The Gestaltian Mistake

If there is one thing our brains love, it is grouping things. It makes it easier to process the volumes of information we need to sift through every second. It provides a sense of order and neatness to a naturally chaotic universe - which for many of us gives us a little feeling of calm.

If you aren't aware, Gestalt principles have a founding in psychology and are a cornerstone in design practice. Essentially, German psychologists recognized there are consistent ways the human mind will group information and recognize patterns... even if there isn't actually a pattern there.

Pattern matching where there isn't one is where a lot of people run into trouble. Think of when you travel to a new country and see a traffic sign you don't recognize - you are leaning on shape and color to match with symbols you know (a red octagon for stop, a yellow triangle for a warning), but there is a chance you could make a faulty assumption, or have no underlying pattern to match to.

For instance... What the hell UK? Wibbly Wobbly? What am I supposed to do here? Do I make my car bounce from side to side while I drive through here?

Logically, I believe this is a "slow down you dummy" marking, but I dunno.. is it?

My lack of global driving ability aside...

We don't just apply this instinctual grouping to objects, we apply it to people as well. We see people that look alike and assume they behave alike. People that dress alike think alike. People driving the same car all believe the same things.

Putting everything into neat predefined boxes makes it easier to navigate the world. We don't have to evaluate everything fresh every time we see something, and we are usually in the ballpark with our assumptions because our society has built in positive feedback for meeting the expectations of what you put on display.

But what about when our pattern matching is off?

We aren't right 100% of the time, and sometimes we see a pattern - either thinking someone is like a group of people because of a shared characteristic, or associating someone with a group because of proximity - that isn't actually there.

This is where shit can get messy depending on the assumption and what the action is.

Lets be frank - right now, there are a lot of fucking douchenozzles that think it is acceptable to say sexist, racist, and hateful shit. And in the US there is a President, Vice President, Secretary of State, DOJ head, Supreme Court majority, and on and on and on that are actively working to make life dangerous for anyone that isn't a certain type of white male "christian".

And if you are a semi-decent person, you can't stand for any of that. And you see it fucking everywhere, because it is everywhere. You need to be ever vigilant for all the little tells and cues that people might let slip because there are lots of people trying to sneak into spaces to poison them with their twisted views.

But... because it is everywhere, and because you can't treat this shit with a "well let's talk about it" kid glove approach - no, you need to fucking stomp that shit into the goddamned ground and chop off the fucking head and burn the fucking body to make sure it can't ever grow - there is going to be a time where you see a pattern that sets off alarms and are wrong. Guess what...

People will react defensively. Feelings are going to be hurt. Barbs will be slung.

In an ideal world, people will be able to quickly see there was a mistake, talk it out, and get things squashed.. but with people and feelings involved we know that isn't going to happen.

And if it involves two different online spaces, those spaces will quickly develop "us vs them" mindsets and start to lose the original issue. It will no longer be about whatever behavior set off the alarms in the first place - it will start to be about personal attacks, and ascribing the same problematic behavior or belief to everyone in the out group.

Because again, our brains love putting things into nice, easy to understand groups. It makes the natural messiness of the world much easier to handle.

But by doing this, we are losing some of the beauty of humanity. We stop seeing people as complex, imperfect beings with unique thoughts and wants and dreams, and we see them as a monolith that all believe a singular idea because our group decided that their group thinks the "bad thing". So all people in their group, because of whatever reason puts them in that group.. all those people think the same thing - and that is the only thing that matters.

It sucks that this sort of groupthink feels almost inevitable.

With groups of vulnerable people, they need to respond quickly to protect their spaces and those in that space. If someone says there is a threat, then defense is needed first before a "well let's have a nuanced look at things" approach can be considered.

Providing a space that is safe in a hostile world is going to unfortunately.... there's no good analogy I can find. "Ruffle some feathers" feels too light. "Catch someone in the crossfire" feels wrong and tonedeaf for the warcrimes that are happening in the world right now. Unfortunately go after the wrong people, or go after people with the wrong amount of fervor.

Evan, what the fuck are you on about?

This is me working through a lot of conflicting thoughts around the most recent round of fighting, name calling, and accusations of fascism on the fediverse.

In short: A little while ago, Adam of Omg.lol noticed a potential nazi dogwhistle on Manton's website. If you don't know, Adam does not care for the way Manton has handled some issues and criticisms. Adam called out the issue in a very public and direct manner.

This led to lots of people coming to defend Manton, lots of older issues being brought back up, and no real progress being made.

Everything seemed to be done, and then someone decided to jump in and bring everything back up which resulted in even more bad takes in defense of Manton.

Now..

Do I have respect for Adam and the amount of work he does calling out people for their horrible treatment of marginalized groups? Yes.

Would I have handled this specific instance differently? Yes.

I am assuming Adam didn't initially reach out to Manton and say "hey man.. we may have our differences, but FYI there is something problematic on your site."
Instead it was a public "I'm not saying he is a nazi, but..." which naturally got a lot of people who like Manton riled up.

Do I think that Manton was purposefully using a dogwhistle? No.

Do I understand why Adam went straight to airing thing in public based on past interactions? Yes.

Do I think it looks terrible that a bunch of appologists came out of the woodwork to defend the dogwhistle? Yes.

Do I think the actuality of what was being said was completely missed, and people latched on to an emotional response instead? Yes.

Has this been nagging at me even when away from my computer? Yes.

Have I been asking a lot "what is the outcome anyone wants from this?" Yes.

Do I know what that answer is besides "yelling into the void"? No.

I think that is the part that has been bothering me the most - at some point I find myself asking "what is the point of this?" and I don't know. It seems like all the people involved are just fighting and throwing around labels, but there is never a clear outcome.

Is it a single thing a single person needs to do? Is it a behavior shift in a whole group of people? Is a single person responsible for a whole group of people (ie: is Manton responsible for all "techbros" and their behavior?)?

I worry that no one knows what they want done. That they have been stuck being angry for too long, and that they are comfortable in that anger. It isn't moving them forward, but instead functioning as a weighted blanket - providing a place to retreat to when the world feels overwhelming.

And if people are getting punished just because others are angry and need a place to put that anger, what benefit is that bringing into the world? How is that reducing suffering? How is that improving things? Is it improving things at all?

(And just in case it isn't clear - I am in no way advocating for a "lets hear out the other side" when the other side is hate. This is me lamenting in/out-group mentality, the lack of ability to have nuanced conversations on difficult topics, and how with the shit state of the world we are going to have more false positives when looking for threats & that we need a better way to handle those false positives.)