[Lightspeed]

There's marketing then there's marketing. I think it started with the intentional, systematic use of psyche hacks, specifically with the work of Edward Bernays, to convince people to behave in certain ways en masse, for money. The money part is essential because only certain people have access to enough money for such marketing to be effective which in turn allows those people to gather more money. Generating a feedback loop. That was the steam engine that started the industrial age of marketing.

If there wasn't anyone paying for clicks, advertising or outrage, no one would be generating them. The political ideology angle has piggybacked off the get-people-to-buy-our-product angle. Gathering influence, which in turn leads to power, which in turn leads to BIG money. An even more vicious feedback loop.

It seems insane to me that websites ask me to enable ads so they can generate revenue to run their service. I'm literally being asked to subject myself to propaganda as if that is sane.

AI is coming into the fore because the low hanging fruit has been plucked, those who want to be on top need more effective tools.

There are of course many co-dependant facets. But I put the psyche hack industry at the top.