Not a conspiracy at all and I think you’re kind of missing the point in asking about with that statement. I am asking if anyone is becoming aware of the machin

Not a conspiracy at all and I think you’re kind of missing the point in asking about with that statement. I am asking if anyone is becoming aware of the machine that seems to be shaping public opinion and how difficult it is to even talk about the idea of an opinion shaping machine? Seems like we should be able to have a civil converation on HN in 2024 about media shaping public opinion and whether it seems like there is a pattern to negative news stories around public figures that are out of fashion without it becoming a “conspiracy conversation” at this point. I mean all of media seems increasingly coordinated to the halls of power, investigative journalism is almost dead, and billionaires or the large companies they control own almost all media at this point. Does asking whether there appears to be a coordinated system trying to shape public opinion across social media now automatically generate “conspiracy” tags? That seems naive at this point. I’m concerned because what I’m seeing in my life from people I know personally VS what I see online have diverged greatly. The conversations I have with people who work in technology and are “plugged in” are very similar and seem propelled by the same talking points and opinions, especially when I interact with people who aren’t technologists or more Internet connected. It’s really interesting how profoundly “shaped” a lot of people are in why they think. But what’s even more interesting is how profoundly hostile people become whenever you ask whether their opinions are being shaped or whether they are seeing that the system is feeding a steady diet of “what to think about who” that seems to be working really profoundly well on public opinions. It kind of concerns me because the population seems kind of unaware and unprepared for the Internet to become largely machine generated which is inevitable at this point. People aren’t questioning things at all. That’s kinda concerning to me.