Intentional Ignorance Theory

A theory, inspired by Peter Burke's "Ignorance: A Global History," proposing that ignorance is not merely the absence of knowledge but can be deliberately created, maintained, and deployed for strategic purposes—goals of power, identity, social control, mass psychology, and hegemony. Intentional Ignorance Theory argues that ignorance is often an active achievement, produced through specific practices and institutions. Modern manifestations include dismissal tactics like Sokalism, Kampfism, and Boghossianism-Lindsayism-Pluckroseism; biases like Objectivity Bias, Unbiased Bias, and the Fallacy Fallacy; and rhetorical strategies like Neo-Sophism and Scientistic Sophism. Historically, it appears in colonial suppression of indigenous knowledge, institutional cover-ups, and elite cultivation of public ignorance. The theory reveals that ignorance is often not something to be overcome but something actively produced—and that understanding how ignorance is made is as important as understanding how knowledge is made.

Example: "The tobacco industry spent decades cultivating Intentional Ignorance about smoking's health effects—funding contradictory research, attacking legitimate science, creating doubt where none existed. They weren't ignorant; they were making ignorance. Intentional Ignorance Theory explains how knowledge is suppressed, how doubt is manufactured, how entire populations can be kept in the dark by those who benefit from their darkness. The theory doesn't just describe ignorance; it reveals its politics."

by Dumu The Void March 8, 2026

Intentional Precarization

The deliberate design and maintenance of economic instability as a feature of labor systems, not a bug. Intentional precarization occurs when employers, platforms, or policymakers consciously structure work to be precarious because precarity serves their interests—it disciplines workers, suppresses wages, prevents organization, and ensures maximum flexibility for capital. The gig economy's algorithmic scheduling, the just-in-time workforce, the proliferation of independent contractor status, the erosion of labor protections—these are not unfortunate side effects but intended outcomes. Intentional precarization is the open-air prison's foundation: keep workers uncertain enough to accept anything, desperate enough to never resist.

Intentional Precarization Example: "The platform could have provided stable schedules and predictable income—instead, they designed algorithmic unpredictability because it maximized their flexibility. Not accidental precarity, but Intentional Precarization, precarity as architecture."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Intentional Enshittification

The deliberate degradation of wages, jobs, products, or services by those who control them, as a strategy for extracting maximum value from locked-in users or workers. Intentional enshittification occurs when platforms or employers consciously decide to make things worse because they can—because switching costs are high, because alternatives have been eliminated, because workers are trapped, because users are addicted. Each degradation is calculated: how much can we cut before they leave? How much can we extract before they break? The process is not accidental but engineered, not inevitable but chosen.

Intentional Enshittification Example: "The app could have maintained quality, but once workers depended on it for survival, they intentionally degraded pay and conditions—not market forces, but Intentional Enshittification, the deliberate poisoning of your own product because you own the only well."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Inferno tip

When you are washing your package and get soap in the tip

I finally washed my balls but I had the meanest inferno tip yet

by Hashimo September 11, 2024

Intenserene

No - one
No - thing

... will ever stop this passion ...

spiralling through me

Intense ... and calm

unreal

and more real with every breath I take

My Love

for You

Intenserene : a love so intense, so powerful, so unstoppable ... that one reaches a blissful state of serenity

by My You and only You September 21, 2024

intensive eater

Someone who eats a lot while bulking to then gain more muscle

He is an intensive eater

by Jadoreurmam November 21, 2024

Inter-smitten Fasting

Being so in love with someone that you skip meals in order to spend time with them, or don’t eat until you’re with them. It also refers to being so full of life that you don’t feel the need to eat.

I’m wasting food because of my daughter’s inter-smitten fasting. She has a new boyfriend.

by Coe2018 December 10, 2024