As someone who occasionlly enjoys an adult beverage (like Sam), I am hard pressed to see where the jealousy comes from? Cracking a cold one when the mood strikes me is something I in no way would want to give up! I am a big fan of both Will and Sam regardless of their choice of beverages!
This is my ideal policy solution. People can say what they want and find what they want to look for, but no algorithm feeding us stuff based on a corporation's priorities.
Yeah, well considering that the FBI interviewed him for his alleged ties to an anti-Semitic group called the Goyim Defense League and not for his racists attacks on Black people tells you all you need to know.
A comment on some other Bulwark piece I read this morning referenced an author who has posited that once Country A nukes Country B, Countries C,D,E,F etc. will follow suit and wipe humanity off the face of the earth. I thought that might be an okay idea, and after reading about this Chud person, it's sounding more like a stellar one. At least I should probably quit worrying about outliving my sad little retirement account.
I very much like this quote. I've lived in Misanthropy for years---it's a nice spot with a lot of amenities, good company and it's growing by leaps and bounds. I think Wilson needed to add something about our delusional brains---it's not just emotional immaturity, it's terminal irrationality. Happy to have you as a neighbor.
“And why should it be that whenever men have looked for something solid on which to found their lives, they have chosen not the facts in which the world abounds, but the myths of an immemorial imagination — preferring even to make life a hell for themselves and their neighbors, in the name of some violent god, to accepting gracefully the bounty the world affords?”
The only good thing about this guy and Clavicular imo is that they are likely to usher themselves off this mortal coil earlier than they would if they were not loathsome, dangerous pieces of shit.
Now White conservative men have to compete for jobs with minorities that are just as qualified or more so than them. They think it is their right based on birth to be given things in life and since they are not it enrages them.
It's incredible. Every week Will finds some internet degenerate who's gaining cache on the right. And every week I think to myself, man surely THIS must be bedrock; there can be no lower form of internet organism than this.
And yet, sure enough, Will manages to surface another vile nightmare out of the primordial ooze on the right. This week I learned about Chud the Builder. It's gonna have to be hard to top this one right?
Ryan, I truly am sorry to tell you that THAT THERE IS NO BEDROCK for these 'people', even they continue to bore deeper once they have found real sleaze.
I think you've put your finger right on the main point. There is no bedrock in the absolute sense because the competition for attention makes it all relative. Somebody else pointed out that these agitprop specialists can make a lot of money doing this, but they all struggle to get up the down escalator (or vice versa). Chud's hot now, but Andy Warhol will have his due. The next 'chud' will up the ante and actually kill somebody and enlist the NRA to defend him. The the one after that will do something more egregious than that. They are their own worst enemies, out-doing each other is their number one task, and that goal is always receding from them.
Why has this always fizzled? Because eventually they get the attention of the normies. They scare the horses and are bad for business. They disturb our peace with their inconvenient showmanship. We're not flashy with spasms of violent retribution, but we are legion. They will be smothered, relatively quietly, in our slow and grinding way.
"This sort of boomerang effect—in which Eatherly says the most provocative thing possible to get attention, which, in turn, gets a provocative response that also gets attention—is the fuel of the modern internet. And it’s lucrative."
This, in a nutshell, is why the world is spiraling into the abyss. I think maybe the one thing that might do the most good in the world is to outlaw the business model of free services in return for data collection that allows monetization of targeted advertising. The attention economy is a one-way ticket to hell. Unfortunately, even if it were outlawed, some other vehicle to hell likely would pop up and everyone would hitch a ride.
The forerunner was The Jerry Springer Show and similar. On the radio Howard Stern and those DJs out of Philly, competing for the debasement of regular people for 5 min of fame.
Actually, the real originator was Candid Camera. No wait - vaudeville. Oops, I meant Aeschylus and Aristophanes - those guys really laid the groundwork for people getting humiliated in front of an audience.
Yeah, subscription-based and paid platforms can go rotten, too, for sure. I imagine you couldn't join the John Birch Society for free, for instance; they're all dues paying members.
