I have an alternative, possibly controversial opinion that I'm still working through. I think talking about "Fake News" or "The Attention Economy" or "The Alg

I have an alternative, possibly controversial opinion that I'm still working through. I think talking about "Fake News" or "The Attention Economy" or "The Algorithms" robs us of our fundamental agency, pins blame on "others who are radicalized by technology" and "those who manipulate them", and prevents us from natural, easy steps to becoming more civil. The stories we tell ourselves matter, fundamentally, as any psychologist, stoic, mindfulness master, or person suffering from mental health issues can tell you. Whenever we, as individuals, let something dominate our mind, then we'll be more prone to seeking information about those negative stories, confirmations, communities built around them, etc. In this case, Fake News is just responding to market pressure that we're unable to stop creating. Cognitive behavioral therapy was purpose built to help individuals remove cyclic, persistent, negative narratives from their minds, mostly through positive reframing. It's efficacy as part of a three-hit combo is pretty good. CBT, Mindfulness, and, if required, medication. The controversial bit is that I think we've allowed anti-social narratives to take hold, do not question the uselessness / lack of benefit of its hold over us, and have compounded this by telling ourselves there's nothing we can do about it because "Fake News" or "Attention Economy" or "Wokeness" etc etc. I think every single person can purge these anti-social narratives in themselves, starting with the part where we believe others are to blame, and others are irredeemably corrupted by what's on TV or where they were born, or how much money they have, etc etc.