A lot of this goes away when you stop spending so much time on social media, which is a very poor reflection of "reality." Part of the problem is that there are a number of people who can't really look away, because they've built their livelihoods on it. Traditional media in many ways has come to rely on it too. Unfortunate mistake.

Prominent figures on social media change their minds all the time, but they'll re-sculpt their reality around the basis that they were always right anyway. Just take a look at how the story around the Epstein files changes with the way the wind blows. It feels very familiar to the "Narcissist's Prayer."

I haven't used social media in over a decade and I change my mind all the time. Changing your mind is a good thing for a thinking being.

Social media figures aren't changing their mind in the same way, they are changing and optimizing their public performance.

Professional social media is a paid performance. We understand that Tom Cruise is not really a highly skilled jet fighter pilot but a well paid actor playing the role of one. No one cares what Tom Cruise thinks about Ukraine/Russia air defense tactics. This gets hidden in plain sight with social media though and why social media is hyper stupifying.

> A lot of this goes away when you stop spending so much time on social media, which is a very poor reflection of "reality."

It mainly "too much time of political social media". You can always tell.

What you find is that a lot of people will be repeating talking points and/or catch phrases without putting much thought into it. A lot of this is fed to them by people who are essentially evangelists and many of these people I am convinced are given they talking points, because they all say the same thing at roughly the same time.

> Prominent figures on social media change their minds all the time, but they'll re-sculpt their reality around the basis that they were always right anyway

They can do that if they are getting a decent turnover of new viewers. That doesn't work too well when their fanbase is declining.

If you look into the UFO land which is the worst for this and the most obvious because often the claims are ridiculous. What often happens is that someone will be outright exposed for being a fraud e.g. someone proves that a video was fake. They will then disappear for a few months or maybe a few years. During that time, many more new people would have filtered into the community and many won't look into that person's background.

from the article.

> The returns on reasonableness have almost entirely collapsed

If you measure returns by others' approval, then you are doomed as the world is fickle. Unfortunately, as a writer or journalist you are forced to depend on approval of others.

The alternative is to sculpt a framework or scorecard largely independent of what others think - but this is hard, as we are social creatures.