Algorithms, Outrage, and a Death: America’s Political Rot
Is the internet radicalizing us?
The killing of Charlie Kirk has set America on fire. You have one side which rushed to brand it proof of the Left’s “evil” nature — Elon was tweeting within minutes, calling them “killers” before we even knew the details. Meanwhile, plenty on the other side were dredging up Kirk’s worst and most hateful quotes and commenting sarcastically something like “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy”.
Look — a man died. Whether he was awful or not, whether he said terrible things or not, whether he fucking deserved it or not — he’s dead. His kid will grow up without a father. Shame on the Right for weaponizing his death to go after their enemies. Shame on the Left for celebrating it and pretending his end was somehow righteous.
When you are a parent, sometimes your kids will just spout off things that infuriate you so much all you can say is “please just stop; stop talking now and go think about what you’re saying”. I feel that way right now with both the Left and the Right. Go to your rooms.
As Gandalf once said:
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
The political environment in America is grotesque. It is beyond disgusting. MAGAs preach “free speech for me, not for thee”, silencing everything from the other side. The Trump administration is gleefully leading the charge. If this isn’t a gross misuse of power, I don’t know what is. The historic parallels are not kind, but also America once called other nations authoritarian, and even added the moral judgement “evil”, for doing less than this.
And the Left? Half are cowering and kissing the ring of el Drumpf, the other half delight in hurling death wishes back. “They said it first, so now we can too!” Fox News had a host call for killing the homeless as policy. That was vile, even for Fox News. But the Left using it as license for their own bile is just as sickening.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Honestly, it feels like we’re watching children fight. Both sides deserve to be separated and sent to their rooms without supper to think about what they’ve done.
But I digress.
Is this social media at work? The algorithm? One exposes us to the fringe and the other rewards us for joining it.
Outcasts find communities of other outcasts online. They learn fast: scream something extreme (“Vaccines cause brain damage and the government is inserting microchips into us!!!”) and the dopamine hits roll in—likes, comments, attention. For people starved of affection, that’s a drug. The only way to get more is to go further. More extreme, more deranged, until you’re storming the Capitol and building gallows to hang the vice president. It is a drug. And just like any drug, they can’t get enough — they need it just to function.
That’s the extreme, but aren’t we all caught in a smaller version of the same cycle?
Even on issues where Left and Right might actually agree, they’re incentivized to stake out the loudest, most partisan extreme. So they do.
Yeah, Rush started it. Before he came along and made it ok to attack the other side — not their policies, but them — politicians of both parties would argue during the day but dine together at night. After he started, and especially after Newt ran with the message, it became war. The other side joined in and things spiraled. But it was never too bad until social media came along to pump dopamine into every extreme take.
I don’t have the answer. End rant. I’m disgusted. This isn’t “bothsidesism” — one side is worse right now in my opinion — but it’s undeniable that both are acting like assholes, and something deeper is pushing all of us in this direction.
I don’t think society will implode. I’m not all doom-and-gloom. But unless we stop ignoring it (or just blaming “the other side”) this shift is going to keep rotting us. It’s already spreading outside of America. We can see hints of this in Japan now, and I know it is elsewhere as well. The longer we wait to face it, the uglier the reckoning will be.
Whew….
Give me comments with your opinions on this. @geneeverett leans the other idological direction from me, so give us your view, Gene. Fellow expats: @meno, @ecoinstant — what do you guys think of what’s going on? @azircon, with your data driven perspective on things, do you have any feedback? Any other Americans or people living in America to tag… too many.
Anyway, give me your thoughts. Am I just crazy, or is this starting to get out of control? Can we do anything or are we condemned to just sit here and watch as the world goes mad?
@dbooster my friend, I can write so many things about this topic :)
But I will leave you with couple of plots.....
This is most of the developed countries...
This is U S and A :)
Sorry, we don't have a gun problem! :)
Same plot, but now I added USA :)
Oh! I must end on a lighter note, because I value my mental health
I was wondering when I was going to spot USA. Then I scrolled further down, legit "zoom out" :D
I like how Australia isn't in that list of 20 developed countries. We barely have any civilian gun ownership here.
I have two kids in public school. Every day when we send them out we worry if we see them back in the evening or not. I am not trying to be dramatic.
They have active shooter drills every month!
We have fire drills. Different hazards. They can both be easily prevented. If all parents feel the same way (surely, no parent sends their kid to school hoping they never see them again) - why has nothing changed after so many lives cut short?
Because the other 50% of the parents thinks we must arm the teachers and that will solve the problem! :)
Arming teachers.... yeah, that's a good idea. What's next...arming kids themselves?
Perhaps the answer is more holistic, and not generating a nation-state where people get the impression that firearms are the only solution to their problems.
