This weekend, a bullet grazed an ear and almost brought the United States of America to its knees. The dominant media system might finish the job. In this historically delicate moment, the main places of online conversation are awash with fevered conspiracy theories and degenerate grandstanding by an endless parade of digitally addled hucksters seeking to exploit tragedy for personal gain (or, at least, internet points). The loudest, most craven voices are winning a game that doles out rewards to those who will do whatever it takes to win attention, with no regard for truth or trust. In the meantime, other platforms—online gathering places for billions of people—are down-ranking news and politics, preferring suppression to whatever it is that would otherwise be loosed by their machines. The incentives of this system may not be the cause of our social division, but they certainly don’t help. It’s a system that gets stronger with polarization, feeding on conflict and histrionics. We’ve never had more power to communicate with each other, but it seems increasingly difficult to see each other’s humanity. In this system, Biden isn’t just bad—he’s a an evil globalist lizard person. In this system, Trump isn’t just disgraceful—he’s a democracy-destroying demon. Democrats are despicable! Republicans are traitors! Hamilton gives you herpes! Our leaders have called for a cooling down of our political rhetoric, but unfortunately this is not a problem that can be solved by presidential decree. To change the conversation—not just its contents, but also its tenor and tone—we need to change the incentives of a system that has ensnared us in its addiction feeds. But we don’t need to rely on political leaders to do that. We can do it ourselves, by fighting not against each other but for our own minds. We can refuse to accept the system’s rules and hold ourselves above them. We can choose to spend our attention intentionally instead of endlessly scrolling for dopamine hits. We can choose to reward the communicators we most trust with direct support. People will tell you that things are only going to get crazier. Maybe they will. But they don’t have to. You don’t have to. You can slow down. You can take a breath. You can take back your mind.
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Fight!
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