The problem for me with the attention-maximizing model, driven by algorithms engineered to maximize attention, is that it really can radicalize people at scale. It doesn't just predict people's behavior, it can change it, and too often it changes it in negative ways. It taps into something in people that under normal circumstances would be suppressed and never come out, and Silicon Valley gets rich while society suffers.
That’s the way these platforms operate. It definitely might make it easier for a newcomer weirdo to break into the biz if he’s copying a big existing account.
It used to be that a very tiny minority of meatheads and lugnuts was sidelined and ended up either fading into non-existence or just being outright ignored. But now, if you can get a million people online to donate $1 to your cause, you won't just go away.
Quinazoline - based on the supposed original meaning of “geek,” there’s long been a small market for paid performers with socially distasteful acts. Since we’ve pretty much abolished shame and social approbation, the financial payoff of winning in the attention economy lowers us to a whole new level
This left me feeling sick.🤢 Either our species has not evolved as much as I thought we had, or we are devolving. Thankfully I will be attending the Alamance Hour of Action this afternoon—I feel like I really need to attend multiple events.
Do you know the writer Thomas Boyle--the guy with the complicated middle name starting with a "C" that looks Irish or Welsh? Early on in his career he had a great collection of short stories based on the idea of devolution, "Descent of Man."
Oh yes. Ms J got to meet him at Tucson Festival of Books years back, signed her copy of Tortilla Curtain. Never read his older stuff, nothing pre-Wellville. Ahh, that name - my mom was a first grade teacher, she'd sometimes muse on a child's name, "what ever possessed his parents...?" - cuz she had to teach kids to spell & write it. There was a cartoon theme in my youth, "...close friends get to call him T.C."
The AP ran an article about this incident yesterday and when I saw it, I immediately knew it needed the False Flag treatment. And this morning, Manna from Heaven!
Even at its heyday, the KKK hid their faces under their hoods to protect themselves. ICE doesn’t want you to know who they are. Now, the fools are as public as possible spilling this bile everywhere. Too late to hope that this is only a blip on our cultural screen. This is now real life. It could possibly fade to nothing, however, a lot of damage is being done, and who knows when these people will go back under their rocks.
Thank you for your service, Will. I know viewing this stuff every day must take a toll.
Normally I’m having fun, but this was definitely a grim one.
Nice write-up in Slate, Will! https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/05/qanon-election-denial-jan-6-will-sommer.html
Sam Stein is trying to get Will to take up drinking to deal with it. I'm only kidding, but there was a video where Sam made the suggestion in jest.
I remember that one. I’m not sure drinking would help!
So you're saying there's a chance drinking could help?
Now this is a mind set Kash Patel can get behind!
I find gummies work better to maintain humor in Frustrating Stupid World. Que sera, sera, la da da da daaaa da daaaa .....
As someone who occasionlly enjoys an adult beverage (like Sam), I am hard pressed to see where the jealousy comes from? Cracking a cold one when the mood strikes me is something I in no way would want to give up! I am a big fan of both Will and Sam regardless of their choice of beverages!
My oh my. What do you really think
Maybe we should consider banning algorithmic social media feeds and going back to a simple timeline. This is Black Mirror territory.
This is my ideal policy solution. People can say what they want and find what they want to look for, but no algorithm feeding us stuff based on a corporation's priorities.
I can't watch Black Mirror because it's becoming too real.
Or just ignore social media altogether.... we are not without agency in these matters....
I’m still on FB, but the end of default reverse chronology was the end of it as truly useful. Now I have to skim a lot and be selective.
Miller Lite, as I've read he's out of favor right now.
Hopefully the Trump administration will call this stuff out as the threat that it really is.
/s
I'm feeling depressed and cynical today. Seashells on the beach is terrorism, but this type of "free speech" is a-okay.
Miller will lobby for a pardon.
The question is, can he afford to pay for one? It's pay to play with the mango-in-chief.
The question is, can he afford to pay for one? It's pay to play with the mango-in-chief.
Yeah, well considering that the FBI interviewed him for his alleged ties to an anti-Semitic group called the Goyim Defense League and not for his racists attacks on Black people tells you all you need to know.
