#youtube streamers have literally discovered the media equivalent of #drugs:
An influencer reading other people’s semi-funny tweets on repeat. Hundreds and hundreds. Endlessly.
It keeps giving you little hits of dopamine over and over, keeps you hooked, wastes your time & doesn’t get you anywhere even if you feel something like a real feeling.
I call these ”brain rot”. My kid agreees, and keeps watching.
The race to the bottom of the brain stem is painful to watch sometimes. 🙁
Facebook has certainly become a dumpster of #ai generated ”science” groups that are just honeypots for tinfoil sites.
However, these operators fool the algorithm into thinking it’s important precisely by putting on the front lies that the science-minded will want to correct, but enough will support because it fits their confirmation bias. This promotes a fight.
It’s like an industry repeating the pattern of antivaxx groups in mid 2010’s. 🤦♂️
Russian Telegram channels shifting blame of #Moscow#terrorist attack to Ukraine. Putin says: ”whoever did it”, even if ISIS already claimed responsibility publicly.
Ruskij standart.
With somewhere around half of the Russian population ready to believe Ukraine is behind all the evil in the world, confirmation bias takes care of the rest.
My guess: They knew the attack by ISIS was coming, they let it happen, and got ready to blame it on Ukraine.
Yet, Taiwan managed to hold fair and democratic elections and their people didn’t fall for the traps set by China, and the threats of their jets and missiles flying over the island.
People on the #left: Don’t be fooled by right-wing claims that #unions & #strikes are ”anti-market”. On the contrary, they exist precisely because big business is anti-market.
In a #market#economy, everyone sets their price. A market that offers better working conditions for skilled workers, moves workers where they are happier.
But in a #monopoly, there is no option. For a worker bound to a location (due to family etc), the local factory is a de-facto monopoly.
A core aim of Russian-style #misinformation, aka ”flooding the zone with shit” is to also create cynicism.
When everything is subject and nothing is true, people slowly start thinking that whatever they do, it will be corrupted and won’t matter anyway.
So they stop doing anything, political talk moves ”to the kitchen” as they say.
So they keep telling how #ukraine is corrupt, and more & more people in US think it’s a smart move to avoid assistance from lining up politician’s pockets there.
Charlie Munger’s advice the to corporate world: ”Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome” is not just empty words but applicable to society in general.
As we see incentives slowly becoming more toxic, also the world becomes more so.
The free market is especially effective at optimising based on incentives. There will always be someone who delivers for a price..
This is why when the main #incentives become money itself, we have to be on our toes:
The #israel far right are completely crazy: If Netanyahu and his pundits think this level of carnage in #gaza would not make millions of people consider picking up arms in revenge, they are mad.
So many people who have lost everything? You know what that makes? Soldiers with nothing to lose. Suicide bombers.
They think they will weaken Iran? No, they are strenghtening Iran. It’s network of Jihadis will be even bigger after this. And now they will be armed by #Russia.
Is support for perhaps the most important battle western civilisation has faced in decades really on equal terms with building a wall?
The thing is, if #Ukraine loses, the #western#alliance will have forfeited the #trust that those yearning democracy, equal rights & freedom from tyranny have placed in it.
If the west loses trust, there goes our push for anti-racism too. If the global south chooses Russian & Chinese style, it won’t matter a damn.