The Screwtape “Text Messages” #8: Virtual Validation, Cancel Culture, and Cyber Bullying
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the eighth of The Screwtape “Text Messages” in Today’s AI World. Although the basic C.S. Lewis Screwtape Letters vehicle of communications of a senior demon to an apprentice is retained, I have made a few changes:
The method of communication is text messages instead of letters. The apprentice demon, Wormwood, has been replaced by Phishhook and Screwtape has been replaced by Mephisto, named after a demon from German folklore and Faust. The target to be tempted by the demons is referred to as “The Lostling.” The demons refer to hell as Meta-Dystopia. Finally, there are observations about the text messages from a “good team” fact checker/analyst, Clarion Veridiel. Her name means truth from God.
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TO: Phishhook (101-001-1010) URGENT
FROM: Mephisto
LOSTLING DOSSIER: Your temptation target is a 16- year-old girl who is part of a happy, stable family. Currently, she is a sophomore in a large urban high school. The Lostling does well in school and is popular with her classmates. Like all those in her cohort, growing up she has only known life online and participates actively on all the social media platforms that are popular with her peers. She seems quite confident but is subject to the uncertainties and anxieties of teenagers.
Dear Phishhook:
Teenagers are my favorite target because they are trying to establish their identity and place in life, and I delight in thwarting their efforts. There are so many points of attack that it is difficult for me to focus, but, for now, let’s direct our efforts to the following three areas. I’ll provide some general suggestions and leave you to work out the details of your dastardly deeds.
Virtual Validation. Mark Twain once said that he could go a month on a good complement, but that he was usually disappointed because people didn’t say more. He was born too soon. Virtual validation can be instantaneous and continuous. Basically, it involves seeking and receiving approval from and being valued by others who are online. Let’s think about how you can use or, even better, manipulate likes, comments, and retweets to achieve our goal of weakening the target.
Cancel Culture. This one should come naturally to you because we used it on you for decades while you were in limbo. But it is different with humans. We don’t try to physically remove them; we just make them invisible by shunning them from online communities with the hope that the exclusion will damage some of their real-life relationships and affect their self-esteem.
I have some experience with effective cancel culture. We kept Galileo’s ideas from the mainstream for years. More recently, we used our willing dupe Joe McCarthy to help blackball playwright Arther Miller and to get Robert Oppenheimer kicked out of the very program he ran to produce the atomic bomb. It can be a very effective technique, and it can work just as well to make a teenager’s life miserable as it did to punish the rich and famous.
Cyber-bullying. Remember how we used to recruit 220-pound bullies to kick sand in the face of 110-pound weaklings at the beach. We’ve gone away from that approach and towards online bullying that doesn’t harm a hair on their heads but is great at messing with their minds. The advantage of good cyber bullying is that the 110-pound weakling can use it against the 220-pounder. Plus, there are so many variations.
Start with, but don’t limit yourself to run-of-the-mill approaches such as hurtful comments about her posts or pictures, spreading rumors to damage her reputation, hacking into her accounts and inserting inappropriate comments. Then consider using use really nasty cyber-bullying such as sending a slew of threatening messages or using revenge porn by spreading real or AI-generated photos of her. Remember the time you attached a picture of Scarlet Johanson’s head to your gnarled body. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the desired response from the target on that one.
If we are unsuccessful or become bored, the Handbook lists a slew of other options we can pursue later. In the past, your efforts have been rather haphazard. With this target, let’s take a more systematic, disciplined approach. I eagerly await your report. It would be prudent for you not to disappoint me.
Your predatory file leader: Mephisto
TO: Mephisto (666-911-1313)
FROM: Phishhook
Dear Mephisto:
Per your instructions to take an analytic approach, I started with a background analysis of the target’s online activities. Luckily, various sources keep close track of individual behavior and retain data on exactly how the targets spend their online time. These sources use this information to make money, but I co-opted them to refine my temptations.
This Lostling averages about six hours of screen time per day, which is typical for her age group. I could break it down by specific activity, but I will spare you the details and just report the results of my efforts in each of the three categories where I was directed to focus my efforts. Dampen your expectations because the results are a mixed bag.
First, let me report on virtual validation. The target frequently posts on social media, and she closely follows likes and comments. Lots of likes and positive comments give her a pronounced ego boost and a sense of acceptance. I couldn’t affect the likes, but comments are easy to manipulate. I had some good experiences with this when you relegated me to sabotaging restaurant reviews. I enjoyed writing fake comments about hairs in the soup and grumpy, slow waiters.
