(August 3, 2022 at 2:24 pm)tackattack Wrote: Fake news, fake food, influencers, “reality” shows, fake body parts…. I mean even influencers are going virtual. I mean when the people faking a fake life can’t even have the decency to be live people isn’t it a little extreme? Why does America have an obsession with the fake and how can it be mitigated? If Alex jones can be guilty why can’t trump?
I think the love of money is sufficient to explain most of it.
We all know that potato-based snack foods with all the nutrition baked out makes a lot more money than raw potatoes, so that's where the advertising goes. It's designed by chemists to take advantage of our evolution-based preference for fat, sugar, and salt, so it tastes great.
Similarly, each "news" station has its market niche that it caters to. Fox, MSNBC, etc., know that it's far more profitable to pander to their audience, so that's what they do. Rachel Maddow's lawyers used a defense pioneered by the Coca Cola company: that no reasonable person would believe what she says, therefore it's OK for her to lie. But she affects what people think, nonetheless.
Fake-deep literature sells better than challenging, worthwhile literature. It flatters the reader. Fake intellectuals sell far more books than people who have actually done the hard work of understanding. And since it's giant corporations who control publishing, servants of empire fill the role that real intellectuals should fill.
When he was first in charge of the BBC, Lord Reith saw his job as educating and inspiring the masses. So he didn't broadcast what was popular, but what he (and his friends) thought would lift the general cultural level of England. Naturally people now see this as elitist. If the people are paying, then the people should get what makes them happy.