My descent into misanthropy continues. As a species, we really do deserve what is heading our way.
"The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." - E.O. Wilson
A comment on some other Bulwark piece I read this morning referenced an author who has posited that once Country A nukes Country B, Countries C,D,E,F etc. will follow suit and wipe humanity off the face of the earth. I thought that might be an okay idea, and after reading about this Chud person, it's sounding more like a stellar one. At least I should probably quit worrying about outliving my sad little retirement account.
Linda - back in the 1960s I remember hearing that cockroaches might survive nuclear winter. I wish them luck when we hand this place over to em
He’s depressingly horrible!
I very much like this quote. I've lived in Misanthropy for years---it's a nice spot with a lot of amenities, good company and it's growing by leaps and bounds. I think Wilson needed to add something about our delusional brains---it's not just emotional immaturity, it's terminal irrationality. Happy to have you as a neighbor.
Yes, indeed. Relatedly, from Joseph Campbell:
“And why should it be that whenever men have looked for something solid on which to found their lives, they have chosen not the facts in which the world abounds, but the myths of an immemorial imagination — preferring even to make life a hell for themselves and their neighbors, in the name of some violent god, to accepting gracefully the bounty the world affords?”
Perfect. Thank you.
The only good thing about this guy and Clavicular imo is that they are likely to usher themselves off this mortal coil earlier than they would if they were not loathsome, dangerous pieces of shit.
Meanwhile they are inspiring dozens of copycats, and if they die they will become martyrs. Our society is rotten
Take back this country? When exactly did white conservative men lose this country? They have power that dwarfs their actual numbers.
Also, CHUD was an 80s horror film. The copyright holder should sue him
Now White conservative men have to compete for jobs with minorities that are just as qualified or more so than them. They think it is their right based on birth to be given things in life and since they are not it enrages them.
White men lost when they lost the Civil War (according to people like Eatherly.)
It's incredible. Every week Will finds some internet degenerate who's gaining cache on the right. And every week I think to myself, man surely THIS must be bedrock; there can be no lower form of internet organism than this.
And yet, sure enough, Will manages to surface another vile nightmare out of the primordial ooze on the right. This week I learned about Chud the Builder. It's gonna have to be hard to top this one right?
right guys?
It’s crazy when Nick Fuentes is saying “That’s a bit much” lol
right?!
you'd think that would get you to look in the mirror and ask some hard questions
If they had the power of self-reflection, they wouldn't be MAGA. Just saying.
Ryan, I truly am sorry to tell you that THAT THERE IS NO BEDROCK for these 'people', even they continue to bore deeper once they have found real sleaze.
Stay tuned. The Internet Devolution Development Laboratory is already on the case (kinda like DARPA but… lower)
I think you've put your finger right on the main point. There is no bedrock in the absolute sense because the competition for attention makes it all relative. Somebody else pointed out that these agitprop specialists can make a lot of money doing this, but they all struggle to get up the down escalator (or vice versa). Chud's hot now, but Andy Warhol will have his due. The next 'chud' will up the ante and actually kill somebody and enlist the NRA to defend him. The the one after that will do something more egregious than that. They are their own worst enemies, out-doing each other is their number one task, and that goal is always receding from them.
Why has this always fizzled? Because eventually they get the attention of the normies. They scare the horses and are bad for business. They disturb our peace with their inconvenient showmanship. We're not flashy with spasms of violent retribution, but we are legion. They will be smothered, relatively quietly, in our slow and grinding way.
Right. Or : Can Will find another cockroach to slide nicely between Chud and the cockroach below him.
Being married to a black man, this was a hard read. Thank you Will for bringing these very dark stories to light.
"This sort of boomerang effect—in which Eatherly says the most provocative thing possible to get attention, which, in turn, gets a provocative response that also gets attention—is the fuel of the modern internet. And it’s lucrative."
