Thread by @jenmercieca

"That's because the attention economy is a star system, where Elvis has an advantage. The relationship between stars and fans is central. Even without cyberspace, celebrities in show business, politics, and every other discipline accumulate huge amounts of notice."

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1650269179394547713

"Of course, you can earn negative attention as well, such as flaming, shaming, and outright hatred. But as many a disobedient child knows, negative attention can be better than none at all. On the Web, if you're adept, you can use notoriety to bring more notice to yourself."

If you've never read this 1997 essay on the "attention economy" it makes a lot of things make sense: wired.com/1997/12/es-att…

Like Trump, the Overlord uses Twitter to gain & keep our attention. If you're a truefan-cult member-reply guy you might be rewarded with attention from others in the cult or (roll the dice) from Trump or the Overlord himself & you can troll yourself lots of negative attention.

Cults attract lonely people and we're all lonely. The more loneliness, the more cults (probably).

And, you say, but are there really political celebrities and also rich people celebrities and also political rich person celebrities?

Yes, yes there are. Of course there are.

Forms of celebrity from minor to major:
A person in a fancy car
A person with a baby/puppy/dog
A bartender
A person who is popular in school/work/social media
A church leader
A rich person
A media person
A political person
A sports person
An A-list movie/tv/music person

Some of these forms of celebrity require special skills and talents--others do not! And being a part of the cult of any of these forms of celebrity requires nothing more than the ability to give your attention.

(and, yes, I just made up that list of celebrity-types, but you get the point--sub out how it suits your experience/observations)

This is why #BlockTheBlue is such a cruel & effective move in the ✅ wars. OG verifieds were getting too much attention, so the Overlord bought the app to punish them & reward his cult. Blocking the cult defeats the purchase purpose & frustrates the attention reward structure.