I've never published something in the Atlantic before, it's interesting to watch the algorithm play out the 4 or 5 headlines and see which one is winning.
It’s not just a derth of bad information and it’s not just the human instinct for confirmation bias. It’s multiple factors working against us. There are healthy tools and resources, sure, but surrounded by easy to reach junk food for the brain. What happens when you eat only junk food?
Could not access the whole article but would also think of the network and bandwagon effects as important drivers. Then misinfo belief becomes part of social identity, so even more locked in.
This idea has merit. But it's kind of strange to treat things like "faster news cycles" and the predatory and rigged systems of social media as if they were the weather (impersonal, just happens to exist) and not the result of deliberate actions by bad actors to enrich themselves further.
I taught a freshman composition class last spring, and half the students responded “meh” when I played a clip from Liz Cheney’s audiobook with actual audio from Jan. 6. They immediately heard it through their own perspectives.
Comments
https://bsky.app/profile/noupside.bsky.social/post/3lf3haia6c22e
And lol at the "cocooned" Democrats who believed Trump was "destined to lose." (Maybe those Democrats just don't use social media.)
Saw a viral folk theory over on LinkedIn and thought of you! (Lol I mean that as a compliment.)
What's your theory of change?
Without even a Charlottesville level incident of aggression, J6 looks just like a George Floyd protest to the low information voter.
It makes me think of "manufacturing doubt" (which I'm guessing you know) used first by cigarette companies, later by oil companies.
But the crowdsourcing of narratives is a mostly new thing I think.
I taught a freshman composition class last spring, and half the students responded “meh” when I played a clip from Liz Cheney’s audiobook with actual audio from Jan. 6. They immediately heard it through their own perspectives.