against targets to damage their mental health and lower chances of a "hostile action" against the state. Among the collaborators were youths as young as 14 years of age.

[arnebab@rollenspiel.social]

@WeirdWriter I found The Bookstore of Hope. Part one feels so much of the drab and harsh and exhaustion I know too well that I feared it would continue hardening and draining, but part two made it wonderful. Strengthened life, as if it formed a root that flowered into a new reality.

/cc @susankayequinn
@mttaggart

[arnebab@rollenspiel.social]

Aside: for anyone else reading, this is the link to the story: https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-bookstore-hope/

@WeirdWriter @mttaggart @susankayequinn

[0x4d6165@transfem.social]

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange this is heartbreaking and beautiful

[bjorndown@mastodon.social]

@mttaggart @WeirdWriter Thanks for sharing. I am still reading but

> "Great! Alright, creators," Brad announces. The word 'creators' sounds slippery in his mouth, like he's selling a subscription service. "Let's synergize the workflow tonight. Go on, Leo."

made me clench my fist involuntarily.

[mgclgrl@transfem.social]

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange I hate the "democratizing knowledge" and "democratizing creativity" argument so much. these things are already democratized. there are endless resources online and in libraries that can help people develop their skills, expand their sensibilities and learn things for free. all AI does is let you pretend you've put in the work; it lets you roleplay someone who actually has drive. it's an empty aesthetic sold in fancy packaging en masse, like a tshirt that says "be excellent to each other" made in a sweatshop on the other side of the world.

[susankayequinn@wandering.shop]

@ArneBab I have read this, it's brilliant! @WeirdWriter is a wonderful I shared this with my daughter, an aspiring writer as well as ecologist, a while back and she loved it too

writer@mttaggart@infosec.exchange

[weirdwriter@caneandable.social]

Thanks! I also just published https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/loading-cartridge-thepurrparadoxexe/ @susankayequinn @ArneBab

[shellsharks@shellsharks.social]

@mttaggart Just read it. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t well up a bit. It definitely makes me feel better about my own mediocre prose . At least it’s human! ( I scream at no one in particular).

It also reminds me to add a point about “keeping the web human” in my “why should you blog” post.

[arnebab@rollenspiel.social]

@susankayequinn I should have guessed that you know it

But it is just so good.

[joe_vinegar@mastodon.bida.im]

@faoluin @mttaggart @WeirdWriter #LLM https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/ "The unraveling doesn't happen all at once. It is a slow rot, a decomposition of confidence that the Germans call Zersetzung[1]. Psychological decomposition. It was the method the Stasi used to break dissidents not with torture, but with gaslighting, with subtle alterations of reality until the subject lost faith in their own mind."

[1].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zersetzung
[...] to undermine their self-confidence and self-esteem. [...] designed to intimidate and destabilise them by subjecting them to repeated disappointment, and to socially alienate them by interfering with and disrupting their relationships with others [...] to induce personal crises in victims, leaving them too unnerved and psychologically distressed to have the time and energy for anti-government activism.

[daridrea@graphics.social]

@mttaggart thought: imagine that for example, because of the LLMs and their consequences... there'll be no second umberto Eco and the Prague Cemetery ️

thanks @WeirdWriter

[insidertreat@infosec.exchange]

@mttaggart finally set aside time to read this and thank you so much for sharing. Incredibly moving, generating such a varied range of emotions. Best thing I've read in a long while.

[crowbriarhexe@tech.lgbt]

@FritzAdalis @mttaggart yes!!!

[crowbriarhexe@tech.lgbt]

@mttaggart this is just soul-saving at hope-preserving at this moment in time

[distractal@hachyderm.io]

@mttaggart "Hallucination of competence" is an incredible term

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@mttaggart
> "No," I say, and my voice is the low growl of a guard dog. "The hinge was perfect. The bell is a lie. Leo, that machine didn't improve your writing. It erased your grandmother."

this (in the context of what built up to it) hit hard

[zordrak@tiggi.es]

@mttaggart This is pretty awesome. Definitely tugged at my emotions.

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@mttaggart
> "I feel so stupid. I let it into my head and now I can't get it out. I look at my own thoughts and they look wrong. They look like errors."

jesus fuck this really goes to the heart of it

[leighelse@mastodon.nz]

@mttaggart I love this.