The Metaphysics of Slop

Elon saved freedom of speech then made it cringe

Everyone has their own relationship with social media. The grifter wants your money. The poster wants to express themselves. The loser wants to be liked. The lurker wants to be entertained.

Everyone has their own relationship with Reality. Reality can be heaven, hell, or purgatory.

One’s relationship with social media reflects their relationship with Reality. If the electric grid goes out tomorrow, your reality should be just as, if not more interesting, than what you do online. The more addicted to social media one is, the more their reality needs work.

Vice Enjoyers vs. Vice Addicts

Everyone has their vice. The source of pleasure they’re most easily seduced by. Most vices are okay in moderation. Few should be avoided completely. None should be used in excess.

Most people can enjoy their vices in moderation. Some people are prone to becoming addicted to their vices. What lies underneath each person’s vice is fascinating.

Why did the cellulite goblin get addicted to fried food over masturbating? Why didn’t the town drunk get addicted to gambling instead of alcohol? These choices are extremely personal and emotionally historical.

Why people become addicted to certain vices over others is interesting. The reasons why they avoid reality is even more interesting, and much more uncomfortable to understand.

The Vastness of Nothing

Buddhists have a concept called Dukka, the inherent unsatisfactoriness of life, which stems from our natural craving for permanence. They believe this craving is one of the primary sources of human suffering.

Buddhists also have a concept called Śūnyatā, which translates to ‘emptiness’ or The Void. In Buddhism, emptiness isn’t nihilism. It means everything we experience lacks an inherent permanence.

While experiencing our vices, the dopamine we receive yields a deep sense of permanence. In that moment, life feels like it has inherent meaning. In those moments, we are eons away from feeling the depths of The Void.

I’m not a Buddhist, but Buddhism, along with most other religions, has a lot of wisdom to offer. I strongly agree with Blaise Pascal’s famous quote “All of humanity's problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Cool Vices and Cringe Vices

Alcohol, cocaine, sex, nicotine, gambling, video games, porn, masturbating, eating, spending money. These are the standard vices.

Some vices are cooler than others.

Cocaine is cooler than alcohol. Having sex is cooler than jerking off. Spending money is cooler than eating yourself into a food coma.

Scrolling is also a source of pleasure. The small dopamine hits you get while moving your thumb against your phone. Scrolling is a vice.

Most people are scrolling addicts now. It’s completely normal for a 12 year old and your boomer aunt to share the same addiction. This is a very strange aspect of our culture.

Everyone knows scrolling too often isn’t good for them. They know they should be doing something better. Yet for some reason, despite most people having embarrassing Screen Time reports, scrolling isn’t seen as harmful as the other standard vices.

Of course — in comparison to heroin, scrolling sounds relatively harmless. Biochemically, this is true. You won’t start violently throwing up if your phone is taken away from you (hopefully). But everyone knows someone the internet has driven insane, or brought out their latent insanity.

Scrolling isn’t a cool vice. Far from it. Actually, scrolling addiction is pretty gay. Scraping your thumb against a dirty screen eager for the next dopamine hit like a bored and retarded animal. We’re all prone to this addiction. I’m guilty of it too. Scrolling addiction is indeed very pathetic.

Why are we like this?

We Were Promised The Digital Town Square but We Just Got Retards Calling Everyone Jewish

The internet used to be cool. If not cool, then it was at least interesting. The internet was uncharted territory. It was weird. You could find crazy things on there. You could find out the truth about most things relatively quickly. Google actually worked. There was a lot to explore.

Now the internet has no uncharted territory. It’s owned, optimized, compressed, censored, sterilized, and predictable. It’s boring. It isn’t cool. In other words — the internet is Slop.

Elon Musk, by the grace of God, bought Twitter, fired the leftists, then let everyone say whatever they want without getting banned (for the most part). This will be remembered as the Rubicon-crossing of our time. If Elon didn’t buy Twitter, then Kamala Harris would be President of the United States. Most of us would be banned and many of us would be in jail for committing thoughtcrimes. America would be the UK. Elon Musk probably saved America.

Elon has tremendous balls. No man could be in his position without such a pair. Elon is also shockingly intelligent. He’s a once-in-a-few-centuries type of man. I admire a lot of things about Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is, however, at his core — a Redditor. Elon’s sense of humor didn’t evolve past high school (college humor is dirtier & funnier). Elon also has questionable judgment in people. Elon willingly follows, and consistently engages with, Ian Miles Chung. Need I say more?

Elon wants to be cool. Because of this, at his stature — Elon is a Slop magnet.

The Metaphysics of Slop

What is Slop?

Slop - noun - the digital manifestation of the cowardly gray goo in human nature that just wants to fit in.

Slop has a formula.

People + Freedom of Speech + Payouts + Algorithm = Slop

Freedom of Speech At Scale is Embarrassing

You’re allowed to speak freely online now. Great! But this comes at an expensive cost. You’re now subject to the thoughts of…The People. Millions of…people. From all over the world. The Public. The Airport.

The above pictures are examples of The People. The People have the right to vote. The People now have the Freedom to Participate in ‘The Discourse’ with you. Isn’t that great?

Most people don’t have anything interesting to say. Most people don’t principles, they just want to be liked. Most people don’t have original thoughts, they’re just easily manipulated. Most people aren’t cool. Most people are boring. In fact, most people are Chinese. Most people live in India. Isn’t that scary?

What do you gain from seeing the thoughts of The People?

When was the last time you followed someone who made you worried that everything you ever believed could be completely wrong? When was the last time you read something that made you rethink your entire life? When was the last time you felt something that made you want to drop everything and start a new life? Or does everything feel the same now?

Slop is the opposite of Art.

