Social Media Gang Up

A specific form of digital mob attack occurring primarily within social media platforms, characterized by the unique dynamics of those spaces: algorithmic amplification, hashtag-driven coordination, platform-specific norms of engagement, and the visibility metrics (likes, shares, retweets) that reward outrage. Social media gang ups exploit platform architecture—the way algorithms promote controversial content, the way notifications create a sense of constant siege, the way networked publics can form instantly around a target. Unlike broader internet gang ups that might require cross-platform coordination, social media gang ups can achieve devastating effect within a single platform's ecosystem, leveraging its specific affordances to produce maximum harm with minimum effort.

Example: "Her mention went viral and within hours she'd received ten thousand replies—a Social Media Gang Up powered by the algorithm's love of outrage and the platform's design for maximum engagement regardless of human cost."

by Dumu The Void March 14, 2026

Social Gang Up

The broadest category of mob attack, encompassing any collective action where social pressure, exclusion, harassment, or punishment is applied by a group against an individual or smaller group within a social context. Social gang ups can occur anywhere humans gather—in workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, families, online spaces, institutions. They represent the fundamental danger of human sociality: our capacity to coordinate against each other, to use our numbers as weapons, to destroy through collective action what we could never harm individually. Social gang ups are what make gossip lethal, what make ostracism devastating, what make mobs possible. They are the shadow side of community, the proof that our need to belong can be weaponized against us.

Example: "It started with whispers, then exclusion from lunch, then a formal complaint, then everyone pretending she didn't exist—a Social Gang Up that used every tool of human community to destroy one of its members."

by Dumu The Void March 14, 2026

Social Sciences of Scientific Orthodoxy

The application of social science disciplines—sociology, anthropology, political science, economics—to the study of scientific orthodoxy. The social sciences of scientific orthodoxy examine how social forces shape consensus: how power, status, and networks influence who gets to define orthodoxy; how economic interests (funding, patents, consulting) shape which views become dominant; how political contexts influence what counts as acceptable science; how cultural values are embedded in orthodox assumptions; how institutions create and maintain orthodox views through training, hiring, and promotion. They treat scientific orthodoxy not as a purely intellectual phenomenon but as a social one—shaped by all the forces that shape any human community. The social sciences of scientific orthodoxy reveal that consensus is never just about evidence; it's always also about power, money, culture, and social structure.

Example: "His social sciences of scientific orthodoxy research showed how the Cold War shaped which research programs became orthodox in several fields—not because scientists were political, but because funding followed political priorities, and what gets funded becomes what gets studied, and what gets studied becomes what's known."

by Abzugal March 16, 2026

Social Infrasciences

The branch of infrascience that examines the infrastructure underlying the social sciences—sociology, anthropology, political science, economics. Social infrasciences investigate the foundational systems, structures, and conditions that make social scientific inquiry possible: data infrastructure (surveys, censuses, administrative records) that provides empirical material; methodological infrastructure (statistical techniques, qualitative methods, software tools) that enables analysis; institutional infrastructure (research centers, universities, funding agencies) that supports social science; technological infrastructure (computing power, data storage, communication networks) that extends research capabilities; and social infrastructure (professional networks, collaboration systems, public engagement) that creates the communities within which social knowledge is produced. Social infrasciences reveal that social science is never just about studying society—it's always built on social infrastructure itself, and understanding social science requires understanding the systems that make it possible.

Example: "Her social infrasciences analysis showed how the development of large-scale survey infrastructure transformed sociology—making possible kinds of knowledge that simply couldn't exist before. New pipes, new knowledge."

by Abzugal March 16, 2026

Social Metasciences

The systematic study of the social sciences themselves—a second-order discipline that takes sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and related fields as its objects of inquiry. Social metasciences ask meta-level questions about social scientific knowledge: How do social scientists know what they claim to know? What methods do different social science disciplines use? How does social scientific knowledge change over time? How do social, cultural, and institutional contexts shape social science? What are the limits of social scientific understanding? Social metasciences are the social sciences reflecting on themselves—the attempt to understand what social science is, what it can achieve, and how it relates to other forms of knowledge. They're essential for social science to be self-aware rather than merely empirical, for social scientists to understand their own practices rather than just practicing them.

Example: "His social metasciences research examined how the replication crisis has transformed psychology—not just by correcting specific findings, but by forcing the discipline to reflect on its own methods, assumptions, and institutions. Crisis becomes self-understanding."

by Abzugal March 16, 2026

Social Media Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs and practices that define mainstream social media use—the often-unexamined assumptions about how platforms should be used, what counts as successful engagement, how identity should be performed, and what role social media plays in life. Social media orthodoxy includes commitments: that visibility is good, that sharing is connection, that metrics (likes, followers, shares) measure value, that personal branding is essential, that algorithms know what we want, that social media is simply how people communicate now, that criticism of platforms is Luddite. Like all orthodoxies, it shapes behavior and expectation, but it functions as ideology—making platform-mediated life seem natural and inevitable, obscuring how platforms shape us (attention, emotion, relationship), and delegitimizing alternatives (offline connection, platform cooperatives, non-commercial spaces). Social media orthodoxy determines what online behavior is "normal," what engagement is "successful," and who counts as "digitally literate" versus "out of touch."

Example: "She felt anxious about her low engagement numbers—not because she needed validation, but because social media orthodoxy had made metrics feel like measures of worth. The orthodoxy's power is making platform metrics feel like personal value."

by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026

Social Sciences of the Scientific Method

The application of social science disciplines—sociology, anthropology, political science, economics—to the study of the scientific method. The social sciences of the scientific method examine how social forces shape methodological practice: how power and status influence which methods are valued; how economic incentives shape methodological choices; how political contexts constrain or enable certain kinds of inquiry; how cultural assumptions are embedded in methodological standards; how institutions create and maintain methodological orthodoxies. They treat the scientific method not as a purely logical procedure but as a social practice—shaped by all the forces that shape any human activity. The social sciences of the scientific method reveal that method is never just about logic; it's always also about power, money, culture, and social structure.

Social Sciences of the Scientific Method Example: "His social sciences of the scientific method research showed how the dominance of quantitative methods in economics reflects not their inherent superiority but the political and economic interests that funded certain kinds of research over others. The method that won wasn't necessarily the best—it was the best supported."

by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026