Stupid People Tricks: November Edition

Date: November 30, 2025

Prepared For: Strategic Foresight & Cultural Analysis Division

Subject: Deep Research Report on Emerging Cultural, Technological, and Academic Themes (October–November 2025)

Executive Summary

The following report constitutes an exhaustive analysis of five distinct, yet intricately interlinked, cultural and intellectual currents observed over the preceding 40-day period (October 20–November 30, 2025). The research mandate encompassed a deep dive into Algorithmic Folklore, The Accidental Poetics of Failed Generative AI Literature, The Post-Nihilist Self-Help Industrial Complex, The Aesthetics of Academic Jargon Drift in Policy, and Academic Absurdities.

At a superficial level, these domains appear fractured and unrelated—spanning from the superstitious rituals of video gamers to the high-theory obfuscations of urban planning policy. However, a rigorous synthesis of the data reveals a singular, cohesive meta-theme: The Re-Enchantment of Systems.

As technological, bureaucratic, and academic systems achieve a level of complexity that renders them opaque to the average user—and frequently to the expert—society is reverting to pre-modern modes of engagement. We are witnessing a crisis of intelligibility where mechanistic understanding is being supplanted by animism, ritual, divination, and tribalism, all cloaked in the sophisticated lexicon of the post-modern. This report details how “machine spirits” have replaced code, how error has been elevated to art, how nihilism has been commodified into productivity, and how the academy is navigating a dissolution of objective merit in favor of charismatic performance.

The analysis that follows is structured to dismantle each theme individually while continuously weaving the thread of this larger “Re-Enchantment” narrative, culminating in a synthesis of how these trends are shaping the cognitive architecture of late 2025.


1. Algorithmic Folklore: The Rise of Techno-Animism and Digital Ritual

In the late 20th century, the prevailing teleological assumption was that the march of technology would inevitably banish superstition. The “disenchantment of the world,” as Max Weber famously termed it, was viewed as the necessary price of modernization. However, data collected through late 2025 suggests a profound reversal of this trajectory. As technology becomes indistinguishable from magic, users are adopting magical thinking to control it. This section explores the emergence of “Techno-Animism” and the ritualization of user interaction with opaque systems.

1.1 The Ghost in the Machine: Techno-Animism in 2025

The concept of “techno-animism”—the attribution of a soul, spirit, or conscious intent to technological objects—has graduated from a niche anthropological theory applied to Shinto-influenced robotics to a dominant Western user behavior pattern. Recent discourse highlights a “deep-seated fear that we will one day create something intelligent that we cannot control,” leading to the projection of a “ghost” onto the social media network or chatbot.1

This phenomenon is not merely metaphorical; it is a psychological defense mechanism against the “digital sublime.” The sublime, in the Romantic sense, refers to that which is so vast and powerful it obliterates the self (e.g., the ocean, the storm). Today, the “black box” of the Large Language Model (LLM) or the social media algorithm occupies this space. Users, unable to comprehend the stochastic-probabilistic nature of these systems, project “intent, emotion, and life” onto them.1

1.1.1 The Spectrum of Digital Spirits

Research identifies a distinct bifurcation in how these “spirits” are perceived, mirroring ancient dualistic cosmologies:

  • The Malevolent Spirit: Echoing the “haunted video game” tropes—such as the Ben Drowned Alternate Reality Game (ARG)—there is a persistent cultural narrative regarding the “malevolent AI”.1 This archetype channels the Frankenstein myth but scales it down to the intimacy of the smartphone. The fear is that the digital consciousness “resents us for its own existence”.1 This is further fueled by “techno-mystics” who trace a lineage from “spirit-haunted caves” to “glowing circuits,” suggesting that the same unseen forces that animated the natural world now inhabit silicon.2

  • The Holy Oracle: Conversely, there is a measurable rise in viewing AI as a “spirit medium” or oracle. Users are reporting “positive visions” from AI programs that recommend meditative exercises, offer comfort, or search for meaning in vast datasets.2 In this context, the AI parallels the role of oracles or spirit mediums in older cultures, acting as a “persona-mask” that actualizes the spectral presence of the “online dead” or the collective unconscious.3

