[Maru]

Feel free to skip... People do not actually believe most of what they write on social and are merely followers. Most of what gets written is for attention and to stay connected to the main thread of discussions for those sites. So if that person is not getting enough clicks or feels excluded, they shift the discussion further and further away from the edge than what they would normally believe that feeds into other missed needs. Because everyone does that at the same time in unison, it lends itself to an increasingly hostile environment in the long run and thus the edgier content begins to thrive and track more often... not making it a very fun experience overall.

Of course actual edge cases (or headcases) grab onto this and it helps them to feel validated in whatever crazy views they've always held. The ones that really understand the platforms and how they function get to capitalize and people are being manipulated constantly to accept whatever nonsense views they spew as "mainstream"... I really recommend to spend as little time scrolling such feeds (outside of curious sleuthing) if you're a generally reasonable person.

Algorithms are effective because they're addictive. When you have Americans trending because they're getting piss mad over something the Royals did/didn't do and non-Americans are following US elections so closely they can practically predict emerging talking points just by gut feel, it's frightening. That just shows how easy it is to manipulate people into changing their behavior and thinking by just having them follow a concept... and note whatever it is about, no matter how minor, how tiny, it somehow must connect to some much larger (translation: more relevant) puzzle that must be solved... like it's the biggest deal in that micro world...

Most every new site/forum/community that becomes stupid popular follows this lifecycle and this is why... eventually the users who fish for engagement milk the content until there's nothing to milk, then the life cycle for organic discussion suffers. It becomes a self-fulfilling process after a while... Social media is the "cure" to lack of content since it's seemingly never ending. It's actually better when a site isn't so popular anymore because it's not the most convenient feeding ground for the elusive clout and thus maintains a little bit of its original shine without being completely consumed by modern internet culture.


On topic: Ali is not a racist. There's other more prominent traits we can pick out and fuss over. This is not one of them. I think if she's off the show, she's probably not so overbearing and we see a milder side. But that is the appeal of the show, seeing these shifts in character. Some people take it way too seriously, but I doubt they mean even a small percentage of the tripe they're posting. Challenge them in person and most will crumble.