He Who Is Allergic to Slop Will Inherit The Earth

What impact does Slop have on the mind? How does it effect one’s understanding of human nature?

Our minds evolved to know ~150 people, in total. Anything past that, your brain can’t manage it. The brain did not evolve to see the thoughts of millions of strangers from different cultures. But now, it’s part of life.

Movies. Music. Apps. News. Social Media. It’s all Slop. We live in Slopworld.

If you’re addicted to the internet, then you’re addicted to Slop. In fact, in all likelihood, you’re probably a Slop Addict.

Why are we like this?

Good vs. Bad Freedom of Speech

In a democracy, freedom of speech should be absolute. I’m a free speech absolutist. Being able to use the right words to describe reality to make people see it more clearly without going to jail is pretty cool. Freedom of speech often changes life for the better.

But freedom of speech is a hard sell. Most people are stupid and easily brainwashed. Nearly half of Americans voted for Kamala Harris. Trump didn’t win the popular vote by a landslide. But freedom of speech is what brought Trump to power. In America, the problem isn’t Freedom of Speech. The problem is People. A lot of people, quite simply, need to die.

At the voting booth, Americans are having an argument with each other. At the timeline, the entire world is having an argument. This is weird. This isn’t necessary. It doesn’t make any sense to do so. We shouldn’t all be talking to each other. Freedom of speech at scale is very cringe.

Ever notice how much of American political discourse is driven by foreigners? Douglas Murray, the Triggernometry guys, Jordan Peterson, Claire Lehman. They’re not American. They’re citizens of the UK, Canada, and Australia. They don’t have freedom of speech.

Why should Americans listen to people who can’t even get their political house in order?

But alas, they have freedom of speech online. No one can stop them, and it’s easy to forget they aren’t American.

There’s a long list of things Elon could do to dampen the Slopfest. In addition to ending monetization, he could force users to have their nation’s flag in their handle. Knowing who is and isn’t posting from India would improve the quality of the internet overnight. But I digress. Flags in bio is just one of many examples.

Until these changes are made, the Slop production will only get worse.

The Mechanics of Slop Addiction

Most people aren’t addicted to Slop, but what happens around the Slop.

People are addicted to social media for a myriad of reasons. Personally, I get addicted to my own ego. I’m a narcissist. I enjoy being able to influence, and often dictate, The Discourse. I like posting my thoughts and getting over 1K likes without even trying. I like to make people laugh. I understand I’m in a different position than most, but those are my reasons.

Some people are addicted to the social lives they’ve built online. They’re addicted to not feeling alone. They’re addicted to being agreed with. They’re addicted to feeling part of a group. They’re addicted to gossip. They’re addicted to sitting at the cafeteria table they never had.

Some people are addicted to combat. They’re addicted to exercising their right to express themselves. They like shitting on people. They’re addicted to proving people wrong. I also fit into this category.

There’s too many reasons behind this addiction to name. They’re all much more complex than I described and highly personal and specific to each person.

The Pros & Cons of Logging Off

I don’t watch porn, play video games, or watch sports. I don’t use Facebook. Facebook is for boomers. I don’t use Instagram. Instagram for women. I don’t use TikTok. TikTok is for easily distracted zoomers. X and Substack are my social media apps. They’re the apps for narcissistic millennials and intelligent zoomers.

Whenever I deactivate, I usually see what’s going on from an alt. But this time, I haven’t. Right Wing X had devolved into a playground for anons to slapfight over digital clout for egirl pussy. The same gender discourse topics get recycled every two months. Everyone wants to be a meme now. It’s just not fun anymore. The Slop is too thick. I’ll eventually return, but I don’t miss it at all.

I take regular breaks from X for 2-3 months at a time a few times a year. When I log off, it’s out of sight, out of mind. I forget I ever even created an account. I never regret it. The benefits are too good.

The Downside of Logging Off

I don’t know what The People are talking about. And that’s a good thing. Rarely am I missing out on Good Discourse. But I like to know what’s going on. I have to read the news to find out what’s happening in the world. Most news sites are anti-American communist garbage. I subscribe to The Wall Street Journal now, like a boomer. They’re not perfect, but they’re the least explicitly biased.

I don’t know what’s happening the second it happens. I miss that, but this is a good thing. We’re not supposed to know about what happens all over the world immediately.

Sometimes I get bored. Normally I grab my phone when I feel bored and start scrolling. But now I’m forced to feel boredom. When was the last time you felt bored?

Those are the only downsides. You don’t know what’s happening immediately and sometimes you feel bored.

The Benefits of Logging Off

Feeling bored is good. Boredom is the gateway to The Void. You don’t want to stare into it for too long, but you should at least shake hands with it now & then. The Void is your friend. Daydreaming is flirting with The Void.

Social media is an insane asylum. There’s a lot of insane people on there. These people can give you the idea that most people are insane. But they aren’t. Most people are normal. Logging Off nukes the insane asylum. Life is better without them.

My quality of sleep has improved dramatically.

I’m more focused on things I should be doing while I’m scrolling. I work harder at specific goals. I’m more attuned to my responsibilities. I’m more present for the people I care about most.

I think about Online People less and Real Life People more. I become more aware of what I like about the Real Life People and why they’re important to me.

Things I was avoiding come to surface. Feelings I’ve been smothering underneath scrolling. Friendships, family, or relationships that need more of my attention. I become more present to the people I care about most.

Everyone has a long list of things they can and should be doing better. Everyone’s list looks different. These things stare you in the face after you Log Off.

Slop is bad for you. Slop is contagious. I’m not saying you should Log Off forever (nobody does). But being addicted to Slop is a choice. The withdrawal symptoms are not severe. You can Scroll Less. You can Log Off. You can take a break. You can walk away from Slopworld. You can say No. Life is to be enjoyed.