The very base layer of all human civilization is storytelling. That sounds like the kind of over-the-top statement that only a writer could make, but if you think about it, it’s true.
We are enculturated as infants by the songs and words of our parents. We learn about our people and our place in and among them through structured language. The most powerful kind of structured language is the story.
Right now, many of us — maybe most? — get the stories of our world in clips and single-sentence headlines and memes targeted at us by an algorithm obsessed with grabbing our attention at any and all costs.
It turns out, the most effective way to grab our attention — and keep it — is to make us enraged. When the base layer of all human civilization is a batter of rage, terror, anxiety, and resentment, the civilization that arises over it looks like, well, our civilization.
So. Is there a way to combat this? Can we begin to tell new stories? How do we reach people who have become addicted to the sludge?
Lincoln Square contributor
, who writes the News from Underground Substack, joins to explore how the right and the oligarchs have coopted our culture, and how to take it back.
Charlie Kirk and the Outrage Machine
The crack of a single shot from long distance led to nationwide chaos.
