TOMORROW (Saturday), while I’m enjoying my morning coffee, I’m going to spend some time cleansing my consciousness of the chaotic end-stage of the US presidential campaign. That means unsubscribing and unfollowing the multitude of pundits, self-styled news sites, and “citizen journalists” that presently clog my YouTube and Substack feeds, and marking “not interested” on all the others that appear as an annoying (though to be fair, a completely understandable) result of the algorithms’ calculations.
That makes it sound as though algorithms are somehow sentient, but they’re not. They’re complex math equations; complex enough that many people do form the impression that the algorithms are somehow “thinking,” which is how we end up with overwrought nonsense like AI. But I digress.
The functional reason I am separating myself from any online discussion of the election campaign is that I have nothing more to gain from it. I’ve already voted, so I do not need information to help me make up my mind. I am also fairly confident that I know what the result will be, but it is irrelevant for me to even form an opinion about that now, ahead of the actual result – it will be whatever it is going to be. It is certainly even more irrelevant for me to fill my mental bandwidth with others’ opinions about what the result will be.
To be clear, I am not criticizing anyone who’s made it their job to provide online therapy for anyone struggling with the uncertainty of the outcome and its implications for the future. It’s a good business, apparently; I am not currently (but not after tomorrow) following anyone who does not have an audience number in at least the tens of thousands, and most have subscriber numbers in the six or seven digits. Make no mistake, though, dealing out generous portions of copium is all it is; if you’re one of the creators of this kind of content, do yourself a favor and disabuse yourself of the notion that you’re somehow offering information for the enlightenment of the undecided. That’s not how this planet-sized public access channel we call the internet works, and you know it.
Not that there’s anything wrong with preaching to the choir; it’s not how I approach my own work, but you do you. Pick your own row and hoe it. I know plenty of opinion writers in my archaic business who do it, too, and they seem happy enough with it.
Like I said, I think I know what’s going to happen with the election, and I do not feel it useful or necessary to tell anyone what I think. Once I mute the noise I have no real use for, I will be able to wait placidly for the result. What comes after...well, that’s after.
I can tell you what’s not going to happen, however. The ‘mainstream media’ (as in, the business I’m in) is not going to change. No matter who wins – the left who derides it as “the corporate media” or the right who sneers at it as “fake news” – there is not going to be any great reckoning of the media from the outside, or much self-reflection from the inside. I hate to break it to you, but your anxiety is our currency. And yes, you are right in your assumptions that we are just as flawed and biased as anyone else – we are, after all, just people – but we win either way. Do you really think Fox News is going to go out of business if Trump and the Republicans get crushed? Of course not. And MSNBC will still make a fortune if Harris and the Democrats are washed away by a Red Wave.
And don’t expect the social media to somehow “improve,” either, no matter what you imagine that improvement might be. In fact, it will probably get worse, and the reason it will is that no one, no matter what their place on the Big Spectrum of Thoughts and Feelings may be, actually wants to put that genie back in the bottle. Our civilization would literally collapse if we did. Personally, I’d be okay with that; but I also drink from a coffee cup that says “NOT A PEOPLE PERSON” on the side of it, so my perspective on this subject may be atypical.
If you find all of this very discouraging, all I can offer by way of advice is that it takes a lot of work to be smart. Read, as much as you can. Talk to people, as many as you can (even if you’re like me, and don’t necessarily want to be friends with them). Listen. Take notes. Ask questions. Think.
Or don’t. It’s up to you.
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