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

If you want to save the world, stop the division, stopping the grifters won't stop it.

You have to go after the corporations. Meta. Google. Apple. All of them, make these algorithms illegal. Ban them. Stop them.

The evil isn't coming from the other side, it's coming from where you are not looking.

The question is, what do we do about it? How do we explain it to people like my parents who are barely capable of using Facebook and email?

What do we do about it?

7/7

@quinnsentialOne the tough part of all of this is that even if you got rid of the algorithms, magically they all stopped tomorrow...

So many people are so far down their preferred rabbit hole that they personally would continue to push their preferred narratives.

Sure, algorithms are a big part of why so much RW content propagates

But a lot of that is also organically shared bc people are so deep into their ecosystem that they wish to share that information to the exclusion of all else.

@quinnsentialOne a lot of people incorrectly believe that (inset bogeyman here) is going to ruin they and their family's lives or outright destroy them, because enough other people told them it would.

We focus a lot on "grifters" and I'm not going to say people selling shit takes for cash aren't part of the problem

I am going to offer that I think too many well-meaning people have dismissed too many True Believers as simply grifters, and that's a big problem.

@The757Progressive My view is from my own perspective.

I didn't fall into the hole because I was a true believer.

I don't believe my family are true believers either.

I was a believer who didn't have anything else to believe. My beliefs were made up for me, and I embraced them because I saw nothing else.

That is the danger I see.

@quinnsentialOne hm I'll have to think about that one.

You've stumped me a bit lol.

@The757Progressive Of course, I agree there will be true believers.

But I don't think most are victims.

I look at my family like victims, and I want to find a way to heal them.

Maybe it's stupid or naive, but what other choice do I have? Just let them go?

@quinnsentialOne it's neither stupid nor naive to wait to heal the ones you love.

Nobody ever wants to let their family go.

Sometimes some people find there is no choice. Hopefully it won't come to that for you.

I don't want to sound like I am "disagreeing" with anything you're saying, because I think it's all valid and important to discuss.

I guess one thing that does puzzle me is perhaps the weight being assigned to the algorithms?

@quinnsentialOne what I mean by "weight" is

If I am understanding correctly, I get the sense you feel the algorithms are almost totally to blame?

I understand the position but I would inquire as to where human agency comes in here?

Are people so bombarded by algorithms that they do not have agency to not be drawn into them, and thus have their beliefs formed for them?