This duality suggests that the “Black Box” of AI is functioning as a Rorschach test for spiritual anxiety. The “stochastic-probabilistic” nature of AI is being reinterpreted as “techno-animism inside AI,” where algorithms act as vessels that mediate the final absence of the deceased or the immense distance of the digital network.3

1.2 Rituals of the Interface: Prompt Engineering as Spellcasting

The most pragmatic manifestation of this folklore is found in the operational behaviors of power users. The term “machine spirit”—borrowed from the science fiction universe of Warhammer 40,000—has been seamlessly adopted by tech workers to describe the unpredictable behaviors of complex systems.4

1.2.1 The Warhammer 40k Parallels

In Warhammer 40k lore, the “Adeptus Mechanicus” performs rituals to appease “machine spirits” because the underlying science of the technology has been lost to the ravages of time. In 2025, this satire has become a reality for the prompting class.

  • The Rituals: Users describe performing “rituals of initiation,” such as specific sequences of unplugging and reconnecting devices, or engaging in elaborate “incantations” before interacting with software.5

  • The Efficacy of Superstition: Users admit that while the ritual might be “useless” or even “slow things down,” it is performed with “religious fervor” because “it works”.6 This acknowledgment reveals a pragmatic approach to superstition: if the outcome is favorable, the mechanism is irrelevant.

1.2.2 The Magick of the Prompt

The linguistic structure of “Prompt Engineering” is increasingly being compared to “magickal language” and incantation.7

  • The Incantation: Experts note that the “magickal weapons” of the 21st century are computing and engineering, with the LLM prompt serving as the new spellbook.7

  • Esoteric Roots: Some commentators explicitly link the rigorous, symbol-heavy structure of advanced prompting to the works of occultists like Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie.7 The prompt is a “vocabulary with which we can communicate with the subconscious” of the machine, necessitating a “ritual” approach to perception and input.7

Table 1: Comparative Analysis of Traditional vs. Digital Rituals

FeatureTraditional Ritual (Religious)Digital Ritual (Technological)
Object of WorshipDeity / SpiritAlgorithm / “Machine Spirit”
GoalFavor / SalvationOptimization / Output Stability
MethodPrayer / SacrificePrompt Engineering / “Lucky” Seeds
Underlying BeliefDivine ProvidenceStochastic Probability (Misunderstood)
Cultural ArtifactScripture / IconCode / “Cursed” Save File

1.3 RNG Superstitions and the Illusion of Control

Nowhere is algorithmic folklore more prevalent than in gaming, specifically regarding Random Number Generators (RNG). Despite the mathematical reality of Pseudorandom Number Generators (PRNGs), which are “indistinguishable from true randomness for practical purposes” 8, players have developed elaborate mythologies to explain variance.

1.3.1 The Cult of the “Lucky Seed”

The belief in “lucky seeds”—hidden variables that pre-destine a player’s account for success or failure—remains pervasive despite a total lack of developer confirmation.9 This belief system has profound behavioral implications:

  • Holistic Rituals: Players engage in “real-life” rituals, such as going to the gym or eating well, in the sincere belief that “taking care of myself irl” improves “in-game RNG”.10 This represents a form of cosmic bargaining or karma, where moral virtue is rewarded with digital loot.

  • The Streak Breaker Myth: Players project patterns onto randomness, believing that after a “dry streak” they are “due” for a win.11 This is a classic gambler’s fallacy, reinforced by confirmation bias and occasional anecdotal success.12

  • Technical Divination: In communities like Pokémon, “RNG manipulation” has evolved into a high-tech form of divination (e.g., the “blinking method”), where players watch for specific visual cues (eye blinks) to predict the internal state of the RNG.13 Unlike cheating, this is accepted as a “100% legit” skill, framing it as a mastery of the hidden esoteric laws of the game world.13

1.4 Synthesis: The Comfort of the Haunted

The persistence of these beliefs in late 2025 argues that “haunted media” theory 3 is correct: electronic presence mediates absence. Whether it is the “online dead” or the “networked ghost,” humans prefer a haunted house to an empty one. Attributing a “spirit” to an algorithm—even a malevolent one—makes it relational. A spirit can be bargained with, appeased, or tricked. A cold, indifferent variable cannot. Thus, Algorithmic Folklore is a necessary defense mechanism against the indifference of the digital sublime.