Initially, the fake nasty comments I posted to her account took her back a bit. But then she was rescued by a slew of friends’ supportive comments in rebuttal. I thought I was the demon, but some of those kids were so nasty that we should keep their names on our list of future recruits. And the language. It was not only unpleasant, but it was written in teenage jargon that baffled me. Score this one for the Lostling. Although, we did succeed in creating a lot of anger and that is always a plus for our team.
My efforts with cancel culture met a similar fate because her friends were so loyal. I hacked and peppered her posts with inappropriate comments, and I suggested that she had engaged in some rather unwise conduct. But I guess my demon instincts weren’t subtle enough. Clearly, some of her friends had been subjected to this before and they banded together in support. Maybe we should have picked a target who was more on the edge, rather than a “goody-two-shoes,” to use a term that probably goes back to my grandmother. Strike two against the forces of darkness.
But let me end on a positive note (unless it’s too late for that). After two failures, I knew I had to come up with some successful cyber bullying. All it takes is one good hit and the prospects were better for this temptation because it is more difficult for the Lostling and her friends to control the damage. I took a multi-faceted, blitzkrieg approach and was able to cause her considerable distress, some of which may be long-lasting.
My strategy was to wear down her defenses by creating continual anxiety in her life. The first wave was to bombard her with anonymous threatening messages that suggested she needed to watch her back because she had offended somebody. They included some words she probably hadn’t heard before and disparaged her physical appearance and self-worth. The nice thing about online messages is that they can be sent 24/7 with zero marginal cost.
After softening up our target, I brought out heavy artillery. First, I used her personal contact information to spread innuendo. The old “call ______ for a good time” still works on virtual graffiti walls. Then a dose of cyberstalking by letting her know that her online activities were being tracked. I considered revenge porn, but she is so well-liked that it wouldn’t have been credible. So, I settled for distributing doctored images of her to the most popular guys in the school. Nothing prurient, just added a few pounds, muddied her complexion, and gave her a Deseret Industries wardrobe. The great thing about pictures is that the images are retained in the mind for a long time. You disparaged my attempt, but nobody who saw it will ever forget the Scarlett Johanson caper.
Following your instructions to take a more analytic approach, I did pre- and post-bullying analysis of her moods and behavior. The impact was dramatic. She experienced feelings of anxiety and loneliness. She became noticeably less social, both online and in her real life. The Lostling even started complaining of physical ailments. Her grades dropped and she had difficulty concentrating. Unfortunately, her vocal prayers became desperate petitions for help. But we will work on her pesky tendency to turn to the enemy in due time.
I would feel a little sorry for her if Meta-Dystopia hadn’t lobotomized all of us when we first got thrown into the temptation game. We all know what it feels like to feel nothing.
Your cautiously hopeful underling: Phishhook
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TO: Phishhook (101-001-1010) URGENT
FROM: Mephisto
Time flies when you’re having fun, but you better not be having too much fun because you only partially succeeded. We achieved a 1/3 success rate in the Grand Council, but that is no longer considered good enough.
Still, you did cause some real heartache because of the cyber bullying you induced. But maybe we need to be more gender-specific targeting teenagers. Await with fear and trembling for my next instructions to you about tempting teenagers.
Your predatory file leader: Mephisto
TO: CK (110-111-1000)
FROM: Clarion Veridiel
I’m comforted that although the young woman targeted by Mephisto experienced some hard times, she will probably survive the trauma. But we can expect Mephisto and his compatriots to become more effective as they gain experience, and the tools of technology are perfected.
Cyber bullying is especially dangerous because the perpetrators remain anonymous and don’t need physical access to their victims to do traumatic harm. One keystroke can initiate a chain reaction that shatters a young life. Cyber bullying isn’t a game. Words and images can hurt as much as a gut punch.
Brad Wilcox offered some optimistic advice to youth–“Everyone wants to fit in, and that desire is magnified to unhealthy proportions in today’s digital world filled with social media and cyber bullying……God knows you can make a difference in the world, and that requires, in many cases, being different from the world…..Don’t let the world change you when you were born to change the world.”
What a heady thought, “Don’t let the world change you when you were born to change the world.” I can’t get the words of the hymn out of my head, “Shall the youth of Zion falter……..” Isn’t there something in that anthem about the Armies of Helaman? If not, it should be revised for the new hymnbook.
Your loving servant: Clarion Veridiel
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AUTHOR’S NOTE:
The next Screwtape Text Message focuses on how Mephisto proposes to tempt teenage boys and teenage girls differently, to take advantage of their unique vulnerabilities. You will see that he is becoming more sophisticated.
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