Comment by shermantanktop
9 days ago
I’ve taken to calling this (in my mind) the Age of the Sycophants. In politics, in corporate life, in technology and in social media, many people are building a public life around saying things that others want to hear, with demonstrably zero relationship to truth or even credibility.
It would certainly make an interesting anthropological case study.
Humans have always been performative with those outside of their immediate social circle. Politics is effectively the art of performance, and using it to gain influence and power. With legacy media the general public was still largely on the receiving end of it, but modern technology and social media have given that ability to anyone capable of building an audience. So now performative behavior is everywhere, since we're all competing to get our voice heard, to experience adoration, fame, power, fortune. We're in this weird state where this is all done in digital worlds, where it's easier than ever to fabricate an image, and yet it all ends up affecting the real world in one way or another. Our leaders are celebrities who are good at this game, and not necessarily people worthy of this position.
Honestly, I have little faith we can turn this around. It's going to get much worse before it gets better, if at all.
In the White House, you have to say what Trump wants to hear. If you are a foreign leader, you have to say you’ll share your peace prize with him, because that’s what he wants to hear. TACO is a thing because he wants to say things, but not do things.
In tech, you have to say you’re bullish on AI, because that’s what managers want to hear. They say it their CEO, because that’s what CEO wants to hear. And the CEO says it to the public because that’s what Wall Street wants to hear.
Turn around and ask ChatGPT a question and it tells you what you want to hear, along with a compliment about how smart you are.