[UrukParthian]

And the old media was a propaganda machine. And a total waste of cognitive frames. How I wish I could trade all the stupid ads I saw for a memory of a few seconds with my wife.

If people are being radicalized, it signals that maybe the system of incentives have been gamed. We live in the shadow of another housing bubble. We live in the shadow of a pension bubble. We live in the shadow of possible emergent dystopias, whether they be left-aligned or right-aligned. And we used to live in the shadow of a massive propaganda machine. This type of extremism is borne of the shock of hearing good actionable information over bad information forged with bad faith.

Imagine growing up and you find adults, actual people with actual responsibilities, act like children when it comes to politics. High school teachers making fun of George W Bush as if he was a total idiot. That was very bad information. He might have squandered blood and treasure on Iraq but he managed his image well, even coming off as "a simple down to the earth man" before his supporters. Down to his accent he adopted despite growing up in old WASP holdouts. Nope,instead grown adults preferred to amuse themselves with an image of a total idiot president. Which was both disarming and catastrophic to understanding how power works in this country.

Surely there is a "center" in this country but the "center" gave us unmanageable time bombs of massive liabilities bequeathed, "awarded" one might say, as burdens for future generations.

As far as Youtube goes, it's not proper to blame the failings of ordinary people. If anything, it's our useless public education apparatus that let bad information, bad faith, and bad habits become a triumvirate incarnated. So much cognition wasted so a class of bureaucrats, school administrators and clerical staff, could collect pensions that future generations will be paying very dearly for.

That's my two cents rant.

[m_ke]

> As far as Youtube goes, it's not proper to blame the failings of ordinary people.

They're making money by abusing our weaknesses. That's what happens when you optimize for attention and ad impressions.

[UrukParthian]

You act as if we were helpless. You're just seeing the ugly side of "average" people. How quick they are to form blobs around novel information. How lacking in critical thought most people are. It sounds almost absurdly cynical but my experience has made me a cynical person about most other people and their ability to discriminate further than the two categorical blobs of "right" and "left".

Not to mention that focusing on YouTube is a minor thing. Especially when the quality of cognition can be radically changed with diet and habit. Imagine all the people drinking milkshakes from Starbucks, enjoying that sugar and caffeine rush. Remember, it's not a coffee company (profit wise), it's a milkshake company that blends in coffee.

Look at sugar content of their items.

[UrukParthian]

And to add, they're even worse than milkshakes. At least there's fat content which slows insulin resistance.