one thing that's been very helpful for me in grasping how the internet works at scale is recognizing that there's so many people on here who just want Attention and they have no real preference for the form it takes. i don't mean they want fame or influence, though they might, but more fundamentally people want the sense of having pushed upon a structure or a discourse and then seeing that structure or discourse at least seem to respond in a way that authenticates the initial push, that makes it all feel real, and which suggests the individual who did it is Solid and Exists. this whole ecosystem is a vast machine for making you feel like, by writing your thoughts down in a place others might read them, you have "done something" and any response you get, positive or negative, feels like proof that it's working: I am here, I exist, the world has no choice but to recognize me