There are certainly people who are taking advantage of the hatred, the division, and the strife. Like Fox News, Ben Shapiro, etc.

But the real villain, the real enemy, are the algorithms designed to take advantage of you, to use you, to discard you, to do what it is told to do without consequence of what the actions are.

To engage you. To manipulation your emotions. To bring you content that keeps you hating...... because hate drives clicks, hate makes you watch.

6/x

And by this time, it's okay to throw hatred at the other people.

Because the other people are doing horrible wretched things that everything around you, from every source, tells you is true.

It will split you from friends, from family, from everybody who doesn't think like you do.

And the scariest part of all this, it isn't even human controlled or directed. It's an algorithm doing what it does, given one task, to get more clicks and engage people. It doesn't care. It doesn't know.

5/x

By the time other people begin to confront you for what you've been conditioned to belief, you are shocked that they would be against all of this stuff that, in your world, is everything.

It makes you angry. It makes them angry.

You get pulled deeper into the brainwash. Sure, there's some bad things happening, but what's happening "on the other side" is far worse. So, it doesn't matter.

The algorithm makes your reality.

4/x

"Use Google! Look up the facts!"

Okay, sure. But all these systems are connected, Google has you too. When you do a Google search it knows what you have been looking at and it just reinforces what you are beginning to believe.

You don't get the other story any more.

All of your information is derived from the algorithm telling you what the algorithm thinks you want to read, see, hear, etc.

It slow cooks your brain into a world of belief and you don't know it's happening.
3/x

The story isn't something you would think outrageous. It tells you something a little unbelievable, so you just brush it off as something whacky.

Because you clicked on it, the algorithm has its foot in the door. It sends you another which reinforces the first. Again, it seems whacky, and you mostly ignore it. But you don't realize you've reinforced the algorithm. It goes from a scatter story and slowly becomes a barrage of "sources" from every direction, all saying the same thing. 2/x

I was a victim of propaganda.

#politics

My family still are.

It's easy to say, "You could have looked up the facts!" or that "You made a choice!"

But here is actually what happens.

You're an every day, kind, loving citizen who would do anything for your neighbors. You don't go out of your way to hate people, and you're mostly living your life, and not online often or connected a lot.

Then, one day a family member or close friend shares a story with you. 1/x

Sometimes, I Stagger.

#CoSoMusic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp5A8awHfas

What do you do when you have insomnia and cannot sleep?

I'm excited to go home and see my siblings, but there will be tensions and fights.😐

Is it wrong that I'm already thinking about my next leave of America in my head before I even get home?😅

Home doesn't really feel like home any more.

I've been on SoCo for two days and have made 260 posts/replies. 😅

Let's just throw any chance illusion of a life out of the window right now. 😂

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this song.

It makes the Christian in me really uncomfortable, but it also makes me go, "The song kinda has an interesting point." 😅

#CoSoMusic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e07I7io1myI

Are you looking for a fun Christmas movie?

My friends back home made me watch this movie awhile ago, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Also. Yes, I post a lot. I'm traveling alone and have no friends or family around and nothing to do. You will see my name a lot over the next couple of days. 😂😜

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfWIfwKJ7vA

Every time I call my sister or my sister calls me, I have to hear my angry Dad barking in the background.

I don't know why she can't call me when he's not around, or go to another room, it isn't hard! Two feet and a heart beat and she'd be through a door! Maybe she's afraid I'll confront her if she's alone or something.

And you'd think my Dad would have SOME self-awareness about immigrants at least. My Mom is half Mexican. She gave up the cholo for some chubby in a polo.😏I heard the stories!

It's a good thing I put my warpaint on today! I had a little back and forth with my sister about the crazy phone call we had yesterday.

Trying to talk to my sister while my Dad yap yap yaps in the background about communists and immigrants taking over MURICA and about how I'm hiding out in Germany because, according to Detective Dad, the only reason I'd could have ever voted for a Democrat is because I'm CLEARLY (BIG emphasis on clearly) a Nazi.🤪Yelling about how much I got "paid" for it. 😏