Auto-poetic Games: [Us] Versus [Them]
Guest Contribution
Exposing Collective Thoughtforms in the Minimal Group Paradigm
“Minimal Group Paradigm” model suggests ingroup and outgroup identity basically follows process of autopoiesis.
Why?
A Really Long Preamble:
This a experimental philosophical piece addressing issues that I am not good at describing. It’s somewhat abstract, as I’m trying to explore an idea space I originally described as ‘The PeopleNet’, hopefully as naively as possible, and with language that others can understand.
To start out on a lighthearted stance, here’s a visual joke I just made just for this purpose:
Why it’s so hard to communicate across groups:
And a funny GIF of a dog that I’ve previously associated with the subject:
The ingroup that attempts to reject groups. The uncomfortable feeling of trying to become part of your own outgroup. https://t.co/z3ummIbBk2
?—?@ultimape
This is an attempt at a very meta discussion on the nature of human group formations, or ‘groupism’, and a curious patterns in language I often see emerge. The narrative formula I’m using is more abstract than standard formulations. It’s one part philosophy, one part autobiographic, and one part art. I’m calling it “Auto-poetic Games” in the sense that it’s poetry game you play with yourself. It dealing with topics personal and collective selfhood.
I swear, this isn’t an attempt at SubTweeting everyone on Twitter. Well maybe it is, but I mean well.
It feels like a high-school rumor mill on steroids. Passing notes, listening in on the outgroup. Snitching to the ingroup & authorities.
?—?@ultimape
How to play the game.
I’ve taken a couple of pieces written (long form and tweets) about a couple of different subgroup and intentionally transformed it into a kind of fill-in-the-blank stories game. The idea is you would use this set of blanks, or generate your own, and try to find areas in your life where the patterns fit. I imagine it like a framework for playing I Spy, but with abstract group boundaries vs physical things.
Anywhere I’ve written something in square brackets [like this], you can replace it with the appropriate term. For example, if I wrote [outgroup slur], you could replace it with something from hatebase or rsdb that’s relevant to your particular framing of ingroup-outgroup conflict.
I found a random character generator that creates these kinds of things if you need a mental surrogate to picture an outgroup. I’ve also compiled a short list of (potentially offensive) outgroups from some other memetic hazard research if you are having trouble identifying your own. But really the point of this is to exercise in identifying when you’ come across ideological divides. I use it to build mental models of others.
Integratively complex thinkers are better able to reach mutually advantageous solutions in mixed-motive games” https://t.co/HQBucDxTYU
?—?@ultimape
The actual game is an expression of a meta-model of conversations that I’ve been having with myself, and others, for ages. It seems I’ve been exploring the manifestations of something known as the “Minimal Group Paradigm”?—?a sort of theory on how humans form social bonds. My frame is by no means the only way to view these situations, and it is most assuredly a simplification on my part, but I find it useful.
the outgroup, am I right
Playing this language game may seem a little strange, and at times uncomfortable. It might even make you mad. But please try not to take it personally. It is really a game I invented for myself and I’m not trying to use it to attack anyone. Growing up socially isolated and undiagnosed autistic, this exploration is really just my own way of exploring a scary confusing world outside of my limited world view.
I am just misunderstood and in pain. Many of us are. https://t.co/iJT3rC6oQp
?—?@ultimape
It’s important to remember: as I combined a number of different rants together, ingroups & outgroups you identify are likely a reflection of your own mental processes. Given that my goal was to help me illuminate my own biases and grow my understand of others, this is is actually by design. This is an insight generator for the hidden group dynamics that I am largely oblivious to within my own life. So if you feel anger (0r disgust), take a moment to try and understand where that’s coming from. It is not my intention to cause you pain.
Look at this [meta-outgroup prophet] spreading propaganda! A radical experiment in empathy. https://t.co/QmTn2ndZ1z
?—?@ultimape
So, like most games it’s really up to you, the player, in how it plays off. While I suspect for the average player this game might genuinely be upsetting, another way to approch playing this is with a lighthearted tone. My own view is one of curiosity. As an example, consider one of the more amusing ones I’ve recently observed: when the Pope referred to cacophagy?—?which apparently is an indirect reference to an obscure outgroup of literal shit eaters and the origin of the term shit-eating grin. I’d only ever heard that unfamiliar outgroup slur used in reference to the dining behavior of dung beetles.
I’m sure the dung beetles don’t mind being used that way. Be like the dung beetle?
when a philosopher suggests that mulching children could be good he does not actually promote baby-mulching,” http://t.co/j1Zwgeq36i
?—?@ultimape
Sometimes it is helpful to understand a bit of the identity of the game designers, so I’ll share a bit more about myself image. I find I identify the most with an ancient philosopher known as Diogenes of Sinope. He was kind of an asshole, but at the same time he seemed to mean well. I like to imagine him as simply being misunderstood. Strangely, history suggests he was the person who supposedly coined the original version of “Cosmopolitan” (world citizen), while simultaneously rejected most aspects of his society. Modern thinkers would label him a contrarian. It me.
