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Reply to @jk@mastodon.social
josef@jk@mastodon.social (2026-08-22 22:33:01)
i think being powerful means you can change the physical state of the world and also change what people think about it. if you do something physically big, and tell a big story that purports to explain it, then any opposing story which seeks to undo that thing, however big, will eventually sound untrue, so long as the thing persists. the contradiction of "thing exists, but the story says it shouldn't exist" requires more mental energy to sustain than "thing exists, and the story says it should"
---Reply---
josef@jk@mastodon.social (2026-08-22 22:37:39)
if someone razes a neighborhood to build a highway, or invades a country, there will obviously be competing stories about whether that thing should be done. but the party that did the razing or the invading has the advantage that their story has the comfortable characteristic of explaining that the world is how it should be. the party with the opposing story can summon nothing but discomfort, if all they have is the story. i think it's very difficult for an uncomfortable story to endure