This, in a nutshell, is why the world is spiraling into the abyss. I think maybe the one thing that might do the most good in the world is to outlaw the business model of free services in return for data collection that allows monetization of targeted advertising. The attention economy is a one-way ticket to hell. Unfortunately, even if it were outlawed, some other vehicle to hell likely would pop up and everyone would hitch a ride.
The forerunner was The Jerry Springer Show and similar. On the radio Howard Stern and those DJs out of Philly, competing for the debasement of regular people for 5 min of fame.
Actually, the real originator was Candid Camera. No wait - vaudeville. Oops, I meant Aeschylus and Aristophanes - those guys really laid the groundwork for people getting humiliated in front of an audience.
People like Nick Fuentes earn money from “super chats,” fans handing them money. There’s no advertising on these really awful types.
Yeah, subscription-based and paid platforms can go rotten, too, for sure. I imagine you couldn't join the John Birch Society for free, for instance; they're all dues paying members.
The problem for me with the attention-maximizing model, driven by algorithms engineered to maximize attention, is that it really can radicalize people at scale. It doesn't just predict people's behavior, it can change it, and too often it changes it in negative ways. It taps into something in people that under normal circumstances would be suppressed and never come out, and Silicon Valley gets rich while society suffers.
That’s the way these platforms operate. It definitely might make it easier for a newcomer weirdo to break into the biz if he’s copying a big existing account.
Absolutely agree
It used to be that a very tiny minority of meatheads and lugnuts was sidelined and ended up either fading into non-existence or just being outright ignored. But now, if you can get a million people online to donate $1 to your cause, you won't just go away.
He’s gained $15k since yesterday!
I don't like what this says about our culture.
You said it before me. So true and sick.
Quinazoline - based on the supposed original meaning of “geek,” there’s long been a small market for paid performers with socially distasteful acts. Since we’ve pretty much abolished shame and social approbation, the financial payoff of winning in the attention economy lowers us to a whole new level
This left me feeling sick.🤢 Either our species has not evolved as much as I thought we had, or we are devolving. Thankfully I will be attending the Alamance Hour of Action this afternoon—I feel like I really need to attend multiple events.
Maribeth - props for being out’n’about & active!
My Northeast Ohio roots require me to point out the prophesies from Devo dating back to the 1970s. Back then we thought they were sorta joking.
Are we not men?!?
In the past this information has been suppressed... but now it can be told...
Man those guys shook up my world in my Kent daze
Do you know the writer Thomas Boyle--the guy with the complicated middle name starting with a "C" that looks Irish or Welsh? Early on in his career he had a great collection of short stories based on the idea of devolution, "Descent of Man."
Oh yes. Ms J got to meet him at Tucson Festival of Books years back, signed her copy of Tortilla Curtain. Never read his older stuff, nothing pre-Wellville. Ahh, that name - my mom was a first grade teacher, she'd sometimes muse on a child's name, "what ever possessed his parents...?" - cuz she had to teach kids to spell & write it. There was a cartoon theme in my youth, "...close friends get to call him T.C."
We could be less evolved AND devolving! It doesn’t have to be an either-or.
"Idiocracy" was a documentary. Just sayin...
If anything, it was optimistic. It posited half a millennium to get to where we seem to be already.
The AP ran an article about this incident yesterday and when I saw it, I immediately knew it needed the False Flag treatment. And this morning, Manna from Heaven!
Even at its heyday, the KKK hid their faces under their hoods to protect themselves. ICE doesn’t want you to know who they are. Now, the fools are as public as possible spilling this bile everywhere. Too late to hope that this is only a blip on our cultural screen. This is now real life. It could possibly fade to nothing, however, a lot of damage is being done, and who knows when these people will go back under their rocks.
future GOP nominee for Congress
I expect a pardon from the governor.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development?
I hope that John Roberts is paying attention since he and the Court at large no longer believe that racism exists in this country.
I hope you have endless patience. According to Justice Roberts, he can't even figure out why so many Americans think the court is playing politics.
He is incapable of sef-reflection and corrective change. He's living his dream.
How repulsive.
NB: Merriam-Webster spells it N-word. I recommend all you Bulwarkers follow M-W. Make your lives easier.
Keep up the excellent work!