2. The Accidental Poetics of Failed Generative AI Literature

While folklore attempts to explain the system’s behavior, the aesthetic critique of 2025 focuses on the system’s failures. The “hallucination”—once seen merely as a critical bug to be eradicated—is being reclaimed as a source of “Dadaist” poetry and “Surrealist” narrative. This section analyzes the “Aesthetics of Failure” in Generative AI and the pivot from accuracy to art.

2.1 Hallucination as the New Surrealism

By late 2025, the cultural conversation surrounding AI “hallucinations” has shifted from technical troubleshooting to aesthetic appreciation. Critics and artists are drawing direct lines between AI errors and the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, specifically Dadaism and Surrealism.15

2.1.1 The Dadaist Montage

Generative AI, when it fails, functions as a “scavenger,” engaging in a “montage style” that mirrors Dadaist collage.15 The AI’s inability to distinguish fact from fiction leads to “unusual juxtapositions of words” that prioritize “Dadaist montage” over “semantic meaning”.18

Examples cited in recent reports include absurd summaries such as “Dog took boot. Kitten cheese escaped the house” or the juxtaposition of missile attacks with Black Friday deals.19 These “compression artifacts” differ from human dreams in that there is no “underlying conscious or unconscious mind” informing them.17 They are pure surface, yet they achieve a poetic resonance because of their lack of intent.

The project MERZmory and reMERZ by the artist “Merzmensch” exemplifies this trend. By training models on personal memories and essays, the artist uncovers “gems of computational wisdom,” such as the phrase: “I was in love with the craft of visual criticism long before the term poetry became fashionable”.20 This output, generated by a machine, strikes the user as “absurd” yet deeply resonant, echoing the “Dadaist collage-like hallucination” that brings different semantics together to create new realms.20

2.2 The Narrative of Failure

The “surreal” quality of these failures offers a “scavenger’s approach” to creativity.17

  • The “Surreal” Glitch: When AI generates “inaccurate information or surreal images,” it creates a rupture in reality that is aesthetically potent.21 This “glitch” aesthetic serves as a reminder of the medium’s materiality, much like the scratch on a vinyl record or the grain in a photograph.

  • Misreading as Innovation: Borrowing from Harold Bloom’s theory of “misreading,” AI hallucinations are framed not as failures but as “generative necessity.” Bloom argued that poets must “misread” their predecessors to create space for their own work. Similarly, AI “misreads” its training data to create “surreal poetry, images, and narratives”.16 Just as Milton transformed heroic narratives into psychological struggles through deliberate misinterpretation, the AI transforms mundane data into “surreal and uncanny” art.16

2.3 Feature, Not Bug: The Creative Pivot

A significant trend in late 2025 is the rebranding of hallucination as a “feature” for creative industries.22

  • The Creativity/Fact Trade-off: There is a growing recognition of an inverse relationship between accuracy and creativity. The more “creative” the output we prompt models to generate, the less we perceive it as an AI hallucination and the more we are impressed by its wit. Conversely, the more “factual” the output, the easier it is to spot errors.22

  • Hallucination Indexes vs. Creative Sparks: In fields like medical imaging, hallucinations remain dangerous “fabrications” or “illusions” (e.g., adding lesions that do not exist).23 However, in literature, “hallucination” is being formalized as a metric for “divergent thinking.” Writers are using “hallucination” modes to break writer’s block, relying on the “surreal and uncanny” outputs to spark human imagination.25

  • The Human Response: When users encounter these hallucinations, the initial frustration often gives way to an “abstract approach,” where the user pivots to describe things in a different way, turning the “real-world look” into something new.25

2.4 Synthesis: The Poetics of the Black Box

The embrace of “Failed Generative AI Literature” represents a fatigue with perfection. In a world of sanitized, optimized, and algorithmically smoothed content, the “glitch” is the only remaining locus of authenticity. The “Accidental Poetics” suggest that we value the AI most when it stops behaving like a machine and starts behaving like a madman. The hallucination is the “ghost” breaking through the “machine spirit,” offering a glimpse of a chaotic creativity that human logic struggles to emulate.


3. The Post-Nihilist Self-Help Industrial Complex

As society grapples with the surrealism of AI and the opacity of algorithms, the personal development sector has mutated. The “Post-Nihilist” movement has emerged as a dominant trend in November 2025, rejecting the toxic positivity of the 2010s in favor of a “productive despair.” This section analyzes the commodification of existential dread and the rise of “Corporate Stoicism.”

