The internet runs on ads.

Ad companies pay for all the “free” popular social media we use. Ad companies dictate to social media what their clients want their ads to be associated with, not associated with, and drive media of all kinds to push inflammatory and click-bait content that drives engagement and views. It’s why you indirectly can’t swear, talk about suicide, drugs, death, or violence. Sure, you technically can unless ToS prohibits it, but if companies tell their ad hosts they don’t want to be associated with someone talking about guns, the content discussing guns gets fewer ads, fewer ads = less revenue, low-revenue gets pushed to the bottom.

So lowbrow political rage bait, science denialism, and fake conspiracies drives people to interact and then gets pushed to the top because it gets ad revenue. Content that delves into critical thought and requires introspection or contemplation languishes.

Ads are destroying society because stupid and rage sells views.

  • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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    1 day ago

    Compare Europe’s surge of Far Right to the US’s

    It just hasn’t come into power YET. You are being hugely dismissive. I am European and I follow US and European politics extremely closely and I am outright telling you that Europe is a hair away from the same shit, if not worse, than the US. Many EU nations are punishing people for protesting genocide.

    Capitalism can not be reformed. It cannot be regulated. It is like a force of nature. It will always lead to fascism. It is inevitable.

    You don’t know what anarchism is about, I’d encourage you to learn more about anarchism before dismissing it. I’d recommend checking out an anarchist FAQ.

    • EightBitBlood@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Any European country with ranked choice voting is safe from the 2 system exploit that has allowed people like Trump and Orban to take office.

      I’ve already agreed that any system we design will collapse including capitalism. Regulations are what’s needed to maintain any system from collapse. This includes Anarchism.

      Without rules, what’s to stop sociopaths taking what they want? The issue isn’t what system is best, it’s what can be done to prevent any system from collapsing.

      The answer is regulations. Not the complete absense of them. We have an incredible amount of data and studies that consistently show how anarchistic societies based on self motivation are immediately exploited by strong men sociopaths.

      The same with capitalism. The enemies of both are the same, but at least with capitalism there is a mechanism through which to maintain regulations. Self-governing communities always self corrupt, as evidenced by the US’s now entire corrupt system that was previously self-governing. It just took centuries to corrupt because of strict regulations. But in those centuries people had livelihoods.

      Anarchism provides no mechanism by which this can be protected for so long by design. It’s a system that allows for maximum exploitation by those who want to exploit it. That is the double edge of not having bigger heirarchal structures - there’s no reason not to take through strength if you have it. No punishment for breaking rules as there are no general rules that society can reliably enforce.

      Historically, Anarchistic societies bend the knee to the first warlord that wants to conquer them, and then only after generations of suffering feel that maybe there should be rules and a hierarchy of law to prevent such exploitation.

      I’m very familiar with what Anarchism is. And you’re just focusing on the rose colored parts of it the same as you think I’m doing for Capitalism.

      No system works. Period. But rules do. And unfortunately a system is needed for those rules. We just haven’t found the right one yet that can last for more than a couple hundred years.