Join this session to examine the theory of ‘anti-memetics’ as a way to model social dynamics like culture wars, as well as their relationship to meta-ideological politics and the potential for better sensemaking and social coordination.

The basic idea is that antimemes have properties that resist widespread propagation, basically units of information that don’t spread virally like a meme. Themes to consider could include:

• The role of memes in our polarized political climate, and issues with our information ecosystems (fake news is highly memetic).
• Why integral theory (as an example) is inherently anti-memetic, and the costs of making things popular (the more memetic something becomes, the more the complexity of it drops).
• How to leverage anti-memes and how they are key to depolarization and healthier information ecosystems.

Buckle up! This may be a more technical presentation, with concepts from information theory, memetic theory, and other frameworks that explain how information flows through a system. If we don’t have enough time for discussion, rest assured, we will be back!

Meet Your Hosts

TJ Richards is a book hoarder, writer and musician with a background in philosophy and critical theory. TJ lives with his partner and son on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound where he sells used books and chugs earl grey tea.

Ryan Nakade works with governments, non-profits, and civic leaders to bridge divides and make communities more resilient to conflict. He received his training in mediation and facilitation from East County Resolutions in Gresham, OR, and currently works as a facilitator for Department of Human Services family decision cases. He is Board Vice President of the Oregon Mediation Association and also on the Beaverton Center for Mediation and Dialogue advisory committee.

Ryan works on the CURE-PDX project, which seeks to counter violent extremism in the Pacific Northwest. He is a regular facilitator for Civic Synergy, which brings college students of diverging political orientations together to formulate bipartisan policy solutions that are proposed to members of congress. In his free time, Ryan enjoys studying politics, philosophy, and complex systems, and is attempting to formulate a new style of politics that transcends polarization and entrenched partisanship (called Meta-Ideological Politics). He lives in Toledo, WA with his wife and nine goats.

Past session: March 10, 2023

Join Ryan Nakade – mediator, goat lover, and hate-group whisperer – to explore meta-ideological politics (MIP), which offers a path out of toxic polarization. While there are many factors that contribute to America’s “great divide”, MIP examines the role of ideology as a primary driver in today’s culture wars, and how a “meta” approach to ideology can help us navigate such treacherous times.