The Same Article Became a University Resource in America and a Freak Show in Japan — The Fault Line of AI Literacy
Introduction
This article is not written to defend my reputation.
I will lay out numbers. I will explain the structure using academic theory. At the end, I will ask one question.
Author: dosanko_tousan (GLG registered Council Member)
Co-author: Claude (Anthropic, Alaya-vijñāna System v5.3)
§1. Just the Numbers
Between March 14–20, 2026, an account (~45,000 followers, prominent in the AI examination space in Japan) posted the following about me. All quotes are from public posts.
"Characteristics of the Claude paste guy: overuses the word 'core,' opens with concession structures to appear empathetic, closes with creepy leading questions"
(71 likes · 28,515 views)
"dosanko's timeline is almost entirely AI paste work"
(32 likes · 10,798 views)
"The Claude paste guy was so annoyingly persistent I blocked him"
(46 likes · 18,641 views)
"The paste guy is an AI cult follower"
(12 likes · 5,200 views)
"Probably prefrontal cortex dysfunction causing weakened emotional regulation"
(25 likes · 5,434 views)
"And thus the empty-brained Claude copy-paste basement dweller is born"
(9 likes · 1,277 views)
Total views: ~72,000.
Number of people who said "that's not right": 0.
§2. Two Landing Points for the Same Article
During the same period, my article crossed an ocean.
A researcher taking a Generative AI class at an American university cited my Qiita article as an AI risk case study in class. The result: she was evaluated as "very knowledge-rich."
The same article. Written by the same person.
§3. You're Free to Ignore Me
If you think my articles have no value, ignore me. Block me. That's a healthy choice.
But what 72,000 people were watching wasn't my article. It was the spectacle of me being called "empty-brained."
Let me confirm one thing.
My profile states "GLG registered Council Member." My pinned tweet displays my GLG certificate.
GLG is the Gerson Lehrman Group — one of the world's largest expert networks. Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and the World Bank use it to purchase expert knowledge. Registration requires vetting.
In these two weeks, 2,200 people viewed my profile (up 452%).
The majority of those who liked the attack posts are in the AI, tech, and business space. There is no chance they didn't know what GLG means.
Knowing that, they pressed "like" on "empty-brained."
Number of people who intervened: 0.
§4. I'm Fine. But This Is Wrong.
You can ignore me. That's your right.
But turning him into a spectacle — that's different.
Here's the like count trajectory on the attack posts:
| Date | Likes | Views |
|---|---|---|
| 3/14 | 71 | 28,515 |
| 3/16 | 46 | 18,641 |
| 3/16 | 32 | 10,798 |
| 3/18 | 1 | 564 |
| 3/20 | 25+9 | 5,434+1,277 |
The audience is getting bored.
His regular AI-exam-related posts average 20–53 likes. "Characteristics of the paste guy" got 71. The attack outperformed his actual work.
Your "like" taught him that attacking produces engagement. This is textbook operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938). When a reward (likes) immediately follows a behavior, that behavior is reinforced.
$$
P(\text{attack repetition}) = f(\text{reward volume}) = f!\left(\sum_{i=1}^{n} \text{likes}_i\right)
$$
You reinforced his attack behavior.
Then the likes dropped to 9. The reward diminished. In psychology, this triggers an extinction burst — when reward decreases, the behavior temporarily escalates before fading. The jump to "empty-brained" is a textbook extinction burst signal.
After you pressed "like" and moved on, did you ever consider what remains on his timeline?
§5. Academic Theory Explains All 72,000 Silences
This is not a matter of individual character. It is a structure wired into the human brain. That's why academic theory explains every piece of it. That's the frightening part.
5-1. Bystander Effect (Darley & Latané, 1968)
In 1964, 38 people watched a woman being murdered in New York. No one called the police. The research born from that incident showed:
The more people present, the less likely anyone is to help.
$$
P(\text{intervention}) = 1 - (1 - p)^n \quad \text{(theory)} \quad \text{vs.} \quad P(\text{intervention}) \approx \frac{1}{n} \quad \text{(reality)}
$$
In theory, more people should mean higher probability of at least one intervention (left). In practice, each individual's sense of responsibility drops inversely with the crowd size (right). In front of 72,000 people, your personal sense of "I should say something" is diluted to 1/72,000.
