Teri KanefieldMar 31, 2024

A word about all the people I've pissed off with this week's blog post:

https://mastodon.social/@Teri_Kanefield/112187081021199665

(When I woke up this morning, I removed about 25 comments !!)

I wonder if I feel free to write a blog post that I know will anger people because I don't monetize.

I have ads, but it pays a tiny fraction of the cost of maintaining a website and using MailChimp. People might be surprised at how much my blogging venture costs.

A few years ago Substack tried to recruit me . . .

1/

Show threadTeri Kanefield

. . . they wanted me to use their site instead of my blog.

The recruiter asked for a video conference and was shocked when I told her that I don't want to monetize.

Several people (including a few friends privately) that the MSNBC outrage has gotten worse.

I offered this theory: During the Trump era these networks thrived because there was an easy target for outrage.

Since then, they've had to rely on baseless rage-inducing speculation.

2/

Mar 31, 2024 at 5:42pmWeb
Show threadTeri KanefieldMar 31, 2024

I think another part is that individuals can monetize so easily.

I remember when I discovered Twitter analytics: It showed me that when I said something disparaging about Trump, my engagement went up.

I was appalled and never looked at Twitter Analytics again.

So many factors in this new world of media encourage posts that outrage people or confirm their biases.

3/

Show threadTeri KanefieldMar 31, 2024

I just wrote a book on Disinformation and included the election lies, so I don't say this lightly, but both of these tear at the fabric of a democracy:

(1) disinformation and misinformation
(2) the kind of outrage and fury that exacerbates polarization.

Unfortunately, both of those are profit driven.

maybe that should be next week's blog posts and I take off the rest of the week 😉

I spent an absurd amount of time writing this week's post because I knew I was going against the current.

4/

Show threadpinkdrunkenelephantsMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield Muy, muy bueno
Show threadJorge CandeiasMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield About 2) there, the thing is: it works. It really, really works. So if one side is doing it, the other side simply HAS to do it as well, otherwise it's very quickly wiped out. It's a positive feedback cycle (a very negative positive feedback cycle at that) that I don't know how to get out of.
Show threadJanisMar 31, 2024

@jorgecandeias @Teri_Kanefield It also puts food on tables and a roofs over heads. I've long held that democracy and capitalism are two sides of the same coin, where the problem space both are living in and failing to solve is power imbalance.

OK, maybe not a coin, but a tetrahedral die with knowledge/audience and weaponry on the other two sides.

Don't own the powerlessness. Every little bit weights the die.

Show threadJorge CandeiasMar 31, 2024
@janisf @Teri_Kanefield I'm not even talking about that. Very deliberately, as it's a whole other big can of worms. I'm just speaking about how efficient emotional ragebaiting is in twisting people's perceptions and options on policy. And how inefficient rational discourse is by comparison.
Show threadJanisApr 1, 2024

@jorgecandeias @Teri_Kanefield Then we need to back up with people and help them understand the ragebaiting and how they can be susceptible to it. Yes, it feels inefficient because it takes a lot of time and patience, but people can smell whether you just want their vote or if you're really invested in empowering them to be a better voter. That's the smell of fear, and that's exactly what we're trying to de-escalate.

Rational discourse tends to avoid cortisol.

Show threadJorge CandeiasApr 1, 2024

@janisf @Teri_Kanefield That takes a whole lot more time than what we have in very many places. Including the US, but not only the US. That's the whole problem. That's why it's a feedback loop I don't know how to get out of. When you're dealing with fascists, and we are, you can't lose once. You only seldom have the chance to try again if you do.

And people don't have that good of a sense of smell, unfortunately. They wouldn't be voting en masse in manipulative conmen if they had.

Show threadJanisApr 1, 2024

@jorgecandeias @Teri_Kanefield There are the fascists, and there are the people who run under the wing of fascism.

Here's your new target demographic: rural women. On the fringe of that are female students at private colleges. These are the people who change party when they see a picture of a fetus and eat 12 true-crime stories for breakfast. They are also easily swayed by "cute guys."

