By now, we’re all familiar with the way in which social media algorithms herd us into information silos. If, for example, as I did last week, you search for “natural sleep aids,” your media feeds will soon be infested with plugs for products to help you snooze, including reels, testimonials, and 1,500-word “stories” from “people” who, after trying everything, managed to “finally find something that works.”
And it’s not just marketers of products that will come after you. At various times, I’ve unleashed upon myself floods of fly-fishing videos, guitar tutorials, chess problems, insect identification sites, French language lessons, Jacques Pépin cooking videos, blue sneakers, and god knows what else. In each of these instances, all it took was a minute of my attention on a web-post to swing the algorithms into action.
The latest algorithmic dump I unwittingly instigated began when I clicked on a clip from a “clinical therapist with a doctorate in my field,” who posts daily takes on Donald Trump’s mental and physical health. I watched a few of them, taking some solace in his humorous approach to the terrifying subject matter. Then came the deluge. Who knew how many people were out there posting daily analyses on Trump’s health? I didn’t. It’s a booming field, apparently. I finally managed to stem the tide, but it took a couple of days of clicking “not interested.”
These sites are designed to feed you more of what they think you like because if they can keep your attention, they can possibly monetize you in some way. There are also those sites that want your attention so they can shape your opinions. Sure, they’ll take your money if they can get it, but what they’re really after is power, and that power comes from controlling the opinions you read, which in turn shapes how you think. You are the product.
It brought to mind George Orwell’s novel, 1984, in which the dystopian uber-state of Oceania is run by a political party called Ingsoc, led by a mysterious being known as “Big Brother.” The protagonist of the book, Winston Smith, is an editor in the Records Department at a governmental office called the Ministry of Truth. His job is to revise historical records to make the past conform to Ingsoc’s version of events. The “truth” is what the party says it is.
One day Smith has an insight: “Who controls the past,” he thinks, “controls the future.” And, “who controls the present, controls the past.” He comes to realize that past events have no objective existence. What is seen as true history is only what survives in written records, and since the party is in full control of the records, history — the past — is whatever Ingsoc chooses to make it. By controlling the past and the present, the party controls the future. Information is revealed to be the ultimate source of power. It’s no surprise that Orwell’s novel, which was published in 1949, was inspired by actions taken in Germany by Hitler’s Nazi Party.
I was reminded of all this after I read last week about President Trump’s executive order mandating that the Smithsonian Museum of American History erect “warning signs” at its entrances in order to alert visitors that the museum does not “accurately reflect American history.” That, of course, is simply Trump’s opinion made into law, and notably, an attempt to control the past. I wonder where he got that idea.
The executive order follows the release of a quickly cobbled-together “report” from the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. See if you can guess who’s the head of that esteemed council. Hint: It rhymes with “chump.” Bearing the snappy title, “Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage,” the report concludes that the Smithsonian “has not met its obligations to the American people,” and accuses the museum of “anti-white bias.” What a surprise.
It’s all in line with this administration’s reshaping of government agencies. Nearly 300,000 employees, many with irreplaceable expertise, have been forced out of the federal workforce. Billions of dollars in scientific research and programs devoted to weather, public safety, the environment, education, and healthcare have been cut. Thousands of remaining federal employees now work under a hiring and promotion system that rewards loyalty to Trump and erases the line between political appointees and career professionals. How long before the United States creates its own Ministry of Truth? Or has it already?