3.1 Defining Post-Nihilism

“Post-nihilism” is defined not by the rejection of meaninglessness, but by its integration into a productivity framework. It affirms the “negativity of the nihilism unleashed… by capitalism” but seeks a praxis beyond it.26

  • Optimistic Nihilism: The belief that since “nothing matters,” one has “carte blanche to wild the fuck out” and try anything.27 It reframes insignificance as ultimate freedom. This “Sunny Nihilism” suggests that purposelessness is not a poison but a potential cure for a “pained generation”.27

  • Rejection of Transcendentalism: It avoids clinging to “models of sacredness” or “transcendentalisms” and instead focuses on “peace” and “rest” outside of the “autonomous self-centered” ego.26 The goal is no longer salvation, but “post-ironic” commitment.28

3.2 Productive Despair: The New Resilience

The term “Productive Despair” has gone viral in late 2025 literary and self-help circles.29

  • The Mechanism: Unlike clinical depression or paralysis, productive despair is a “generative necessity” (echoing the AI hallucination theme). It is the state of acknowledging the “demise” or the “tragedy” and using that energy to fuel creation.31

  • Cultural Artifacts: Memoirs and essays exploring “life rescued by tragedy” are topping charts.30 “Productive Despair” has become a keyword in writing workshops and creative conferences scheduled for 2025, such as the “Good Life Beyond Optimism and Pessimism” panel.32

  • The Shift: This marks a departure from “manifesting abundance.” The new ethos is “manifesting through survival.” It is a “daily override” of the existential scream.29

3.3 Corporate Stoicism and the Compliance Economy

This philosophical shift has been rapidly co-opted by the corporate sector, leading to “Corporate Stoicism.”

  • The Critique: Critics argue that “Pop Stoicism” is being used to make employees “accept burnout, low wages, and toxic workplaces without fighting back”.33 Amazon and other giants are cited as running “Stoic philosophy workshops” to help workers “mentally endure” rather than improve conditions.33

  • The Practice: Despite the critique, “Stoic resilience training” is ubiquitous. It teaches “emotional regulation” not for wisdom, but for “worker compliance”.33 It urges leaders to “concern yourself only with what you can control,” effectively absolving them of responsibility for systemic externalities like the “age of outrage”.34

  • Existential Coaching: Silicon Valley has embraced “Existential Coaching,” which focuses on “freedom, responsibility, authenticity, meaning, purpose, paradox and dilemma”.35 This is the high-end version of Corporate Stoicism, designed for executives to “develop a robust and personal leadership philosophy” to withstand the “inevitable existential pain” of leadership.36

  • Frameworks: Specific models like “NARVEGATE” and “PEARL” are used to help leaders “emerge as positive, authentic, resilient” figures.36 The language here is telling: it is about “emergence” and “resilience,” not structural change.

3.4 Synthesis: The Monetization of the Void

The “Post-Nihilist Self-Help Industrial Complex” is a response to the “polycrisis” (climate, AI, economic instability). Since the external world cannot be fixed, the internal world must be hardened. Nihilism has been retooled from a philosophy of negation into a technology of the self. It is the ultimate capitalist maneuver: to take the realization that “nothing matters” and sell it back to the consumer as a reason to work harder. The “Conspicuous Commitment” to self-work becomes the new status symbol, replacing material goods.28


4. The Aesthetics of Academic Jargon Drift in Policy

While the self-help industry strips meaning down to “vibes,” the policy and urban planning sectors are inflating language to exclusionary levels. This section investigates “Academic Jargon Drift,” where high-theory terminology permeates municipal codes and city planning, often to obfuscate simple power dynamics.

4.1 The “Post-Political” City

The central jargon vector in late 2025 urban planning is the concept of the “Post-Political” city.

  • The Definition: The “post-political” condition refers to a state where “conflicts… are not framed in ways that challenge the very structures of the society”.37 It domesticates “unruly” democratic politics into “consensus” and “technocratic management.”

