All posts in August 2021

As you bemoan the condition of dialogue in the the modern world, ask yourself, “Who benefits from division?”

And then read this great article from Leighton Woodhouse:

The Algorithm

The media’s new business model is propaganda.

There’s a perfect alignment of interests between the media, its consumers, and professional political agitators in stoking fear, animosity, and mutual recrimination among the public

The answer to, “Who benefits from division?” is:

On an episode of my favorite podcast, Red Scare, co-host Dasha Nekrasova, describing the Wi Spa protests, passingly referred to the whole affair as “the algorithm.” It’s an apt metaphor. Just as YouTube’s digital algorithm serves us up ever more extreme content to keep us glued to our screens, the human algorithm that governs the media’s new business model scours our newsfeeds for catalysts for outrage and amplifies them. Political provocateurs, from anti-maskers to Antifa LARPers, understand the algorithm and exploit it, performing their assigned roles in the streets, in front of their iPhone cameras. The rest of us consume it with glee, every bite reminding us that we stand on the right side of history, unlike the rest of those morons with whom we’re forced to share a country. It’s a perfectly functional dysfunctional system. Everybody wins while everybody loses.

Emphasis mine.

Before now, I didn’t think about how much I am part of the problem. Politicians, the media, and others may be more culpable, but my hands aren’t clean. They are giving me what I want, whether I realize it or not.

Trust me, you should read the whole article.