Isn't most of what humans do just slop? Long periods of "good enough," and "getting by" interspersed with flashes of brilliance?
From UnHerd, January 1:
How to navigate the Year of Slop | You’ll need an intellectual toolkit
....MUCH MORE, including Amara's Law and Molach's BargainWe’ve entered the Age of Slop and are adrift in an ocean of thoughtless content that’s diluted all truth and meaning. And yet, hidden in that ocean are pearls of wisdom. I’ve spent months sifting through the slop for ideas that can actually change how you think. Here are 26 of them. Consider this your intellectual survival kit for 2026.
1. 1% rule
In online communities, around 1% of users produce almost all of the content. As such, what you see online is not representative of humanity, but merely of a loud, obsessive (and often narcissistic, psychopathic, low-IQ) minority. Social media is literally a freakshow.
2. Slopaganda
More online articles are now written by AI than by humans. And research is increasingly finding that AI is better at persuading people than people themselves are. Who wins in a world of unlimited propaganda? Not those with the best arguments, but those with the most.
3. Reality Apathy
When the sheer volume of conflicting information makes the effort of finding the truth costlier than the value of knowing it, people give up trying to be accurate and instead choose whatever bullshit stinks least. In the age of slopaganda, we must defend not just the truth, but the very worth of truth....
