Post 👆 Replies 👇NEW: After WHCA shooting, a challenge to X and reporters like me who feed it: My Role as a ‘Complicit’ Journalist—Algorithms turn nuanced articles into rage bait that helps fuel political violence. https://t.co/khfPUWNmwD
— Michael Scherer (@michaelscherer) May 5, 2026
.Yet here you are publishing rage bait and coddling violent extremists labeling them "normies"! pic.twitter.com/iBlqHVfDsJ
— OSINT with a splash of good takes and a few bad 1s (@supersean415) May 5, 2026
Institutionally, The Atlantic has been terrible at this. This is practically the definition of rage bait. pic.twitter.com/vrclmIywHF
— Dominic Lynch - White Sox Nihilist (@domineeringDom) May 5, 2026
Yeah, I don’t think it’s the algorithm that’s making people do things. (Those are not the best arguments with the original post, but they sure seem “enraged.” I blame the algae rhythm.🥁 )Yes, it’s the algorithms turning your “nuanced articles” into rage bait….
— Nobody Cares (@jackraff58) May 5, 2026
It would be hard to find a more dense bunch than these White House reporters. Trump and his minions, through Musk and his DOGE flunkies, destroyed USAID, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, soon millions of human beings. The money was allocated, the systems were in place, the food and medicines were in warehouses. This was the world's simplest trolley problem. On one track there was no one, and the train was heading down the track. On the other track were tied hundreds of thousands of people. Trump, Musk, and their minions and flunkies went and threw the switch to kill all those people. People starved to death with food in warehouses, peope died of cholera for want of a 68 cent bag of saline. Impounded of funds is illegal, so they needed to break the law to throw the switch. They are mass murderers. It's not complicated.
ReplyDeleteThe White House press should understand these events better than anyone. They reported on it, and have watched the consequences. Those on the outside understand they still need to do their jobs and report on the administration. What galls us is that the White House press corps chose to dress up in taxes and gowns, invite various of the flunkies and minions to their tables, and yuck it up with mass murderers. When the dinner was interrupted, they cheered when it was announced that one of the mass murderers was unhurt and clapped when it was suggested a replacement dinner would be later.
That is why we think the White House Press corp is horrible. It is not some outside algorithm that makes us feel that way, it is the press' own behavior.
“Algorithm” is a scapegoat. I doubt very many journalists ever know what it means, they just know it is the thing that takes the blame. The perfect thing, because it can’t talk back. A thing they believe in, though they can’t tell you what the hell it is.
DeleteAnd then they don their tuxes and ball gowns and job mob with the fools and sycophants. Which is pretty much what DC has always been. Lewis Lapham was describing it in “Harper’s almost 50 years ago. Same as it ever was.