Outrage is letting someone else set the frame
11 points
1/21/1970
17 hours ago
by Ariarule
Comments
kw3b
14 hours ago
jauntywundrkind
It's not just algorithms, imo. That's displaces blame, again, imo.
Humans are weak to the negative emotions. We are very sensitive to being told we are under attack. There's a zeal and energy we get when we rally together around deciding: someone else is wrong. Someone is bad.
"Someone is wrong on the internet" was first order, for people with agency. But second order, now that everyone is here, it's less about being the person writing that post. It's more about people displaying their outrage at wrongness, in ways other people can watch or +1 in on.
We keep blaming the algorithms, but we must be properly aghast at what's really happening: they are giving us what we want.
5 hours ago
This is why so many sites feel completely enshittified now. If a post doesn't tickle the ragebait or FUD algorithm instantly with grindslop it never winds up in a feed. e.g, LinkedIn is such a wasteland that I get 10x the visibility with one liner quips than anything that requires more than two brain cells to fire.
In a lot of ways the internet first democratized the information we had access to, but then the algorithms took over, and we're getting back to the cathode ray tube era. Long live the new flesh.