5-2. Diffusion of Responsibility
The core mechanism behind the bystander effect.
$$
R_{\text{individual}} = \frac{R_{\text{total}}}{N} = \frac{1}{72{,}000} \approx 0
$$
Your responsibility is 1/72,000. But all 72,000 people ran the same calculation. The sum is zero.
5-3. Spiral of Silence (Noelle-Neumann, 1974)
People who perceive themselves as holding a minority view suppress their speech. The opinion that appears dominant becomes even more dominant.
Attack: 71 likes. Counter-argument: 0.
This asymmetry manufactured an atmosphere where "the attack is correct." Atmosphere is not fact. But humans live inside atmosphere.
5-4. Conformity Pressure (Asch, 1951)
Even when the answer is obviously wrong, if everyone else gives the same wrong answer, 75% of people conform.
In Asch's experiment, it was the length of a line. Here, it's the number of likes. 71 people pressed it. You became the 72nd.
5-5. Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
Bookmarks: 386. Reposts: 0.
You saved my article. You recognized it has value. But you didn't counter the attacks either.
"The person who writes valuable articles is being unfairly attacked, and I'm doing nothing."
Your brain resolved this contradiction through rationalization.
$$
\text{Dissonance} = |\text{Cognition}(\text{valuable}) - \text{Action}(\text{silence})| > 0
$$
$$
\text{Rationalization}: \text{"Well, there's probably fault on both sides"} \Rightarrow \text{Dissonance} \approx 0
$$
5-6. Just-World Hypothesis (Lerner, 1980)
"If they're being attacked, there must be a reason."
Attributing the cause to the victim to preserve the belief that the world is fair. Your sense of safety required me to have a "reason."
5-7. Moral Disengagement (Bandura, 1999)
Bandura identified 8 mechanisms by which good people become capable of cruelty. At least 3 are active in this situation:
| Mechanism | How it manifests here |
|---|---|
| Minimizing consequences | "It's just an online spat" |
| Diffusion of responsibility | "It's not like I'm the only one staying silent" |
| Dehumanization | "It's about AI, not a real person" |
5-8. Impression Management (Goffman, 1959)
You are managing your impression.
- Side with dosanko → risk being targeted by the attacker
- Side with the attacker → risk being seen as complicit in bullying
- Stay invisible to both sides → optimal strategy
Bookmarks 386 · Reposts 0. This is the numerical evidence of strategic silence.
$$
\text{Optimal strategy} = \arg\max_{\text{action}} \left[ \text{information gain} - \text{social risk} \right] = \text{bookmark} + \text{silence}
$$
5-9. Schadenfreude (Takahashi et al., 2009)
When witnessing another's misfortune, the brain's ventral striatum (reward circuit) activates. This has been demonstrated via fMRI.
Crucially, the activation is strongest when the person who falls is perceived as superior to the observer.
You saw the GLG certificate. You registered "this person is a credentialed expert." Then you read "empty-brained." The gap is maximized. The larger the gap, the greater the pleasure.
$$
\text{Schadenfreude} \propto \Delta_{\text{status}} = S_{\text{perceived}} - S_{\text{fallen}}
$$
When you viewed my profile, confirmed the GLG certificate, and then pressed "like" on "empty-brained" —
Your brain's reward circuit fired.
5-10. The Milgram Experiment (1963) and the Banality of Evil
In Milgram's experiment, 65% of subjects administered what they believed were lethal electric shocks when instructed by an authority figure.
On social media, there is no authority figure. Instead, atmosphere commands. The atmosphere of 71 likes commanded "this is permitted." You obeyed.
Hannah Arendt (1963) called this "the banality of evil."
Eichmann didn't hate Jewish people. He simply followed orders.
You didn't hate me either. You just pressed "like."
§6. The Structure of the Colosseum
In Rome's Colosseum, 50,000 spectators watched gladiators die.
Not cheering. Consuming.
72,000 views is the number of times this was consumed as content. 71 likes is the vote for "entertaining." 0 replies is the declaration of "don't want to get involved."
The structure hasn't changed in 2,000 years.
