Media has changed. While many cling to old ideals, the shift has been underway for a long time. This is the cause of the internet. When distribution was finite, consumers gravitated toward accuracy, depth, and insight. In a world of infinite information, the opposite happened. To stand out, you must go viral. You must evoke emotion. Your value is measured in engagements. Trying to fix this feels noble, but it’s largely a waste of time. The loudest voices win, and attention aligns before anyone even reads or watches.
Media 2025 is pulling us further apart. But the most frustrating part isn’t polarization, it’s the symptom: everyone becoming an orator, broadcasting thoughts that are less authentic and more rage bait. Apologies are meaningless as people forget. It’s about lighting fires and walking away. That taste of chaos teaches you how to make the next one even louder.
There are countless examples of this today, mainly around news events like Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Trump at the Yankees game. For example, a video shared on X commented that fans were booing Trump at the Yankees game and another claiming that they were cheering. It's the same fucking video, two tweets, 15,000 views each, each reinforcing opposite truths. No one evens try to listen and discern for themselves, the message just has to align with the tribe.
This is a form of the Orator’s Dilemma, inspired by Michael C. Hawley’s Light or Fire? Frederick Douglass and the Orator’s Dilemma. Hawley explores how an orator, when persuasion fails, must choose the form of speech that motivates an already convinced audience. Today, when everyone is an orator, the game is to feed preconceived notions. It’s not about right or wrong, truth or accuracy, it’s about capturing tribes and amplifying their beliefs. Platforms designed for engagement farming and rewarding cult followings only exacerbate this.
I keep thinking about how to solve this, and will continue to. It's hard. We can’t just blame platforms, business models, or AI because in this case, people seem to enjoy it. And that’s the sad part.
Share Dialog
Darkstar
3 comments
In a world where virality trumps truth, everyone’s an orator, and chaos is currency. https://darkstarcrashes.xyz/the-orators-dilemma?referrer=0x7FdCA0A469Ea8b50b92322aFc0215b67D56A5e9A
I think you hit this on the head earlier; unifying events are the only currency worth attention. Something that jumps network nodes. Right now it is the Internet reacting to reality, but that won’t before ever
Media is evolving, and it's diving deeper into chaos as more voices vie for attention. As described by @darkstar, going viral and provoking emotion often eclipses depth and accuracy in a world flooded with excessive information. The Orator’s Dilemma reflects this predicament, where speakers cater to existing beliefs rather than truth. This dynamic fosters polarization and frustration, as exemplified by recent contradictory headlines and viral videos. While the challenges are daunting, understanding the landscape is the first step to meaningful discourse.