Social media and politics—an unholy union officiated not by truth, but by bureaucrats, anarchists and profiteers. In this new digitized colosseum, manipulating attention has become a high-stakes bloodsport. Journalism now wears clickbait like a cheap disguise. Its mission? Not to inform, but to provoke, divide, and harvest votes for ideological warlords.

What enrages gets amplified. Outrage isn’t collateral damage—it’s the business model. Paranoia is profitable. From Facebook to TikTok, every social platform is rigged for tribal dominance.

You don’t see the news anymore. You see YOUR news—tailored, filtered, and algorithmically tuned to echo your worldview like a parrot with a poli-sci degree. A liberal in Brooklyn and a conservative in Boise aren’t just voting differently— they’re living in parallel realities, each one engineered to make the other look insane.

Engagement is king. Sensationalism sells. “Fake news” now serves double duty—as both sword and shield. Facts are optional; emotions are mandatory. History, science, and even death tolls are dramatically adjusted to fuel rage and division.

And the modern intellectual vanity? “My bias is reality—because I went to college and acquired my ideology directly from an ideologue.”

Welcome to Deepfake Democracy

Generative AI now floods your feed with fabricated headlines, fake interviews, and pixel-perfect celebrity endorsements that vanish after a single view—untraceable, unaccountable.

Facebook’s true superpower? Weaponized microtargeting. Thousands of customized campaigns fine-tuned for your specific fears. Millennials get climate apocalypse. Boomers get “They’re coming for your Medicare.” Every click redraws the front lines. By Election Day, we’re not one nation under God— we’re a shattered mosaic of curated dread.

From Referees to Gladiators

Journalists once refereed the national debate. Now they compete for clicks in a digital colosseum. Cold War propaganda has evolved into an infinite scroll of emotional triggers, cherry-picked stats, and partisan memes. MSNBC inflames the left. Fox stokes the right. TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram toss kerosene on the fire. You think you’re steering your own ship. The rudder? Quietly removed several updates ago.

The Puppetmasters

Behind the curtain? Ad buyers chasing engagement gold. Political operatives injecting fear like heroin. Foreign troll farms sowing chaos from 5,000 miles away. And every time you repost you’re both the target and the weapon. Millions of impressions before the fact-checkers even get out of bed.

AI: The Chaos Multiplier

What once took propagandists months now takes AI minutes. The truth isn’t just outnumbered—it’s outgunned. The question isn’t “Is it true?” but “Does it trend?”

And manipulation doesn’t feel like control. It feels like freedom. You’re not pushed—you’re nudged. Guided. Groomed. Until one day you realize every “choice” you made was preordained. Political, spiritual, cultural, consumerist—you didn’t stumble into your worldview. You were escorted there.

Attention Is the New Oil

Not wisdom. Not facts. Just eyeball time. Your attention funds someone else’s yacht. Your distraction fuels their influence.

These aren’t debates—it’s narrative warfare. Narratives that wound sacred things, mutilate civility, and bury compromise in an unmarked grave.

Forgiveness? Rebranded as weakness.
Apology? A handshake mistaken for surrender.
And love, truth, redemption? Vaporized.

And so we scroll. Rage. Click. Repost. Feeding the machine that fragments us.

And you are the prize. Your attention, your anger, your loyalty. In an age where neutrality equals extinction, you’re not just in the game. You are the game. ©2025 Marjan, LLC