> Why is this happening? Well if you can explain it, then you’ve got a good shot for at least a Ph.D. in sociology. The global pandemic obviously doesn’t help,

> Why is this happening? Well if you can explain it, then you’ve got a good shot for at least a Ph.D. in sociology. The global pandemic obviously doesn’t help, but I think it just exacerbated a mood that was already there. I blame clickbate. It's new, it's extortionary popular, it's making a whole lot of money for media outlets which had previously been on life-support. Anger sells, outrage sells, victimization sells, especially when everyone feels like their generation is uniquely screwed and it is everyone else's fault. I don't know how to stop it. I wish there was a voice in everyone's head that said "maybe this article is confirming all my beliefs because it wants to sell ads, not because it contains anything truthful or insightful". That voice seems absent so far. People believe everything they read, even if they crow loudly about how perceptive they are and how everyone else believes everything they read. The advertisement industry has been successful beyond its wildest imagination. Don Draper would be mind blown.