Member-only story
Humans are social beings, and even in the absence of physical proximity, the internet is still an outlet for them to form communities and seek rapport. The process often starts out earnest: A few people congregate along a common interest, others with similar inclinations follow suit, and the construct soon resembles its analogue in meatspace. What occurs after a while though is something no online community with a large enough critical mass has figured out a solution to–a process of ideological essentialization that operates on the premise of excluding outsiders rather than reinforcing ties within, and after supposed dissidents are purged and the discursive space for said community is clearly demarcated and not to be trespassed, it ceases to be a community and becomes a self-isolating coven with naught to consider but individual members’ ability to circlejerk as the chase for a perceived abundance of social capital trumps all other considerations.
If this was a lot of jargon for the uninitiated, a few examples of this phenomenon should make much clearer what I’m talking about. Take the case of fandoms: When there’s fresh new cultural produce, a mass of…
