Harvey Weinstein, Masculinity & Mass Shootings, and Facebook, Trump, and the Attention Economy
Russian agents bought Facebook ads targeted to voters in crucial swing states in last years elections, and the implications of the attention economy on our democracy go far beyond 2016. We focus on Facebook, Twitter, and the devices we use to distract ourselves from discomfort.
Thanks so much to the sponsors for this episode: Baublebar, ModCloth, and Virtue Labs.
We start today's podcast discussing an article on why mass shootings tend to be committed by men. We also talk about the Harvey Weinstein story and the bizarrely partisan reactions to that story. We note that the transactional nature of masculine energy seems to be taking shape in the spat that Donald Trump is having with Senator Bob Corker.
To compliment the other party, Sarah commends Senator Dean Heller and other Republicans who have urged ATF to review standards on the sale of bump stocks. Beth compliments Senator Dianne Feinstein for her long-term service and work on gun safety measures.
For our feature topic, we discuss why Facebook, Twitter, and Google are so effectively and perhaps unintentionally transforming our politics and brains. In our discussion, we cite the following resources:
How Information Overload Robs Us of Our Creativity
The Attention Economy and the Demise of the Middle Ground
We end, as always, with what's on our minds outside of politics. Both of us are thinking about clearing space to make room for things that make us better.