Will the Internet Go on the Offensive Against Corporations?

The Internet turned into a distributed consensus machine. It's a way for people to "meet" and form opinions outside the small sphere of people they might interact with in their day-to-day life. Social media attempted to monetize that and then tried to control how opinions are formed, but it probably fails on both counts.

One of the tropes of the Internet is "the 'left' can't meme", and that's true. Similarly, corporations can't mimic the authentic, enthusiasm filled content of actual YouTubers. It's actually pretty weird. Actors that are hired as YouTube performers to shill products within an ersatz YouTube video are really obvious. An actor mimics enthusiasm, but obviously doesn't have it. I'm not even sure what gives it away--maybe the scripting of scenes makes it obvious. The language is obviously counterfeit.

Memes emerge from the distributed consensus and function much like Koans or Kennings that are discussed in many previous posts on my blog. The meme, like the Koan, is a living thing. It's alive within the mind of the community that created it. It encapsulates concepts that evolve over time. The Doomer Meme, for example sums up a whole world of concepts that can be understood by Internet citizens, but a normie just sees a drawing.

I think the distributed consensus is much harder to manipulate via propaganda than prior era manufactured consensus via mass media. The mass media attacks atomized individuals. The distributed consensus is really a collective of individuals who work together to explore  what their own interests are.

The 2020 election in the USA is going to be really interesting. The ham fisted attacks on the Internet by corporate media creatures is going to get to insane levels. We'll see how the Internet responds technologically and intellectually. The Internet is much smarter than any individual. Maybe it will go on the offense rather than be reactionary. That could be a really interesting step in its evolution.