Nice article, Scott.
There is an Adam Smith Invisible Hand having the goal of sowing unrest and chaos. I am not a member of this group but have been observing…
Nice article, Scott. You nailed it with your second bullet point of “Bad actors (bots and trolls) are drawn to Fox, as they feel it’s easier to wreak havoc there?”
There is an Adam Smith Invisible Hand having the goal of sowing unrest and chaos. I am not a member of this group but have been observing their actions for decades. Unrest and chaos breed opportunity and this is how the invisible hand effortlessly acquires power and control.
The formula goes something like this:
A neutral party posts a factual observation on the Internet.
A troll/bot responds to the post with as much racism, outrage, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, and hatred as is plausible.
If the site is conservative, the poster claims to be liberal, if the site is liberal, the poster claims to be conservative.
The invisible hand lets the outrage percolate and casually mops up opportunity and advantage during the fracas.
I am a conservative tenured professor and in my conservative circles I have experienced ZERO racism, outrage, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, and hatred. Among my fantastic, predominantly liberal colleagues, I have also experienced ZERO racism, outrage, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, and hatred.
Social Media is not a reflection of culture. It is a separate culture of chaos in its own space. Identifying the problem is a good first step. Only then can we collaborate on a proper solution.