> My comment: what does it say about us humans that we fall for progressively more extreme stuff? Simply that we're biological creatures. The response to a sti

> My comment: what does it say about us humans that we fall for progressively more extreme stuff? Simply that we're biological creatures. The response to a stimulus is proportional to the strength of the stimulus. Also see: supernormal stimuli. There is no sufficient dampening factor towards the extremes because the stimulus/response mechanism evolved well before we were vertebrate. It wasn't designed for sentient beings able to manipulate their environment to such an extent that it becomes such a powerful feedback loop. For those unfamiliar with the theory of supernormal stimuli, think about super hero comic book characters. In particular the female ones. They are simultaneously both incredibly attractive and would seem grotesque if you were to encounter a real human being with the same body proportions. The fact is that our response to stimuli which are "larger than life" just keeps increasing. It's not that it stops or saturates, it's just that usually there are counteracting stimuli saying e.g. "this is deformity and thus unattractive". But the balance between these varies per person (and per moment, per instance, etc), and it basically becomes a screaming match between two opposing forces. Sometimes the opposing stimulus is too weak, can't be cranked up to eleven as much, or is simply nonexistent. Especially with abstract stimuli based on social constructs, especially inside filter bubbles or echo chambers. Sadly it is these unopposed stimuli that survive a screaming match, not the balanced ones. Which is exactly what we're seeing today. Combine this with Baudrillard's theories on simulacra and the hyperreal, and you get our current Strange Times, heading towards a breaking point until either someone gets a fucking grip on things, the collapse or possibly something even weirder.