Tinfoil Hats and Internet Spaceships

I was, for many years, an avid EVE Online player. EVE is a sandbox. The game has a comprehensive, player-run economy, massive space battles involving hundreds of players. EVE has been the subject of countless academic studies. The most interesting aspect of EVE, however, is the game's community.

EVE feels almost purpose-build to encourage bad behavior. Scamming and stealing are tolerated, among other nefarious actions. EVE's player-run alliances (analogous to 'guilds') live in a perpetual state of fear from espionage. EVE, as a game, has fewer social safeguards than we enjoy in reality.

EVE is a constant ethical conundrum--albeit one muted by the nature of gaming.

Territorial Control Map 

The game is incredibly tribalistic; in this way, it mirrors our world. Yet, as a microcosm, the fragility of a particular group's narrative is all the more evident. Sometimes, these efforts are rather shameless or tongue-in-cheek. Other times, the narratives are more subtle; believing that what your particular group is doing is 'right' increases morale. It helps win conflicts.

These attempts are, as Harry Frankfort might say, "Bullshit." They're not particularly well-disguised pieces of bullshit, either. 

Nevertheless, it's clear many players buy into these narrative streams wholeheartedly. And EVE is a game. The stakes aren't very high. In the real world, falling for such a narrative is a quieter thing. To quote Frankfort:

"It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth--this indifference to how things really are--that I regard as the essence of bullshit."

  

What is 'the truth,' here? Frankfort's view of a single, objective truth is problematic. There can be multiple truths. Furthermore, most issues we deal with on a day-to-day basis are not clear-cut. For every case like climate change--which, on a factual level, seems relatively clear--there are a dozen more without such clarity. These cases are surely the de facto in EVE. Are they in our world, as well?

Disregard for factuality is dangerous, to be sure. At the same time, a level of self-inoculation should protect us from it. As argument is not based on fact, but rather emotion; much of what we're exposed to on a daily basis is 'bullshit.' 

What we really need: a figurative tinfoil hat--not only to protect us from bullshit, but from other's ignorance. Because we want to believe what we're told. And most of the time, these discussions are not rooted in fact. Nowhere is this clearer exemplified than in online communities.

Note: image source in alt fields.