Thread by @caitoz

It quickly became clear to me in the early days of Covid that I could very easily make a big name for myself just by confidently telling the conspiracy crowd what they wanted to hear. There was a hunger for that. People practically begged me to validate their paranoia for them.

I could have drawn a lot of attention to myself just by writing in a confident-sounding tone and pretending to know things I didn't know and pretending to be more confident in certain analyses that I really was and elevating others who seemed confident in the same perspective.

Others would have noticed this peculiar current in collective consciousness as well. It would present as a major temptation for a certain type of personality. I'm not saying everyone who's been disputing establishment Covid narratives fits this description. But I bet some do.

I saw the heads of more than one indie media outlet boasting about how many more clicks they were getting with their Covid commentary than they had been before. It exploded. A slice of the zeitgeist made it very clear very early on that that's where all the clicks were.

This doesn't mean shady shit hasn't been done by the powerful with regard to Covid. It just means there's a need for critical thinking that gets lost when people get scared and emotional about something, and it cuts all ways, including into anti-establishment factions online.

One thing I learned early on when I started this commentary gig is how many people with large audiences are just bullshitting in a confident tone of voice. It's very easy to make a name for yourself that way. The path of integrity takes more work, and not many take it.

And that dynamic is something we should all be aware of when forming our understanding of the world. Just something that's worth bringing consciousness to.

Yeah that's a great illustration of how susceptible people's minds are to the influence of someone who sounds like they know what they're doing. We're basically just clueless apes on a spinning rock in space, so we're suckers for a confident tone of voice.

https://twitter.com/UnpackTheSlap/status/1527789092175368192