Post by @corbden@defcon.social

2026-09-28 16:18 UTC

RE: https://wandering.shop/@susankayequinn/117349473500717138 I have an extrospective insight, if I may. A "self as a collection of tasks who should subcontract to a machine"... Stepping into a mind who would think such a thing is a positive... I thought, well that makes the human role just an executive functioner, or... An executive... And realized that's what management does... organize and assign tasks. And this is how they see laborers, knowledge workers, and creatives. Machines they subcontract tasks to. And they're the mind that makes the machine work. And they think that's the preferred role. What a terrible worldview to operate under. What a terrible way to exist. They must think they're elevating us to their level. Freeing us from the doldrums of being mere production machines. When in fact it's the opposite for us. Producing for its own sake is the best part. The worst part is producing on behalf of an executive for the purpose of soulless profit that isn't ours. By making us become like them, they think they're *helping*. I consume a lot of horror content, and this is the most chilling thing I've seen all week. (But sir, it's only Monday.) #AbuseCulture

Replies (3)

@TallSimon@mstdn.ca 2026-09-29 12:02

@corbden@defcon.social Reading Patricia Crone's "Pre-Industrial Societies" (and feeling like the last person in the world to have done so) I was struck by this passage in the chapter "Bourgeoisie": "All those who had to work with their hands were despised, pre-industrial elites all over the world being united in their contempt for the 'vile and mechanical world of labour'. (One Thalassius was refused entry to the Senate in fourth-century Constantinople on the grounds that he owned a knife factory and was suspected of having worked in it himself: the prejudice had far more intercultural intelligibility than did the institution from which he was excluded.)" I realized that this is an old, old pattern. Having been raised in a family of doers, knowing how to take a fair crack at anything has always been a point of pride. I deeply underestimated how much understanding the details and basic craftman's competence marked me as a peasant.

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@corbden@defcon.social 2026-09-28 16:23

(And this is why we need the word "extrospection" as separate from "empathy." We need to understand the minds of people we *can't* and *shouldn't* empathize with.) #AbuseCulture

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@greytheearthling@wandering.shop 2026-09-28 18:25

@corbden@defcon.social They assume everyone wants to do everything #LikeABoss — feel important and in control with minimum effort, full credit for whatever success you oversaw, and no responsibility for anything that's later perceived as a failure.

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