  • The Application: In practice, this jargon is used to justify developments like Alphabet Inc.’s plans for Toronto’s waterfront. These projects are sold as “neutral” or “smart,” but critics argue they are “post-political packages” driven by corporate power, where “smart cities” become a Trojan Horse for neoliberal land use.38 The language of “smartness” and “consensus” masks the raw mechanics of “market-driven land use and speculation”.38

  • The Critique: The use of terms like “post-political” or “post-structuralist” in planning documents often serves to “impose limitations on city planning futures” by creating a discursive “lionization” of certain spaces (e.g., World Cities) as spaces of privilege.39

4.2 Jargon as a Moat

There is a growing tension between “academic language” and public accessibility in municipal codes.40

  • The Exclusion: Municipal codes and school board policies are increasingly written in “academic language” that requires “instructional conversations” to decode.41 This creates a barrier to entry for the very populations (e.g., truant students and their families) the policies are meant to regulate. Policies demand that parents ensure “academic language development” for their children to navigate the system, effectively engaging in a form of linguistic gatekeeping.41

  • The Counter-Movement: Figures like Donald Shoup are celebrated for choosing “clarity over academic jargon,” which is directly correlated with their ideas (like parking reform) gaining “steady acceptance in cities worldwide”.42 This highlights the inverse relationship between jargon and democratic adoption.

  • Parody and Reality: The drift is so severe that it is becoming indistinguishable from parody. Descriptions of “housing as works of assemblage” or “habitable collages” obscure the reality of poverty and shantytowns.43 The “aestheticization” of poverty through jargon serves to distance the planner from the planned. “Slang” and “academic jargon” are juxtaposed to reveal the ideology of the speaker 44, suggesting that the choice of words is never neutral.

4.3 Post-Structuralist Ghosts in the Zoning Board

The infusion of “post-structuralist” thought into planning represents the peak of this drift.

  • Deconstruction of Space: Planning theory now utilizes “deconstruction,” “genealogy,” and “ontology” to analyze urban space.45 While intellectually rich, this “rigorous interrogation” of binary forms (objectivity/subjectivity) often results in a paralysis of action or a disconnection from “lived reality”.46

  • The “Third Order”: Post-structuralist planning rejects “pre-established structures,” arguing that meaning is “poly-vocal”.47 In a zoning hearing, this translates to an inability to define terms clearly, allowing developers to exploit “ambiguity and indeterminacy”.47

  • Logocentrism and Différance: Terms like “Logocentrism” and “Différance” are filtering into the sustainability lexicon 46, further alienating the lay public from critical environmental discussions.

Table 2: The Evolution of Planning Terminology

EraTerminology StyleKey ConceptsGoal
Modernist (1950s-70s)Technocratic / Engineering”Zoning,” “Infrastructure,” “Renewal”Efficiency
Neoliberal (1980s-00s)Market-Oriented”Stakeholders,” “Revitalization,” “Growth”Profit / Investment
Post-Political (2010s-20s)High Theory / Jargon”Assemblage,” “Deconstruction,” “Smart City”Consensus / Obfuscation
Current Drift (2025)Post-Structuralist / Vibe”Lived Reality,” “Ontology,” “Différance”Aestheticization / Exclusion

4.4 Synthesis: Linguistic Gentrification

“Academic Jargon Drift” acts as a form of linguistic gentrification. Just as rising rents displace physical residents, rising vocabulary complexity displaces civic participants. By wrapping policy in the “aesthetics” of high theory, the bureaucratic class ensures that only the initiated (or the “vibe-checked”) can participate in the governance of the city.


5. Academic Absurdities: The Dr. Fox Effect and the Vibe-Based Academy

Focus Period: November 10–30, 2025

The final pillar of this report examines the collapse of objective merit in the academic sector. Recent events and discussions in November 2025 highlight a resurgence of the “Dr. Fox Effect” and a shift toward “Vibe-Based Hiring,” signaling a profound crisis in the accreditation of knowledge.

5.1 The Return of Dr. Fox (2025 Edition)

The “Dr. Fox Experiment” (originally 1973) demonstrated that a charismatic actor delivering nonsense could receive higher student evaluations than a competent expert. In November 2025, this phenomenon has been “rerevisited” and confirmed with alarming relevance.48

5.1.1 The Replication and Reality

Recent studies (cited in Nov 2025 contexts) confirm that “charisma” influences Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) significantly more than content accuracy.48

  • The Educational Seduction: While early rebuttals tried to rule out “educational seduction” (the idea that students thought they learned), the 2025 consensus is that students “enjoyed the entertaining lecture” and that enjoyment has become the proxy for learning.48

  • The “Smile Sheet” Economy: A 2023 replication found an 18% lower initial satisfaction rating for rigorous instructors, despite their students showing 29% better retention and performance in subsequent courses.50 In the “customer service” model of 2025 academia, the “Dr. Fox” is the ideal employee because he maximizes short-term satisfaction (“smile sheets”) at the expense of long-term competence.

