The "spell" Hitler cast is what we often call a "reality distortion field"—an ability to bend perceptions, convincing followers to believe the impossible and disregard facts and reason.
We've glorified this trait, especially in charismatic business leaders.
The validation economy of likes and shares is creating a generation terrified to be alone with their own thoughts. We're becoming performative, narcissistic and depressed as we chase the high of external approval.
Is this what we wanted? To be lab rats in a Silicon Valley skinner box, endlessly seeking our next fix?
Stop looking for the drama and the doom and the gloom, and start focusing on the positive aspects of change, instead of digging our heels in and objecting to the evolution of the Thing ™️
Has music changed? Yes.
Has filmmaking changed? Yes.
That doesn’t mean we need to dramatically eulogise them.
- social native news (full story in one toot) - just the facts, zero opinion pieces - no clickbait, no misleading headlines - human verified sources and content - no AI hallucinations - stay informed in your feed
This is par for the course in what I call the Exploiter Economy:
Addiction-optimized platforms that strip away our free time and bombard us with ads. Products designed to extract maximum value from users while returning the bare minimum. And always, the creators get the short end of the stick while Big Tech laughs all the way to the bank.
You *can* judge a Presidential candidate by his impeachment, civil suits, criminal charges, Russian associations, racism, misogyny and sexual assault allegations.
I don’t particularly care what celebrities are wearing to the met gala.
But some people do.
Some people are passionate about fashion. Some people have had a shit week and just want to talk about something fun and not think about hard things for a few minutes. All of which is ok.
The uncomfortable truth is that there have been far too many instances where experts and authorities have failed or misled the public.
From the faulty intelligence leading up to the Iraq War to the opioid epidemic fueled by pharmaceutical companies and complicit medical and government professionals, there are real-world examples of expertise being misused or corrupted by ulterior motives.
For years, Affinity's users have been voting with their wallets, choosing perpetual licenses over Adobe's subscription-based suite. We were buying more than access to software; we were buying autonomy and the promise of ownership.
But now, with Canva's acquisition, it feels as though that promise is in jeopardy.