They (we?) swing hard.

https://flatlandkc.org/news-issues/meet-jessica-piper-missouris-dirt-road-democrat/

Meet Jessica Piper: Missouri’s ‘Dirt Road Democrat’

Jessica Piper, a self-described "Dirt Road Democrat," is running an uphill political campaign for the state House of Representatives in a heavily Republican district of northwest Missouri.

Flatland - Kansas City PBS' Nonprofit Journalism Source
Show threadJorge CandeiasApr 1, 2024

@janisf @Teri_Kanefield As you may have guessed, I'm not American, and, although it's shaped by most of the same forces and trends and tendencies as pretty much all others', American politics is in large measure its own thing.

There are no such things as gerrymandering, two-party system, electoral collage, and so forth in any other western democracy, for instance.

Quite a bit of what's said there is specific to American politics.

The difficulty in dealing with fascists and their lies isn't.

Show threadJanisApr 1, 2024

@jorgecandeias @Teri_Kanefield Sorry to be a rather typical American and center on my own business. Thank you for the illumination.

I'm still convinced that raising the awareness and quelling the anxiety of women who think/feel they need a strongman is a fundamental thread that's been ignored. I am skeptical of the timing of women's suffrage and the rise of fascism. Every day I watch women who don't trust each other, don't educate each other, stew in fear-stoking together.

Show threadJanisApr 1, 2024
@jorgecandeias @Teri_Kanefield In moderating my volume of content, I missed this: https://jesspiper.substack.com/
The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper | Substack

My name is Jess and I was a high school Literature teacher for 16 years until I decided to run as a Democrat in a rural, red district in Missouri. I bring you news and politics from Missouri and beyond from a rural progressive point of view. Click to read The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield Just keep speaking the truth, Teri. Your following grows whether you “monetize” or not. I wish more would share your contempt for so many of the terrible norms we’ve come to accept as some kind of immutable condition. We can change things. But getting more people to want to make the effort is the first requirement.
Show threadSteve LoughranMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield outrage is profitable. Not just for conspiracy theorists, but for facebook and twitter, whose revenue depends on visitors. If people had to log on to twitter every day to work out what trump’s latest insanity was, then gave them some broad demographics. Everyone else has to compete
Show threadRJClikMar 31, 2024

@Teri_Kanefield
Thank you for your patience Teri.

I’m as guilty as anyone; whose blood is quick to boil with indignation, without being in full knowledge of the facts or only listening to highly selective versions of them.

Your posts and blogs have helped me (and others, I’m sure) view certain outlets/posts with a little more caution or skepticism than I would have in the past (and lowered my blood pressure).

Please keep up the good work, it’s really appreciated (& vital).

Show threadABrockwellMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield The objectivity and level-headedness make your posts more valuable to many people, even if that value is not monetized.
Show threadGuitarsophistMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield The post is good and true. However, even Aristotle understood that as much as he favored reason, most people were more strongly persuaded by pathos. Reasoning is hard work and the passions are immediate. We can wish it were possible to govern by reason alone, but it won't happen. The best politicians are those who channel the emotions of the crowd into reasonable courses. The worst? We have lots of those.
Show threadKevin LeecasterMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield
Have you learned much about the 3-year-old Ukrainian agency that they formed to help defend their society from disinformation?
Show threadIanMoore3000Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield I agree with you about the dangers of outrage merchants. I'm struck by how long thoughtful people have been concerned about this danger to civic harmony - your piece reminded me of Thucydides writing about how in divided ancient Greek cities moderation was seen as dangerous and only people with the most extreme opinions as trustworthy.
Show threadAnde JacobsonMar 31, 2024

@Teri_Kanefield: Based on how confrontational so much of social media has become, it seems like a lot of people are willfully ignorant about the rage industry and the use of disinformation. If they'd read your book, it could help them see how they are being manipulated for profit.

