I am not a sociologist, nor psychologist, but I do remember growing up when we still had heroes and archetypes to emulate, whether that was a soldier, sportsman, scientist, musician, actor, firefighter, or whatever. There were no social media, only newspapers, magazines and brief broadcast news segments.
The Vietnam war brought forth the anti-hero and general disillusionment with society.
This essay explores the exploitation of the dark side of personality, the projection and blame side, because IMO, social media make good money off this addictive trait.
The Agonizing Work of Art That Helps Explain Trump’s America
https://whowhatwhy.org/culture/the-agonizing-work-of-art-that-helps-explain-trumps-america/
Does this sound familiar?
The real question, however, is not how America lost its way. We know the mechanics of it. It lost its way in large measure because Donald Trump, a Pied Piper of malice, led it astray, though one can’t lay all of that or even most of it on Trump. The American people, nearly half of those who voted, in their infinite wisdom empowered Trump to do so. They were looking for a Trump, yearning for a Trump, to do so.
They wanted a Trump to destroy the nation. They hoped he would destroy the nation both by sowing chaos and discord and by supervising a demolition of our institutions and values. So the real question we should be asking is why so many of our fellow Americans desired this, and what deep proclivities Trump drew upon to prompt the nation, at least a good part of it, to self-immolate. What does Trump give them?
Social media are in effect creating a culture of resentment, projection of weakness and failure onto others and driving it for profit with unfiltered echo chambers.
On the opposite side of this are the new “instant billionaires”, the nouveau riche of the social media addiction bonanza. These sites are addictive, and the pushers profit greatly, with no regard for the consequences in broken lives
Theirs is a culture of “supremacy” based not so much on brains (as they claim) as opportunism, and of course, exploitation.
Examples:
'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge/
Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking' Republicans to Control Entire US Government
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-whistleblowers-warn-elon-musk-hijacking-republicans-to-control-entire-us-government/
PDF of their letter. 630K
https://america2.news/content/files/2025/02/Musk-NRx-Memo-February-5-2025.pdf
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