You joke.
But arming kids is already talked about a lot in Texas and Oklahoma, two states I am intimately familiar with. Most of the summer camps in Texas does have an active and popular shooting program here is Texas. Some of it is gun safety but most of it is just shooting.
Kids love to shoot! I am not kidding
No gun problem at all, no sir ree.
God bless Stewart.
Currently the late night comedy is the only TV show and news I can comfortably watch unfortunately! Rest gives me such a discomfort that I get physically sick!
Please give specific examples of this happening :
"MAGAs preach “free speech for me, not for thee”, silencing everything from the other side."
There's a difference between Free Speech and Calls to Violence and Blatant Lies. Most recently Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air not by the Right but by Disney. Partly for his lies but mostly because his ratings were worse than Colberts. They also have a Broadcasting License which has strict rules on Blatant Misinformation because the airwaves are public.
By all reports, his ratings weren't bad. But regardless, the head of the FCC threatened ABC and any affiliates about airing Kimmel. The government stepped in. The FCC has been weaponized. It was similar pressure that got Colbert cancelled. Imagine how outraged the other side would have been if Obama had threatened Fox News.
You still didn't make any specific example of Magas calling for suppression of speech (which is what you wrote) which was my ONLY POINT. If anything Charlie Kirk and Crowder were willing to speak with anyone about anything and they were met with violence. Twitter & Facebook admitted to bowing to Government requests to censor anyone that held differing opinions from the left. Heck, I got my X account cancelled for saying "you can still get and spread Covid even if you had the shot", which we now know is 100% true.
I get exactly the same feeling when scrolling through Twitter. It's not limited to political topics—even with everyday, close-to-home issues—negative and inflammatory posts rack up tons of likes and spread like wildfire. And then, for each theme, the pro and con sides engage in endless battles. They don't listen to each other at all; they just vent what they want to say.
Every topic has its complexities stripped away and simplified, crafted to hit people's emotions head-on. And not in a way that evokes positive feelings, but rather to stir up anger and hatred... Is it the inflammatory news and content that's to blame, or have we become people who can only react to "easy-to-understand" things...? (Though, to be honest, this binary choice itself is flawed.)
At the very least, I want my sons to learn to see things from multiple perspectives, so I've banned short videos for them, and on weekends, we watch movies from various genres together and discuss them.
I've written a lot here, but I truly think your intuition is spot on.
I'm with you — I want to expose my kids to many different perspectives and teach them to to think about things instead of jumping to just one position; asking why these perspectives are so different, for instance, and what that difference can tell us. Critical thinking is a very important skill.
And so it begins... 🙃
Newspapers set the conversation of the day once upon a time. Then Radio. Then TV. Now that people get their news from another source, at far more accelerated rates, and with questionable authority, sprinkle a little bit of AI on top, and well - the only way to verify something for yourself is with your own eyes.
Or, to corroborate things from numerous sources, and find out what makes sense and what doesn't.
We are all capable of being our own detectives now. Some just choose to not apply basic research methodology.
Unfortunately, all too many are choosing not to apply basic research methodology. Or , to them basic research methodology is just accepting whatever their tribe says.
Your point about dopamine hits from extreme posts lands hard. Rush may have lit the fuse, but the feeds turned it into a contest where cruelty gets claps and and patience gets ignored. It is a rot < we keep feeding, so small guardrails like slower virality and friction on quote tweeting could cool teh temperature. Maybe the algorithm needs a timeout too.
Yes!
Totally, an algorithmic timeout could slow the swarm when posts spike too fast and and give people room to breathe.
Think of it like a cool off where the feed stops boosting hot threads for a bit.. caps reshares, and nudges toward diverse sources.
That'd definately help shift the vibe from outrage to reflection without killing fun.
I agree with your sentiment, except in this case, the assassin appears to be more moderate than the victim, with regard to what he said. That's a puzzling and frightening thought!
The only motive we know of was stopping hatred. There's no manifesto, only some gamer memes engraved on bullet casings, which I suspect wasn't even done for this occasion. He was no bitter loner either. Which suggests that, in such a violent climate, anyone might suddenly think: "I don't like that guy, I'll take him out."
I've kind of just been sitting back and thinking this is kind of what you asked for, so I can't be sorry for you. The problem is, the people on the other side don't see it or don't want to see it. Their freedoms are being taken away and they are fine and dandy with it. Which honestly is even more scary.
It could be argued that the current state of public discourse online is in fact completely under control by the tech companies who earn money from advertising.
An analysis of what companies are advertising on these bot army fueled hateful behaviours and outrage posts may reveal which companies are making money from the 'apparent' chaos.
Follow the money. Reveal the agent provocateur.
It's not out of control at all. The opposite in fact. imo
Edit: typo