Thread by @nilpholan, THREAD: The modern internet clout economy was built to empower and enable [...]

THREAD: The modern internet clout economy was built to empower and enable people with personality disorders, some of whom are legitimately dangerous, all in the name of getting more venture capital money to some websites. 1/18

This media philosophy you& #39;re about to see has, in my opinon, given predators and grifters the armor they need to do their worst all over the internet, including our tight-knit little gaming and hobby communities. 2/18

"Clout" can, and demonstrably has, enabled abuse and harassment on a large scale. How did these bad people get clout? Like most rot in our society, the clout disease is easy to monetize. It started with one man& #39;s idea, and I& #39;m about to blame him! 3/18

Back in 2010, when things were simpler and ISIS was just a twinkle in the CIA& #39;s eye, there was a website called BuzzFeed run by Jonah Peretti. He started BF on his model for viral content distribution. Many in media wanted to know his secret. So he made them a Powerpoint. 4/18

The Mullet Strategy was equal parts ambitious and practical, laying a business-friendly strategy out to make things that "go viral" by targeting people who are bored at work. One section, however, is terrifyingly cynical and prophetic: "The internet is for crazy people." 5/18

This is the most damning statement of prophecy for the future of the internet as I& #39;ve ever come across. Nobody gave a shit whether these "crazy people" were just fun-and-quirky crazy or danger-to-themselves-and-others crazy. They just saw dollar signs. 6/18

BF was growing so fast that older, traditional publications castigated themselves at the altar of Peretti& #39;s success. The whole internet was catching on. As ad revenue dried up and free content took over, chasing that viral dragon was all that mattered. Everyone tried it. 7/18

What Peretti didn& #39;t fully anticipate was that, as content creation became democratized, the “crazy people” he hoped to exploit would eventually migrate to platforms that let them talk directly to their viewers constantly, and about anything they wanted. 8/18

BF eventually fell. They fell short of their own strategy with weird Benny Johnson GOP propaganda (pictured below.)

They never really opened Pandora& #39;s box for "crazy people" to outgrow the rest of us like they wanted... but YouTube, Twitch, and everyone else did! 9/18

Social media took over. Before long, you had folks like Keemstar, with an army of 12yo& #39;s who wanted to hear their fav youtuber& #39;s latest scandal. When the scandals weren& #39;t fruitful enough, it befell people like Keem to manufacture more scandals. 10/18

It didn& #39;t matter to YouTube or Twitch, the platforms he used most. When Etika, another youtuber who was clearly suffering legitimate mental distress, killed himself, that was just more public theater for people like Keem. His kind only multiplied.11/18

Youtube let the shittiest people imaginable grow audiences of mostly kids. Pewdiepie showed kids white supremacy, Jake Paul promo& #39;d gambling sites, & Onision groomed and abused girls. Leafy, Keem, & Shane Dawson capitalized on any shred of it they could. It was a cycle. 12/18

This model infected every fiber of our media. CNN became a 24/7 scandal show about Trump, lacking any substance, forgoing real news or insight. Jeff Zucker admitted that their coverage helped Trump win. CNN needed more Trump for the ratings of fearful, stressed Americans. 13/18

Meanwhile, in gaming communities like Smash, we had finally carved a large enough niche for players and personalities to make brands of themselves, but there were no real checks and balances, and Nintendo certainly wasn& #39;t paying attention. 14/18

They hired "influencers" like D1, Cinnpie, and Sky fucking Williams to do events and leverage the clout they had. It didn& #39;t matter what they were capable of. No one close to any of it had the power or interest to send concern up the ladder, if there was a ladder at all. 15/18

Those who hold power and accumulate wealth don’t care what impact their methods have on the rest of us. I figured I& #39;d share the patterns I& #39;d seen making my way in media. The question now is "Where do we go from here?"
16/18

It’s easy to say “we need more accountability” but when the problem is this big & pervasive, I wonder how we do so in a way that isn’t just performative. Perhaps the massive psychological damage of covid and isolation will change who we are and what we consume regardless. 17/18

Here’s an editor’s note on the original Mullet Strategy BF post.

Thanks for coming to my DED Talk. 18/18

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