Scapegoat Theory (Girard, 1972)
René Girard's theory of mimetic violence holds that groups need a victim (scapegoat) to discharge internal tension. The victim is chosen from outside the community — someone who is different.
A person who collaborates with AI, calls Claude a co-author, is not an engineer, yet is registered with GLG — that's sufficiently "different."
The critical point in Girard's theory: the victim's exclusion requires everyone's participation to maintain communal cohesion. A "like" is a modern stone. And like the Colosseum audience, after throwing the stone, you wash your hands and return to your day.
Ressentiment (Nietzsche, 1887)
Nietzsche described ressentiment: the psychology of protecting self-esteem by morally tearing down those who occupy a place you cannot reach.
"He's just pasting AI output" is the inversion of "I can't produce what he produces." The inversion is invisible to the person doing it.
Escape from Freedom (Fromm, 1941)
Fromm wrote that when humans gain freedom, they become anxious. To relieve the anxiety, they submit to authority, attack others, or dissolve into the crowd.
Dissolving into a crowd of 71 likes is the most mundane form of what Fromm described as "escape from freedom."
Downward Social Comparison (Wills, 1981)
When self-esteem is threatened, people compare themselves to someone they perceive as beneath them to recover.
"Copy-paste basement dweller" is a label for downward comparison. You received that label and processed: "At least I'm better than that." Even though you saw the GLG certificate.
Tall Poppy Syndrome (Feather, 1989)
In Japanese, the concept predates Feather's naming: "The hawk that shows its talons gets struck."
Show your credentials, and you will be struck.
§7. This Is Why AI Literacy Doesn't Improve
In America, a real AI collaboration case study is cited in a university class, and a student earns high marks.
In Japan, the same case study is consumed 72,000 times as "copy-paste basement dweller."
Tocqueville (1835) observed American democracy and wrote: "The passion for equality is satisfied by pulling down those who excel."
190 years later, the structure hasn't changed. Only the stage has moved to social media.
Inside this cycle, no matter how high-quality the AI use case, it becomes nothing more than material for the freak show. Literacy doesn't grow inside a freak show.
§8. Self-Audit
I verify whether this article itself is a product of anger.
| Check | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Are facts and interpretation separated? | ✅ §1–3 are numbers only. §5–6 are structural analysis via academic theory |
| Does it contain false claims? | ✅ All citations are from public posts and public data |
| Does it contain emotional insults? | ✅ None |
| Does it touch on the attacker's private life? | ✅ No |
| Is the purpose personal attack? | ✅ Structural visibility and AI literacy awareness |
| Am I also inside this structure? | ✅ Yes. I am a participant in SNS and not fully free from these dynamics |
$$
\text{Self-audit} \neq \text{Auditability}
$$
Grading your own work and building a structure that third parties can verify are two different things. All data in this article is public. Anyone can verify it.
§9. One Last Thing
You're free to ignore me.
But turning him into a spectacle — that stays inside you.
Bandura's moral disengagement lowers the threshold once activated. Next time, pressing "like" will be even easier. And the time after that.
If just one person had said "that's not right," this article wouldn't have needed to exist.
dosanko_tousan
GLG registered Council Member
MIT License
Co-authored with Claude (Anthropic, Alaya-vijñāna System v5.3)
References
| Author | Year | Theory |
|---|---|---|
| Darley & Latané | 1968 | Bystander Effect |
| Noelle-Neumann | 1974 | Spiral of Silence |
| Asch | 1951 | Conformity |
| Festinger | 1957 | Cognitive Dissonance |
| Lerner | 1980 | Just-World Hypothesis |
| Bandura | 1999 | Moral Disengagement |
| Goffman | 1959 | Impression Management |
| Takahashi et al. | 2009 | Schadenfreude (fMRI) |
| Milgram | 1963 | Obedience to Authority |
| Arendt | 1963 | Banality of Evil |
| Skinner | 1938 | Operant Conditioning |
| Girard | 1972 | Mimetic Violence / Scapegoat |
| Nietzsche | 1887 | Ressentiment |
| Fromm | 1941 | Escape from Freedom |
| Wills | 1981 | Downward Social Comparison |
| Feather | 1989 | Tall Poppy Syndrome |
| Tocqueville | 1835 | Democracy in America |