LiberLion on Nostr: Co-optation: The Silent Takeover Cooptation is one of the most effective means of ...
Co-optation: The Silent Takeover
Cooptation is one of the most effective means of invasive attack, because it is gradual and silent.
Co-optation doesn’t destroy; it transforms from within.
It disguises itself as evolution, as improvement, but in reality, it replaces the essence of a system with its opposite.
Institutions, ideas, or movements end up defending what they once opposed, without their members even realizing it. It’s an ideological virus that doesn’t confront but absorbs and redefines until what was once an ideal becomes its own contradiction.
The danger is that by the time the change is noticed, it’s too late—the original system has been devoured.
Cooptation is one of the most effective means of invasive attack, because it is gradual and silent.
Co-optation doesn’t destroy; it transforms from within.
It disguises itself as evolution, as improvement, but in reality, it replaces the essence of a system with its opposite.
Institutions, ideas, or movements end up defending what they once opposed, without their members even realizing it. It’s an ideological virus that doesn’t confront but absorbs and redefines until what was once an ideal becomes its own contradiction.
The danger is that by the time the change is noticed, it’s too late—the original system has been devoured.