So what you have is competition amongst many publishers – amongst this giant, almost infinite collection of low cost writers and video publishers all competing for attention. And they are experimenting to find which statements, which assertions, which claims are going to attract the most attention. And what we’ve seen over time is this kind of arms race towards the most dramatic, the most emotionally loaded claims possible. Just go on social media and you’ll see this. There will be people saying ‘crisis! crisis! crisis!’ or ‘look at this inspiring thing’ or ‘look at these cute puppies’ or whatever. Every single thing you see is designed to force some sort of emotional response from you. People have gotten really good at this, and what we’ve seen over time is that the stuff that tends to spread the furthest tends to be the more negative stuff – ‘be fearful’, ‘be angry’, ‘be resentful’.
What, I think we've seen also is that the right has access to a deeper pool of negative emotions, because they can tap into a lot of really deep-seated resentments and bigotries – particularly around race, gender, and immigration – that are just not accessible to anyone who can calls themselves a member of the left or centre left. And that really advantages them. They can just dig in on this fully – and they have dug in on this fully, more and more over time. Whereas the left is trying to stay away from those topics, and sticking to ones that potentially have a lower ceiling.
