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Twitter and social media are a cesspool. Any sort of curation, trending, or recommendations, tend towards what will garner the most "engagement". Playing on peo

Twitter and social media are a cesspool. Any sort of curation, trending, or recommendations, tend towards what will garner the most "engagement". Playing on people's fears and outrage to keep them glued to the feed and a captive audience for advertisers. Brief messages (tweets) are a sure way to prevent nuance from getting in the way of a black-and-white opinion. People in positions of fame, notoriety, power, like Musk, have learned that playing the troll is good for them. They can troll with impunity and the result has turned out to be positive in an "Any publicity is good publicity" way. Journalists lap it up because it gives them something to write about and give their publications clicks for the daily outrage. Everyone gets to fuel the flames. "We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan

oldsklgdfth 6y ago
> "We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." I was having a conversation with a friend last night about how he thinks most people are largely aware of how news outlets are "fake"/"liars" and that is a good thing. And that that is the first step to having independent, accountable media. While I don't disagree with the sentiment. If the new guard is using the same tools (high-speed internet, TV, video, Twitter) they are destined to reach a similar equilibrium.
- Fjolsvith 6y ago
  Actually, people waking up to the manipulation will inoculate them to the newer medium abuse, at least somewhat. The slang term is "red-pilled", a reference to Neo taking the red pill in the Matrix movie and learning the truth behind the lies that were fed to him all his life.