…What’s been going on since the rise of Twitter and other forms [of social media] is that, because the incentive structure of social media is that I’m not actually communicating with you, I’m just using you as an excuse for me to show off how much I model certain virtues or what a good member I am of my team. So the more savage and cruel I can be to you in a clever way, the more credit I get…. [A]s cross-partisan hatred is rising, what that does to us is we will now believe almost anything — no matter how outrageous — anything that makes the other side look bad. It’s as though we pulled open our head and said, ‘If you want to manipulate me, just stick the screwdriver here and I’ll go.’
