DTA & THE CHAOS MACHINE Reading Reflection #9

Digital Nihilism & Desensitization — How can systematic desensitization online transform rhetoric into real-world violence? Any historical parallels?

At some point viewing acts of violence or participating in violent speech online will eventually seep through the cracks into the real world. The more people are fed violence and incentives to take action online, especially if it is consistent everyday use, combined with the human nature for moral outrage, people will act. From the book, Myanmar is an example of online rhetoric turning into real-world violence. Though what I think of is January 6th, 2021. Though it was found that women spend more time online than men, men spend their time on sites like X and Reddit, where feeds with misogyny and conservative ideals are pushed much more aggressively through algorithms. Violent content and aggressive behavior are often found in these social platforms, desensitizing people to experiences that would often be considered traumatic. Car crash compilation videos are a great example of this. Why would anyone find people being thrown from their cars or smashed and killed by an 18-wheeler enjoyable? I don't know, but people do. Bringing me back to January 6th, 2021. People had just spent the last sixth months living in or fighting against lockdown. The people fighting it were also deeply involved in online right-wing forums and groups where protests and other such activities were organized. They fed each other hate speech and ideas of violence that they then reassured each other were perfectly normal and were what was needed to ensue. That they would be doing the right thing and changing history.

To the rest of us, they were an embarrassment and a bunch of bafoons being encouraged by one big bafoon. Their desensitization online eventually led to the violence that occurred on January 6th.