By saying something stupid, offensive, cruel, and misogynistic, the troll set off an outrage that grew his profile and undoubtedly raised disturbing levels of money from people who love it when people are rightfully outraged.
This political economy is broken.
And yes, I’m talking about the most recent incident, but this bad faith grift has trended this country toward authoritarian fascism, has powered the entire Right Wing ecosystem, boosted Trump and MTG and Boebert and that whole gaggle of dangerous grifters.
As long as people see a financial incentive to being cruel and racist and misogynistic and fascistic and in destroying shared society they’re going to take it and it’s going to continue to cost us lives and valuable, precious time.
Again, we have to rework how we deal with these trolls and grifts, both from individuals and media operations. Bad faith actors don’t care if you’re sharing or talking about something because you agree or disagree. In this attention economy it’s all the same.
This is why media puts out shockingly bad faith op-eds and articles. Because it captures everybody and just results in more revenue. This system is currently working only to hurt discourse and shared society. Reject it and learn from our time with Trump.
Trolls like the one we’re dealing with today benefit from outraging people, saying things that are outrageous and awful, and then profiting off the attention. It’s marketing and branding. Do not give these people clicks, impressions, or the satisfaction. It’s a grift.
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We don’t talk enough about the relationship between online-interactive conspiracy theories and the corporate strategy of increasing interest in movies and TV shows by injecting Easter eggs and puzzle boxes to spur online chatter.
Internet-era viral marketing, dropping hints into properties to inspire online articles and social media chatter that prioritizes obsessive fandom and rewards investigative consumption, taught consumers to view everything as a treasure hunt for hidden knowledge.
Anymore, the most popular properties are ones that inspire sleuthing, piecing together clues, restless conjecture and repeated viewings for narrative construction that benefits “researchers”
who interpret hidden “clues.” Movements like QAnon just bring it into political reality.
This is the exact same New World Order conspiracy the Right and its media have pushing for four decades now, only it now involves specific mention of a new Civil War and the Right slaughtering fellow citizens.
Make no mistake, this is the conspiracy theory Fox News airs every single day, but FNC stops short of voicing the specifics and allows viewers to take the ideas to their illogical extent.
We’re entering a new phase of radicalization.
Disturbingly, so much of this moment resembles the lead up to the OKC Bombing in the 1990’s and the violence preceding the Civil War. The question, if this continues, is whether violence will be asymmetrical or widespread/directed.
Robin Hood marketing itself as a business to "democratize investment" and then capitulating to the demands of the elite few is a great time to remember that businesses sell themselves on progressive sloganeering in order to profit off your political sensibilities.
These brands aren't on your side and they certainly don't hold these positions. Corporations know they have to pretend to care about diversity, inclusivity, and progressive ideas while using those buzzwords as illusions to hide their exploitation.
In modern times this is has been the result of the GOP and the wealthy and powerful understanding blatant white supremacist, misogynistic, exploitative behavior was increasingly unpopular and unsustainable.
They learned they had to hide behind polite, smiling veneers.
Stop sharing Josh Hawley’s posts and videos. You’re only increasing his reach and allowing him to build a dangerous platform of perceived persecution and misinformation.
This started with Trump. They know how to use these sites to their advantage.
Hawley is daring you to share his message of perceived persecution and playing on your natural instinct to prove him wrong that he isn’t silenced.
Social media isn’t a conversation, it’s an economic and political platform. We have to learn that from our past.
The Right knows moderates and liberals can’t stand being called biased or unfair and so they create a “moderate” space that moves discourse to the right. This has worked in papers, on TV, and now social media. Don’t enable this. Recognize it and recalibrate.
News shows, networks, major publishing outlets, politicians, and pundits.
When you invite conspiracy theorists and fascists and white supremacists onto your shows or into a conversation you are saying they have a valid point of view and are a necessary part of discourse.
We have to stop treating these conspiracy theorists, cultists, and fascist movements like they are anything besides radicalized groups that continually spew propaganda that will further radicalize others and poison culture.
Analyze them, dismantle them, work AROUND them.
But any conversation about this would be incomplete if we did not mention that many outlets understand featuring conspiracy theorists and fascists and bad faith actors also drives their bottom line as it leads to outrage and widespread sharing of their content.
Normal was never normal, it was an illusion that allowed the wealthy and powerful to become wealthier and consolidate power. That illusion is flickering and has to be replaced. The question is whether the replacement will be mass violence or a realer, more human future.
There is no choice. To concede the future is to allow mass antidemocratic forces to kill and purge and plunge us into a dystopic future as long as the planet holds out.
The choice is to make a choice.
The more I study history the more I realize it’s just eras of illusions that hold sway and allow exploitation until the illusion gives out and a new reality takes its place.
The future belongs to people who recognize this and make a choice.