@lightbites @jti42 @pkal @ghul @landley that is a good question.

There's a great article up by @cwarzel in The Atlantic about The Gleeful Cruelty of the White House X Account. It's a scary but thoughtful analysis of a grim societal trend, focusing specifically on how intensification is implemented via the ex-bird site, lately a cesspool of distilled toxicity from which many still regularly feed.

ESPECIALLY the part in Warzel's article about ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) made me shudder. The article is worth reading for that part alone.

(His post at BlueSky, which I've linked below, has what I think may be a gift link.)

https://bsky.app/profile/cwarzel.bsky.social/post/3llhtsiyzhs2d

#sociopathy #evil #fascism #escalation #asmr #radicalizing #StochasticTerror #StochasticTerrorism #weaponizing #USPolitics #politics

Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel.bsky.social)

I wrote about the White House X account — which is steeped in the sociopathic posting style of far-right extremists — and seems to get more sinister and cruel with its posts each week of the administration. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/gleeful-cruelty-white-house-x-account/682234/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0fEulOousRZ7mgN3LeyPGbg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Bluesky Social

> Soufan urged lawmakers to take the threat more seriously. The (next) month, 40 members of Congress signed a letter calling—unsuccessfully—for the US #StateDepartment to designate Azov a (…) #terrorist organization. "Azov has been recruiting, #radicalizing, and training American citizens for years," (it) said. #ChristopherWray, the director of the FBI, later confirmed in testimony to the U.S. Senate that American #whiteSupremacists are "actually traveling overseas to train."

#USStateDept, lol

‪"#YouTube’s #recommendation system is engineered to maximize watchtime, among other factors, the company says, but not to favor any political ideology.
The system now drives 70% of total time on the platform. As viewership skyrockets globally, YouTube is bringing in over $1 billion a month, some analysts believe."

@[email protected] has called it “one of the most powerful #radicalizing instruments of the 21st century.”‬
#Brazil #Google

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/americas/youtube-brazil.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

How YouTube Radicalized Brazil

YouTube built its business on keeping users hooked. This has been a gift to extremist groups. An investigation in the company’s second-biggest market found serious consequences.

The New York Times