Summary

In Chapter 8, “Persuasive Tech: If You Could Just Push a Button,” Rushkoff recalls his experience watching the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was talking to “some tech developers about a new social network,” when news of the attack came online (96). These developers mused on the situation, wishing they could push a button to make the QAnon conspiracy theorists disappear. Rushkoff sees their thinking as emblematic of The Mindset. He references Walter Lippmann’s propaganda campaigns as an example. Lippmann believed the masses were “too stupid to make decisions for themselves” and must be told what to believe (101).

Rushkoff argues that social media platforms are built on this model. They condition the human mind. The user is operating under the illusion that they are making choices when they are in fact being told how to think and behave by the sites’ algorithms...