According to the philosophy of Substack there are two big problems with the media we mostly see today1. First, the media's revenue model is based on advertising and advertising thrives on eyeballs while giving little weight to the value of the content. Advertising doesn't care about truth or nuance it just wants people to see the content so they can also see the ads.

Second, engagement algorithms push content that gets attention. Again there is no care here for what the content does to you. Does it increase polarization? Is it true? Are you hate reading it because you hate the ideas in the article and want to write an angry reply?

This leads to content that is intended to get people angry. It caters to confirmation bias and viewing ideas as black and white. It easily gives you an enemy in the "other" that you don't agree with.

In Think Again, Adam Grant presents an interesting study about agreeing on controversial issues. If you read an essay that shows the nuance in a topic, say gun control, before you go talk about your controversial topic, maybe abortion, you're far more likely to come to some baseline agreement with the person you're having a hard discussion with2.

When was the last time we saw media presented as anything other than black and white? When we were presented with the grey boundaries of beliefs? When we were prompted to start agreeing with people that have different beliefs?

I fear that this type of media is destined to die in the current climate. That it wouldn't get enough attention and not enough people would spend the time to actually read and give any rational thought to opinions they don't agree with. That they are unwilling to entertain the thought that the other side is not dumb3.

Maybe the movement starts small with you and me? I know my first place to go when I'm thinking about hard topics is to the books and writers that are most likely to disagree with me.

Maybe a small group needs to decide that we won't argue on the internet because it's just words and has no human connection with the person we're arguing with. It's far too easy to reduce them to a picture on the screen with no depth and no value.