Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling.
If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...The political effects of X’s f...
The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature
Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared with those remaining on a chronological feed, whereas switching the feed setting in the opposite direction, from algorithmic to chronological, had no effect.
The role of Musk's X in the 2020s is remarkably similar to that of Rothermere's Daily Mail in the 1920s and 1930s. It pushed a narrative which claimed we were being "swamped" by "aliens" (mostly meaning Jews), undermining British interests and values, threatening "our" women and children ...
... introducing ideas of universalism and equality (ie woke), making us "weak" and less "virile". It sang the praises of Mussolini, Hitler and Britain's homegrown fascists. What we are seeing is technologically new but politically old. Potent new technologies used to project toxic old ideas.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the conspiracy fictions, remarkably similar to some of those promoted by Musk: the Zinoviev letter it published (which it must have suspected was a forgery), the publicity it gave to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (another forgery) and plenty of similar frothing.
Rothermere seems to have been a similar character: a megalomaniac devoid of empathy, convinced of his own genius, taking credit for other people's work, jumping up and down with excitement when he thought he had pulled something off. A classic case of Billionaire Brain.
It's not as if the Mail and other legacy media have disappeared. X, Meta, Substack etc - a new generation of bigoted billionaire channels - have not replaced the old but are laid on top of it. What we see is that with such tools in their hands, the oligarchs can fool most people, most of the time.
George Monbiot
Davydh Trethewey
Nicole Parsons