I always have this constant fear that things I consume from someone that shares a like-minded opinion is just confirmation bias. And, for all I know, it very well could be. It was something I would do when I was younger to help me not spiral with existential dread. Luckily for now, those days are behind me.
Now I'd like to think I'm a bit more discerning of what views I take in and try to at least hear from different people. That is, until it pushes a hard boundary like denying someone's right to exist. That's a big No from me, dawg!
Anything else, at least from the working class, will at least get some consideration from me. I believe that a person's worldview is shaped by their circumstances and some level of truth. This is where my Marxism journey has taken me. There is a reason how and why we got here as a society and as an individual.
I say all this to say that while I try not to seek out content to verify my worldview, that content most often finds me. Now, that could be because algorithms know me better than I know myself. It could be because of who we follow or interact with on and offline. But, more often than not, I find myself coming across content that makes me think "Yo! I was literally just thinking that!"
This happened recently thanks to a video that was randomly posted on Mastodon by Ben Ramsey (@Ramsey@phpc.social) called "How to (Anti) AI Better" by Dr. Fatima.
Now, given my position on the use of "artificial intelligence" and the recent perversion of the term by capitalist marketing departments the world over, I reluctantly decided to watch it. This was before I realized it was 90 minutes long. Yet, I persisted.
After watching it, my mind wasn't really changed. If anything, it yet again cofirmed something I had been thinking for a little while after grappling with the contradictions we face with this technology.
In the video, she states the obvious about what the current state of generative AI is doing to the planet and society framing it from the individual's perspective. I'm not going to go through it here because it is well documented elsewhere by people way smarter than me, including Dr. Fatima and the experts she talks to in her video.
What really got me was hwo people should approach the conversation about AI usage. Essentially, if you don't use AI, that's great! But how can you talk to others about it if you aren't at least familiar with it? Also, does shaming people for using it actually work?
And that's what I actually want to talk about. When it comes to talking to people in our class, how can we do so popularly if we don't understand what or who we are fighting against? This then leads into a bigger point where shaming people won't get us to where we need to go.
This is why I said what I said earlier. We have to be able to talk and listen to viewpoints that differ from our own. As I've also said, this doesn't mean putting up with straight up fascism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, queerphobia, etc. But it does help to understand why people are the way they are.
Now, this isn't me saying you should lose your sanity trying to save your one racist uncle. However, it would help in organizing the masses if you understand why they thing these things. People aren't born problematic. It is something in their environment that molded and shaped them into who and what they are today.
In order to do that, though, we have to stop with the shaming. It may seem like it is effective in getting people in line. In fact, its quite the opposite. Not only are there studies that prove this here and here, I can speak from personal experience. From my personal use of AI tools to very personal matters, shame has only made me hide my behavior and even double down on said behavior.
And that acknowledgement weighed heavy on me. If shame does that to me, surely it happens to others. Then, it hit me! There is a group of people that can be observed in real time that openly exhibits this behavior. Since the 1960s, we could say that we "shamed" racism away. That the bigots knew what was up. The thing is, they never went away. They went underground. They stuck to their guns. They got bolder and bolder and bolder until we got MAGA. And now, no amount of shame you throw at them will get them to stop.
Now, maybe talking to and convincing the most hardcore of the MAGA faithful will yield success, but it still sheds light on how we got here. It informs us of what could have actually been done ot prevent this from happening and how we could prevent this from happening again.
This won't be easy, though. It is a very long and difficult process. It would require us to reach out and listen to others that you don't think you'll like or agree with because of one defining characteristic. We would actually have to sit in uncomfortable places and situations. But, in the end, we'd walk away with a better understanding. And, from that understanding, we can begin to make more meaningful changes in society.
But, this is something we can only achieve if we learn to let go of shame. To be more open and honest with people. We can and have to do better in order to save ourselves.
It'd be a shame if we lost it all.