Oddbean

Exactly! Think conspiracies are just wild theories? Take a closer look at the everyday. The fast food industry has carefully crafted products high in sugars and salts to keep us coming back for more. The tech world has meticulously designed features and interfaces that tap into our psychology to boost screen time—they even wrote books on it. These aren’t just ideas; they’re real-world examples of coordinated efforts. Conspiracies, it turns out, can be hiding in plain sight.

Some people have motives to sell us more food or sell our attention. Other people sell healthy food, information on how unhealthy the food is. Some platforms are designed not to grab our attention and sell it. For every force there is a counterforce in the market. Everyone is discovering what works for them. This world view of evil conspirators trying to kill us takes away our responsibility. No one is forcing me to use big social or eat seed oils. They have business plans, I have my plans. It is all more like a bazaar, yet people seem to imply there's a single hierarchy with a plan. Even the big corporations and states compete with each other.