This is measured and well-written. Favreau's denial in the "Search for an Exciting Moderate" podcast was bonkers.
With apologies to dril: the Pod Save boys turn a big dial that says "Progressivism" on it and constantly look back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right.
I would only add that I think this and Mr. Kerr’s prior article don’t carry their observations far enough. They’re correctly describing a problem, but reckoning with it perhaps on too local of a scale.
The problem being that modern communication networks are presently designed to produce profit by monetizing outrage and conflict—with the algorithms optimizing and maximizing this process. Apply the incentives that creates to Western liberal democratic societies at scale, and what would you expect to get? Precisely the political dysfunction and volatility, Balkanization and polarization we have right now all over the West.
IMO, getting out of that broad technological predicament and the race-to-the-bottom of the ‘outrage economy’, is not just *a* challenge we face in these turbulent times, specific to some single domain like political media outlets—but *the* central social challenge society faces, at work in *every* domain..
The reupholstering of Morris Katz is SOMETHING!
This is measured and well-written. Favreau's denial in the "Search for an Exciting Moderate" podcast was bonkers.
With apologies to dril: the Pod Save boys turn a big dial that says "Progressivism" on it and constantly look back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right.
I would only add that I think this and Mr. Kerr’s prior article don’t carry their observations far enough. They’re correctly describing a problem, but reckoning with it perhaps on too local of a scale.
The problem being that modern communication networks are presently designed to produce profit by monetizing outrage and conflict—with the algorithms optimizing and maximizing this process. Apply the incentives that creates to Western liberal democratic societies at scale, and what would you expect to get? Precisely the political dysfunction and volatility, Balkanization and polarization we have right now all over the West.
IMO, getting out of that broad technological predicament and the race-to-the-bottom of the ‘outrage economy’, is not just *a* challenge we face in these turbulent times, specific to some single domain like political media outlets—but *the* central social challenge society faces, at work in *every* domain..
Pod Save America is an inveterately hippie-punching show, you're delusional
Democrats just won 50 Trump districts and the House winners they have are … Melat Kiros and Brad Lander. And they weren’t invited to be punched!