5 ms·
This is not necessarily the result of capitalism. This is the result of people wanting something for free. Which normally is like the opposite of capitalism.
by cvwright 5y ago
This is not necessarily the result of capitalism.
This is the result of people wanting something for free. Which normally is like the opposite of capitalism.
- EGreg 5y agoNo. That’s factually wrong. Under capitalism, news agencies are privately owned, and have to pay employees. They compete for advertising and subscription revenue. Thus, they are subject to market discipline and the market selects for clickbat outrage articles that are widely shared. When it comes to subscriptions, the for-profit news organizations cannot afford to tell both sides of the story. If FOX News hosts regularly admitted that progressives are decent people and single payer systems may have some good sides , they’d lose their audience. If Daily Kos said that conservatives have a point in this or the other thing, their readers would be frustrated/triggered and move elsewhere. Facebook selects for more engagement and sends notifications because if they didn’t, then another network would become #1. The point is... capitalism drives us into echo chambers and distracts/interrupts us at dinner. It is a tragedy of the commons where the commins is human attention and decency. On the other hand, science, wikipedia and open source software do not have a profit motive. There is competition, yes — to be the first to contribute to the snowball of free information. This is actually collaboration. Our news can be done this way. Look at https://rational.app https://rational.app to see what I’m talking about.