RAPE, POSIWID, MEAN GIRLS and Scott Alexander

Does "The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does" Apply anywhere?

In a recent post, Scott Alexander asks what the phrase - “The Purpose of A System is What is Does” is meant to apply to. This is an easy one.

Much of human institutional action has the nature of schoolgirls gossiping in a ‘concerned and empathetic way’ about a girl they hate. Asked about others acting in the exact way they are towards them, they’d immediately conclude; “duh, she’s trying to destroy me!” And yet if you ask one of them, they’ll with an apparent sense of genuineness, say they were just looking out for her. The point of this intro, is that while malicious competition is clearly occurring there is no advantage in self-awareness... A lack of self-awareness makes some lies even easier to sell. Knowing that you are competing maliciously, requires additional processing of your internal state separate from what you portray to the world. Yet even though they might not utter or ever accept the phrase, “I’m gossiping about that girl because she’s a threat and I hate her and want to crush her” the girls are gossiping about the other girl because they hate her.

The Purpose of the System is What it Does… serves to capture systemic cases which are in practice much like the scenario described above. A government knowingly subsidizes new citizens from Rapeistan. The specific people making these decisions know enough of Rapeistani culture that if dropped in Rapeistani central act exactly as someone with knowledge that it’s well rape-loving… This does not change one bit their subsidization of The Rapeistani. It suppresses knowledge of Rapeistani rape, because people will get the right impression about what the Rapeistanis are doing… much in the same way our gossiping schoolgirl will first deny she spread the rumor at all before saying it was for the victim’s benefit.

POSIWID functions as a clear and specific theory of Why Rotherham style atrocities occur so commonly throughout Liberal Democracies. Answer: Because the Left’s Civil Servants are filled with hatred, but lack the self-awareness and virtu to consciously enact vengeance on those they hate directly and so outsource it to indirect means like Pakistani gang rapists. In this theory, Pakistani gang rapists fulfill the same function for them, as prison rapists fulfill for the normie conservative who feels prison is too humane but lacks the courage to announce “ok here’s how many lashes the convict should get”.… outsourced retribution. And in both cases, this was it’s purpose.

I happen to disagree with this theory in many/most cases (more on that later) but in any case think NOSIWID; The Nature of The System Is What It Does or maybe FOSIWID (Future) - might be more appropriate. The Nature of British “Policing” today is gang rape - simply because it is what British policing perpetuates and what would be reduced if tomorrow the police force was entirely disbanded and citizen vigilante committees took it’s place. Don’t think “My nature is gang-rape but my heart is in the right place”… will land particularly well as a defense either. As for FOSIWID; well the likely “Future” of existing Leftist States if not overturned requires even less arguing about.

Let’s do a preliminary poll on this. Should we substitute POSIWID for NOSIWID or FOSIWID?