Blair Cottrell (@RealBlairCottrell)

This is starting to become a problem. Regular people are currently high as shit on copium and trying hard to pretend everything is fine, or they’re borderline schizophrenic and close to having a mental breakdown about a list of conspiracy theories. And I’m not sure what’s worse. But it’s fascinating to me because it ties directly into the innate tendency of people to be “either this, or that.” Not many people can accept and process nuance. To most humans everything is either good or evil; obvious or impossible; always or never. But inside these screens is an abundance of information and a constantly expanding field of grey, while algorithms are in there working hard to appeal to the standard “black or white” human way of thinking, by giving people more of what they think they want. Algos exist because new or conflicting information never compels ordinary people to calmly re-assess their beliefs, since humans are egotistic and mentally lazy they’d rather just feel right all the time. But the validating effect of algorithmic manipulation, coupled with the sheer amount of content is throwing people ‘too far out’ and making them feel too sure about their preferred brand of bullshit, to the point where they end up thinking almost everything is set up to harm or kill them. And what frustrates this situation even more is there ARE deliberate schemes created to cause harm. Conspiracies to mislead people and profit from their pain do exist, but the core conspirators can now conceal themselves inside a black hole of nuance and nonsense, which people are having a hard time sifting through. This in itself could be deliberate as well. To keep our feet on the ground, I recommend that people focus first on what they can control in their own lives. Then they should spend time doing good work for their own family or community. And if anyone really needs to explore theories they should give their attention to the most logical one, that the world is an ongoing struggle between a series of teams and we all have a team we were born into. You don’t actually need to hate the other teams but you may come to find they hate you, and it’s kind of existentially necessary to live with and protect the interests of your own. Wonder about other stuff if you want to but don’t get lost. Always come back and stick to the basics.