I noticed that you turned off comments on your latest blog post. I'm sorry it got so nasty when you were just trying to explain what actually happened while dispelling the conspiracy theories propagated by those doing hot takes.

If it helps at all, there are a lot of us (like me) who very much appreciate your thoughtful explanations.

Show threadTeri KanefieldMar 31, 2024

@goodreedAJ It just got too exhausting.

People wanted to rehash all the reasons they hate Ronna McDaniel.

Show threadBruce Acton 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield Here in Canada we had been pretty smug, we hadn’t had the attack type politics till Harper brought in some US political consultants to win that election. Since then we have descended in a similar style of rage farming in our political campaigns. I’d love to blame it all on you guys in the US but we’ve accepted it. It has reduced the quality of discussion, the moderating factor here is minority government which are forced to discuss and develop better legislation.
Show threadChris ADMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield ❤️
Show threadWaziah AldermanMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield so I looked at your bio and saw that you were a lawyer. I don't think I need a lawyer because I have lawyers being that I'm a death row inmate. But I have some things that I'm working on about equal protection and how one is not an adult at 18. I don't know what to do with such articles other than to write them maybe give them to my lawyers. But that ain't enough ... Help!
Show threadFrank Bennett 🇯🇵Apr 1, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield You will have seen more of this than I have, I think, but a common rhetorical dynamic on the right is to needle people for the sake of it, purely in an effort to get a rise out of them. It's a pattern. I've become inured to it, and that's good for my own blood pressure, but does nothing to overcome polarization. It will hurt, but at some point, at least if things continue on their current trajectory, these people will need to be presented with consequences they don't expect.
Show threadMartin FowlerApr 1, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield I just want to say how much I appreciated your post, and your observations to counter rage farming.
Show threadЄвгенApr 1, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield thank you for all your calm, informed good sense.
And the book is great! It belongs on our shelf next to On Tyranny, Stongmen and more.
Show threadMatt McIrvinMar 31, 2024

@Teri_Kanefield I remember when I was on Twitter, noticing that the easiest way for me to do big numbers was to respond to a busy thread by a celebrity, and say something banal that flattered people's preconceptions. I'd occasionally do that, more or less lazily, and the tweet would rocket to hundreds or thousands of likes. They weren't my best tweets.

My *good* tweets, the ones I actually thought were insightful or funny, didn't do those numbers.

I didn't like the picture of what I would become if I just rode the wave of the popular tweets.

Show threadCoach Pāṇini ®Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield
That tracks: https://inaniludibrio.com/2024/02/21/the-broken-information-ego-system-is-incentivized-to-share-the-sound-made-by-noisemakers/
The broken information ego-system is incentivized to share the sound made by noisemakers.

Visit the post for more.

Inani Ludibrio
Show thread(moved)Galbinus Caeli 🌯Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield Hating on " the other" is an easy way to attract attention. It works on the left as well as the right. But it is a lazy choice.
Show threadSean McCabeMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield
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"Since then, they've had to rely on baseless rage-inducing speculation."
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This all day. I keep making a similar point. The outrage is becoming the point of many of their shows - and they're shows, not news...hell, even Rachel's show is called 'The Rachel Maddow Show"...let's start with 15 minutes of observations to get your blood boiling and then we'll break for a commercial to lower your A1C.
Show threadStu Duerson, machina exo deusMar 31, 2024

@Teri_Kanefield

It appeared apparent that the basis NBC made their hiring decision on was to get a slice of the demographic attracted to McDaniel. I reject outright their contention that she would give the left a better view of internal Republican thought. This was a marketing decision, unmoored from any consideration of news ethics.

And it's on point that the rage has become the metric that must be met, to attract viewership.

Show threadCat WestMar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield Angst, Outrage, Despair= Profits
Show threadRealGene ☣️Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield
It is a certainty that Comcast has projected their financial performance on a Trump reelection.
Show threadnaught101Mar 31, 2024
@Teri_Kanefield something missing in the middle of this toot?