THE MOST SAVAGE PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME” via /r/philosophy/ https://t.co/MJEngKJOdQ
?—?@ultimape
Given that I’ve interwoven my own experiences into the narrative, I find it helps to rewrite it from your own perspective. After you play my copy, I encourage you to try generating your own versions of the blanks, and even foray into house rules. Consider this more of a template for how to structure the fill-in-the-outgroup narratives in general. I’ve tried to keep it simple by only focusing on the group-ism aspect, but I’m sure there are any number of reformulations that might help us highlight other meme patterns in our society.
I’d love to see yours.
Standing at the boundaries of Darmok & Jalad; Learning the shibboleths of the outgroup – translating it into analogies for the ingroup.
?—?@ultimape
Now, Let the Games Begin!
It’s signals all the way down.
MFW: people use meta-tropes / meta-tactics of the outgroup they claim to hate for using, to signal their ingroup. https://t.co/eaXsJBjFlg
?—?@ultimape
Game #1) Call and Response:
Someone from my ingroup sent me a tweet like this:
“The [#former_ingroup] has been hijacked by [#disgusting_outgroup]. Hiding their sense of [identity] behind a wall of [ingroup shaming] #resist”
It triggered a rant:
Jury is still out on that in my view. I’ve seen far too much harassment and sock-puppeting to say so with any certainty if that is true. But I can’t fault you for that perspective, there is a lot of really nasty stuff on the internet attributed to [outgroup]. I just hope it isn’t as epidemic as some would suggest. I know a lot of [outgroupers] in real life that are just fine. Many of them are very caring people who have the same goals as you do: stop all the suffering in the world.
Is there an euphemistic treadmill for outgroup labels? Ingroup ones? The stubbornness of group to maintain identity, vs those who distance.
?—?@ultimape
I prefer to look at the world the same way I do biology: dissecting habits down to traits and lineages, not ontologies. Once people start grouping other people and drawing lines in sand, all I see is The Illusion of Asymetric Insight. I envision culture itself as a fluid network of people. Putting labels toward them is like trying mark a pile of sand in a windstorm. It’s convenient to shovel sand, but it starts to make them appear as an amorphous blobs, and we lose sight of each other’s humanity.
I don’t want to be part of a mob who dehumanizes others.
All I see are emotion bombs, filled with shame, aimed at [the outgroup]. And in return, [the outgroup] fires back at [the ingroup]. Collateral damage be damned, they shouldn’t have been standing so close to them.
Is there an euphemistic treadmill for outgroup labels? Ingroup ones? The stubbornness of group to maintain identity, vs those who distance.
I may appear to be from [ingroup], but due to [detested aberration] I’m actually from [meta-outgroup], but you may never notice. This makes me odd.
In my view, focusing on some small [ingroup] offshoot for their shaming behavior is missing the forest for the trees. I see shame as an intrinsic part of behaviors and essential aspect of group cohesion. Those on the autistic spectrum may have an interesting ‘out’ for this behavior if you consider the Social Motivation Theory of Autism. We can transcend, or at least side-step, our own shaming behavior by being mindful of how we interact with the world. But until we can see that behavior and how effects others, we’ll never be able to self-modify. So I find it important to not contribute to group-thinking and reverse shaming.
It is important to realize that this does not make us ‘better’, only that we operate under a different set of rules. As such, I spend time trying to contribute to empathy?—?a tactic lends itself toward allowing our different social strategies to coexist. I do this for sake of our species. Attacking what is considered ‘[#disgusting_outgroup]’ isn’t going move us forward on this front. Its just more lines in sand. As you know as well as I do, it is far too easy to come off as rude. It’s hard to not be a dick.
Game #2) Creative SubTweeting:
Just a bunch of random tweets I rewrote in this paradigm:
If you stare at [the ingroup] long enough, they too begin to look like [the outgroup]? ?
If you filter-bubble [the outgroup] out of consciousness, [your ingroup] has to asexually reproduce a [new outgroup] for you ?
For the record, I do not claim to understand [the outgroup]. I only claim to understand [the outgroup’s monster]. ?
If you got this far,
Thank you for reading. I hope you were able to see something insightful in the game’s mirror. If nothing else. I appreciate you making an attempt to understand my world view better.
Here’s some more tweets I think are funny given we’ve shared this context:
I shame you. You shame me. Now we both are angry. Not sure what either of us expected.
?—?@ultimape
Trying to absorb multiple ideologies, & balance models that people hold against other models is tiring. I feel like I’m angry at everybody.
?—?@ultimape
If you can’t laugh with the outgroup against your own ingroup, how are you ever going to change their minds? https://t.co/IlWs3d8qUq
?—?@ultimape
Jokes help us define ourselves from the void. https://t.co/GmuRu4J6BY
?—?@ultimape