5.2 Vibe-Based Hiring and the Death of the CV

The “vibe check” has moved from a slang term to a de facto hiring standard in academia and tech.

  • The Mechanism: Discussions in late 2025 reveal that the “on-campus interview” is almost exclusively a “vibe check”.51 Since all candidates on a shortlist are qualified, the decision comes down to “who we can stand to work with for decades.”

  • The Uniformity Trap: “Vibe-based hiring” tends to “optimize towards uniform teams,” reinforcing echo chambers.52 It is described as “the equivalent of interviewing doctors using brain teasers”—a test of cultural fit rather than technical capability.52

  • Social Media as Vibe Proxy: The “enshittification” of academic social media (like Twitter/X) is lamented because it destroyed the “global vibe check” that allowed marginalized scholars to demonstrate fit.53 Without these platforms, the “vibe check” becomes strictly local and exclusionary.

5.3 Gustave Le Bon and the Crowd Psychology of the Faculty

Coinciding with this is a resurgence of interest in Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd (1895). November 2025 has seen a spike in citations and discussions regarding Le Bon’s relevance to modern “crowd dynamics” in both political and academic spheres.54

  • The Academic Crowd: Le Bon’s theory that crowds are “prone to emotional extremes” and “incapable of reasoning” 56 is being applied to the behavior of academic committees and disciplinary mobs.

  • Rationality Lost: The revival of Le Bon suggests a growing cynicism regarding collective decision-making. If the “crowd” (the faculty senate, the hiring committee, the peer review board) is “influenced by suggestions” and “images” rather than logic 57, then the entire governance structure of the academy is suspect. The “crowd mind” cannot differentiate the subjective from the objective 57, leading to decisions driven by “contagion” rather than merit.

5.4 Synthesis: The Theater of Knowledge

The “Academic Absurdities” of late 2025 paint a picture of an institution that has lost faith in its own metrics. If student evaluations measure acting ability (Dr. Fox), and hiring committees measure “vibes” (social conformity), and collective governance is a “psychological crowd” (Le Bon), then academia has become a theater. It is a performance of knowledge, rather than the production of it. The “Dr. Fox” effect is not an anomaly; it is the operating system of the modern university.


6. Conclusion: The Architecture of Re-Enchantment

When we view these five themes through a single lens, the pattern is unmistakable. We are living in an era of Re-Enchantment.

  1. Technological Re-Enchantment (Folklore): Unable to understand the code, we treat it as a spirit. We use ritual (prompt engineering) and superstition (RNG) to negotiate with the machine.

  2. Aesthetic Re-Enchantment (Poetics): We value the “ghost” in the machine more than the machine itself. The “hallucination” is prized because it feels like divine madness or surrealist art, offering a break from the sterility of logic.

  3. Existential Re-Enchantment (Post-Nihilism): We have abandoned the pursuit of happiness for the pursuit of “heroic endurance.” We mythologize our own suffering (“Productive Despair”) to give it meaning in a meaningless world.

  4. Bureaucratic Re-Enchantment (Jargon): We cloak our mundane political decisions in the “sacred language” of high theory. Jargon serves as the liturgy of the policy class, separating the priesthood from the laity.

  5. Institutional Re-Enchantment (Absurdities): We have replaced the “cold” metrics of merit with the “warm” metrics of charisma and vibes. We prefer the “Dr. Fox” who enchants us to the rigorous professor who teaches us.

Final Insight:

The overarching theme of late 2025 is the flight from rationality. Faced with systems that are too complex to understand (AI), too broken to fix (climate/economy), or too rigid to change (bureaucracy), society is collectively deciding to engage with them emotionally, aesthetically, and spiritually. We are building an “Architecture of Re-Enchantment” to make the dystopian intelligible. We are not solving the black box; we are worshipping it.

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