Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

by Jia Tolentino

The internet reminds us on a daily basis that it is not at all rewarding to become aware of problems that you have no reasonable hope of solving.

In the absence of time to physically and politically engage with our community the way many of us want to, the internet provides a cheap substitute: it gives us brief moments of pleasure and connection, tied up in the opportunity to constantly listen and speak. Under these circumstances, opinion stops being a first step toward something and starts seeming like an end in itself.

The early internet had been constructed around lines of affinity, and whatever good spaces remain on the internet are still the product of affinity and openness.