Kinda disappointed in humanity rn. I write hundreds of thoughtful, thorough, well-researched blog posts about how things will change, how we can adapt, and they get 20 to 30 likes on Substack. I write a couple of grimdark vibe articles that riff one what could possible go wrong, and they are far and away my top performing articles. You people are addicted to catastrophe porn. If you're depressed and anxious, it's your own fault. You trust your little monkey limbic systems as sources of truth and fail to override your primitive instincts with that big neocortex. You're barely off the savannah. After hundreds of videos and articles that are more optimistic, thoughtful, and rigorous, I've discovered what every other communicator has discovered: if it bleeds it leads. Doom sells. Most people don't seem to have the faintest iota of systems thinking or actual rational inquiry. My best performing Post-Labor Economics article has 56 likes and 7,500 views. You know, the actual solution to the problems. My more catastrophic article, the top performing It will get much worse before it gets better? 200 likes and almost 14,000 views. Your mind is your media diet, and it's painfully clear to me that most of you are eating junk food. As a public communicator whose income is predicated on gaining traction, why would I tell the truth when I can just fan the flames of your fear and keep your eyeballs on me longer? No, I'm not going to sell out. I thought the first "doom" article was a fluke. I had an idea, and I ran with it. It will get much worse before it gets better. I've said this on many YouTube videos and I weave it in to warn my audience about what I expect, having been reading up on history, economics, and politics to understand this transition. Then I followed up with Our darkest hour approaches and, likewise, it blew up. So that's not a fluke. You guys are just addicted to outrage and scaremongering, and as a competent writer, holy shit you have no idea how easy it is to manipulate you. When I read Noam Chomsky's works such as Necessary Illusions, I thought "surely this is an edge case, most people recognize the impact that rhetoric has on them and they make better choices." Nope. He was right. Bernays was right as well. A good writer, a good speaker knows how to pluck the stronger chords of your little monkey brain. The fear, the uncertainty, the doubt, and the disgust. The outrage and panic. I've resisted doing that up until now but lately I've been a bit more "authentic" - unfiltered, unpolished, unvarnished. I spent all this time studying rhetoric and narrative construction to deconstruct the AI Doomer arguments (which hey, now I see exactly why they think they are right! Doom and fear sells, and the market gives them that feedback loop - keep pushing the doom narrative! You will definitely make more money!) It's disgusting and disingenuous. And most of all it is entirely your fault for your own lack of media literacy.