Social media pushed algorithms designed to enrage so that shareholders could make money on "engagement." Life is becoming more expensive. Inflation, shrinkfla

Social media pushed algorithms designed to enrage so that shareholders could make money on "engagement." Life is becoming more expensive. Inflation, shrinkflation, greedflation, convenience fees, subscriptions increasing in price and helpfully serving the ads they promised the subscription fee would remove. All of it collectively rising faster than the money a person can bring in if they're a wage-worker and not an investor who can live off of capital and on a megayacht. People aware that life is worse than they were promised, and going to get worse still, but being gaslighted or shamed if they voice it, and the entrenched players having the means to hijack the conversation and stifle dissent in a way never before seen in history. A lot of sci-fi demonstrates an oppressive regime by having the lower classes live in sterile boxes containing only what the regime wants and ceaselessly surveilling, meting out "justice" for the slightest infraction without appeal or mercy. Between being surrounded by GenAI phantasmagoria and shadowbanning, we're just building the digital equivalent and hailing it as Progress, Therefore Good. Pot's boiling, lid's locked in place, and it's only a matter of time before it explodes.