The internet gives stupid people a platform. Before social media someone had to have a certain level of competence to work their way up to a position where they could influence large numbers of people. Some would slip through, but it did a pretty good job of filtering them out, and once they were found to be stupid, it was usually pretty easy to cut off their outlet to the masses. Maybe in the past a really motivated crazy person might put out a newsletter, or get on cable access, or start a pirate radio broadcast… but most of that is one way. And there was the occasional cult leader who would get people together, but the kool-aid normally solved that problem in the end.
Today, any idiot with an internet connection can blast things out to millions or even billions of people. Then we have social media companies looking for how to keep people engaged. They can profile people who are easy targets for this crazy stuff and show it to them, and it’s good for the company, because these types of people get hooked and become very engaged in the site when talking about their bull shit.
So a platform with nearly 0 barrier to entry, coupled with free marketing from the social media algorithm, and a platform where they can feed off each other and organize… it’s no wonder it’s grown out of control.
The internet gives stupid people a platform. Before social media someone had to have a certain level of competence to work their way up to a position where they could influence large numbers of people. Some would slip through, but it did a pretty good job of filtering them out, and once they were found to be stupid, it was usually pretty easy to cut off their outlet to the masses. Maybe in the past a really motivated crazy person might put out a newsletter, or get on cable access, or start a pirate radio broadcast… but most of that is one way. And there was the occasional cult leader who would get people together, but the kool-aid normally solved that problem in the end.
Today, any idiot with an internet connection can blast things out to millions or even billions of people. Then we have social media companies looking for how to keep people engaged. They can profile people who are easy targets for this crazy stuff and show it to them, and it’s good for the company, because these types of people get hooked and become very engaged in the site when talking about their bull shit.
So a platform with nearly 0 barrier to entry, coupled with free marketing from the social media algorithm, and a platform where they can feed off each other and organize… it’s no wonder it’s grown out of control.