(When I woke up this morning, I removed about 25 comments !!)
I wonder if I feel free to write a blog post that I know will anger people because I don't monetize.
I have ads, but it pays a tiny fraction of the cost of maintaining a website and using MailChimp. People might be surprised at how much my blogging venture costs.
A few years ago Substack tried to recruit me . . .
The ultimate objective of technology-based civilization is to reduce every single human interaction to a monetized transaction from the moment of your first breath to your last.
Welcome to the civilization capitalists have made.
I just wrote a book on Disinformation and included the election lies, so I don't say this lightly, but both of these tear at the fabric of a democracy:
(1) disinformation and misinformation
(2) the kind of outrage and fury that exacerbates polarization.
Unfortunately, both of those are profit driven.
maybe that should be next week's blog posts and I take off the rest of the week 😉
I spent an absurd amount of time writing this week's post because I knew I was going against the current.
@Teri_Kanefield Difficult to find much of value on social media that bears any relation to reality. This is the only place I spend any time any more, and even then...
I spent a good chunk of my career at news organizations, or adjacent to them. Although I was on the business side, I got deep and close looks inside newsrooms, and I will say this: the further a reporter gets from an editor, the more the truth suffers via ego and fragility and expediency.
@FLGLchicago Thanks. My disinformation book is out. Next year I have one on the Bill of Rights.
Okay, I'll say it: I think next year's book is my best yet. Not my favorite. My fav is still Susan B. Anthony. (I cried writing the ending. It all felt so personal).
@Teri_Kanefield About 2) there, the thing is: it works. It really, really works. So if one side is doing it, the other side simply HAS to do it as well, otherwise it's very quickly wiped out. It's a positive feedback cycle (a very negative positive feedback cycle at that) that I don't know how to get out of.
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@Teri_Kanefield Just keep speaking the truth, Teri. Your following grows whether you “monetize” or not. I wish more would share your contempt for so many of the terrible norms we’ve come to accept as some kind of immutable condition. We can change things. But getting more people to want to make the effort is the first requirement.
@Teri_Kanefield: Based on how confrontational so much of social media has become, it seems like a lot of people are willfully ignorant about the rage industry and the use of disinformation. If they'd read your book, it could help them see how they are being manipulated for profit.
I noticed that you turned off comments on your latest blog post. I'm sorry it got so nasty when you were just trying to explain what actually happened while dispelling the conspiracy theories propagated by those doing hot takes.
If it helps at all, there are a lot of us (like me) who very much appreciate your thoughtful explanations.
@Teri_Kanefield A thought (or two) about who is/isn't a conspiracist: That word is loaded; we would do better to split between uninformed/misinformed speculation (most of us), authoritative speculation, and conspiracists.
Most people don't speculate out of a desire to spread disinfo; they/we do it because provocative actions naturally elicit them. Labeling them/us as conspiracists shuts their/our brains down and results in defensiveness.
I followed the example of Prof. Dannagal Goldwaithe Young. When I wrote my book on disinfromation, I distinguished disinformation from misinformation. Disinformation = intentional lies. Misinformation = mistakes.
I discovered the problems: For one thing, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
And if a legal expert spouts opinions without caring if they are wrong, is that intentional? Or not?
I offered the definition to counter the defensiveness.
@Teri_Kanefield Here in Canada we had been pretty smug, we hadn’t had the attack type politics till Harper brought in some US political consultants to win that election. Since then we have descended in a similar style of rage farming in our political campaigns. I’d love to blame it all on you guys in the US but we’ve accepted it. It has reduced the quality of discussion, the moderating factor here is minority government which are forced to discuss and develop better legislation.
@Teri_Kanefield so I looked at your bio and saw that you were a lawyer. I don't think I need a lawyer because I have lawyers being that I'm a death row inmate. But I have some things that I'm working on about equal protection and how one is not an adult at 18. I don't know what to do with such articles other than to write them maybe give them to my lawyers. But that ain't enough ... Help!
@Teri_Kanefield
“…and was shocked when I told her that I don't want to monetize.”
11 words that explain why the internet sucks as badly as it does any more. I started a web forum in 1993 with no ads and no monetization as a support site for folks with inflammatory bowel disease. It’s still live, with no ads and no monetization. (Also no cost, tbh. I started it on my desk at work and is now on another university server, surreptitiously.)
@Teri_Kanefield I am so thankful I went to college in Germany where propaganda and misinformation are taught. Americans, as a whole but especially MAGA Republicans are clueless.
@Teri_Kanefield, I finally read your blog post after holding off for a couple of days. I'd been afraid to read it sooner, the reasons for which seem nebulous and dumb to me now after having read it. Once again, you make great sense, and I can't argue with what you said.
@Teri_Kanefield, I suspect my fear came from the fact that I was still pissed off. I'd been angry all last week because of Trump's required dollar amount being reduced. I was just so furious that he'd gotten yet another break, when so many other people don't get any breaks whatsoever. Every now and then, rational or not, the general unfairness in our system just gets to me.
Thanks for explaining things again.
I strongly suggest that you stop listening to whoever had you enraged. Just turn it off.
Re-read my criminal law FAQ page, and then understand that you are the victim of a for-profit rage machine.
Stop feeding the machine. It is not good for your health and it is not good for democracy because it exacerbate the already dangerous levels of polarization.
Yes, you were told that the court handed Trump a lifeline as if it was a favor and not the kind of routine thing that courts do. He should have the right to appeal, and if he can't secure the bond that large, then he can't appeal.
Other than that initial phrasing, I thought the piece was fairly balanced.
@Teri_Kanefield, yes, I believe it was. It was the first thing I saw as I was drinking my coffee Monday morning.
I admit it was compounded by my puerile (but very human!!) desire to witness his destruction. 🤷♀️
Okay then but doesn't that come from the rage machine?
You are on social media so you see what I see. One point I made is that you don't have to be a cable viewer to be exposed to those views because they then go viral on social media.
Right. That is my point. According to the authors of the Outrage Industry, a small percentage of the population, under 20%, are "hyper engaged partisans" who have high levels of hatred toward the other side. They are enrage and furious.
Most people dislike Trump but they do not feel rage and anger the way you described.
People in this call group think that everyone should be driven by rage, but they are in their own bubble completely out of touch with the population.
@KarenTurley For example, people in this bubble think it is of crucial importance that the criminal trials happen before the election.
In fact, most Democratic voters don't care. They care about other things far more (like reproductive rights and climate change) and are not even tracking the trials.
Biden pokes fun at Trump's legal troubles but knows the election will be won on reproductive rights.
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