Becoming Your Critics’ Caricature

Updated: 2025.10.12 9D ago 3 sources
Sustained public accusations can reshape an institution’s identity until it matches the hostile narrative. Silicon Valley, long attacked as greedy and anti-human, is framed as now embracing 'cheatware,' job-displacing rhetoric, and dehumanized CEO personas. — This mechanism explains how reputational pressure can drive cultural drift across sectors, not just tech, changing how we anticipate institutional behavior under attack.

Sources

Thatcher was Sinn FĂŠin’s useful demon
Darran Anderson 2025.10.12 50% relevant
The essay’s claim that portraying Thatcher as a devil figure helped forge Sinn Féin’s identity echoes the mechanism where sustained accusation and framing shape the opposing side’s persona and mobilization—even if here it’s the target’s image catalyzing the rival movement rather than changing the target.
Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults?
2025.08.06 60% relevant
Critics often mock rationalists as cultish; the article documents subgroups like the Zizians (linked to six deaths) and Black Lotus adopting esoteric/demonic frames, illustrating how reputational pressure and internal dynamics can make a movement resemble its hostile stereotype.
A Prophecy of Silicon Valley's Fall
Erik Hoel 2025.06.26 100% relevant
Author’s framing that the Valley has 'become the thing it was unfairly criticized for,' with examples like Cluely’s 'Cheat on Everything' and inhuman-sounding Big Tech CEO interviews.
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