There I was, doing research on the Kennedy assassination and I was doing it in brand new laptop. My old laptop had given up the ghost and I didn’t even had the time to enter my details in the new computed, so I never logged in to Facebook, YouTube..etc
It was like navigating the web on a clean slate. I didn’t do it on purpose - I just didn’t have the chance to login into social media yet - but sometimes the best discoveries are the ones that happen by pure accident.
Here’s where it gets interesting (or creepy)
While I was busy researching some strange and usual facts to write a short comedy and make you guys laugh, the Orwellian band were busy profiling me while trying to find a pigeonhole to box me into.
Luckily, they profiled and pushed me into the wrong box.
They must have thought something in the lines of “Oh, this guy likes conspiracy theories, he must be a right-winger” because inexplicably they tossed me in that category.
And before you know it, I was being bombarded full blast all all sorts of video suggestions of right-wing content.
The problem is, I am not a winger.
Where I stand politically is neither left, right nor center.
When it comes to politics, I stand on another planet entirely. Preferably one where politics are made obsolete.
Which makes the whole thing more amusing.
As the time passed, they just kept bombarding me with stuff like “Bill O’Reilly DESTROYS leftist professor”, “Sean Hannity OBLITERATES clueless leftists"... So on and so forth.
In case you were wondering why there is so much division in the recent years.
Although I'm sure I would've seen the exact same thing take place, had they profiled me as a left winger instead
From an outsider point of view, it boggles the mind to see so much hatred and tribalism taking place.
Why so much need for destruction? And all that for what? For disagreeing on a topic?
A little hysteric don’t you think?
Though it’s funny to notice that the word “destroy” always appear in caps, but I’m digressing.
I never really understood that phenomenon. Probably because at the end of the day, hormonal politics far from sparking my mind, they actually bore me.
Needless to say, those repeated suggestions didn’t get to me.
I really don’t give a shit about any of these people nor their ideologies. So why would I want anyone to be “destroyed” because of their opinion on some wedding cake or whatever crap people keep blowing out of proportion?
I think it was the lack of emotional attachment that helped me escape from that hellish feedback loop. A feedback loop that is devised to mousetrap you inside a spiral of hate and anger, while antagonizing everyone who thinks differently.
Being an outsider gave me an insight into the nature of the cage. But also made me understand that even with a brand new laptop and fresh accounts, you can't really escape the flood of ensnaring content that was meant to bait me, isolate me, and then proceed to inject me with their venom: The Single Narrative.
The Dangers of the Single Story
It was not even a couple of days and they already tried to push me inside one of those echo-chambers.
Imagine those who have been stuck in that feedback loop for years, without access to any other narrative other than the single story that they were boxed into.
Maybe that explains why people are getting so upset these days whenever someone disagrees with them.
The Era of Digital Imprisonment
What’s the most common thing that cults are known for?
Isolating the mark from everyone they know, so their discourse becomes the only type of narrative they have access to.
If they remove you from the outside world, then they become your whole world. And anything new or different you will be trained to resist, oppose and eventually hate.
What’s the second most common thing that cults are known for?
Us vs Them, anyone who thinks differently must be the enemy.
When they got you in that stage, all they have to do is to keep feeding that hate, little by little, day after day until such point where you become a true believer.
It’s then that you realize that the brainwashing has been successful.
Now, here’s a crazy question.
What happens when the most powerful social media companies in the world start to operate in the exact same fashion than your run-of-the-mill cult leader?
And where the hell do they recruit those social engineers of theirs? From Saint John’s hospital of the criminally insane?
It’s not only about tracking you, profiling you, or selling your data. It’s about shaping your personality as well.
That’s how all they make their money, because the true believers are the best kind of customers.
The problem however is that they're also the best kind of human stock.