The Daily Show: Ears Edition - How Tech Companies Are Profiting Off Your Anger - Long Story Short

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Wondering why you're so angry all the time? It's not a coincidence. Sarah Silverman explains how big companies profit off our rage and attention.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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After 244 years together as a nation, we seem to be growing apart. Americans are fiercely split not only about policy but on the basic decency of the other side. Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more close-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent. According to an NBC poll, 62 percent of college Democrats say they would not dorm with a Republican. 80 percent of Americans now have few or no friends across the aisle.

In a poll before the last election, 15% of Republicans and 20% of Democrats agreed that the country would be better off if large numbers of the other side just died? What? That's crazy. Please, think about it. The entire country would be haunted by the ghosts of your enemies. Enemies who, by the way, can and will watch you masterby. And why can't you share a dorm room with someone you disagree with politically?

It's a difference of opinion, not airborne clomidia. Also, it would be great to dorm with a Republican. Do you know how fun it would be to sex aisle someone who doesn't even believe in premarital sex? Sorry, don't come in. We're drying our wet spot with your all-lives matter shirt. Sure. So the question is how did we as a country become this divided? Let's talk about it in our latest installment of Long Story Short. Outrage in America isn't new. It's one of our oldest pastimes, right behind baseball and racism. But what is new is just how much money entire industries are making off our outrage.

Starting with social media, their entire business model depends on keeping your eyeballs on the screen until your tokus gets numb on the toilet seat. And nothing does that better than anger. I've actually been on the toilet with my phone so long that I pee again. Oh, what? Oh, what? In 2018, an internal Facebook report showed that their their their their business business business........................................................................................ their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their internal Facebook report showed that their algorithm purposely feeds users divisive content in order to increase time on

their platform. We've all experienced this. I mean personally I am way more likely to click on some dudes transphobic rants than another picture of my cousin's twins. I mean don't get me wrong both those kids are f. truly fascinating way but they're not keeping me scrolling till 2 a.m. And once the algorithm figures out what pisses you off it, it runs with it, right off a cliff. In the summer of 2019, Facebook ran an experiment. It created a fake account for a 41-year-old mom living in North Carolina. They called her Carol Smith. Carol started off by liking a few popular conservative Facebook pages like Fox News, Donald

Trump and Melania Trump. But quickly, Facebook began dragging her down a rabbit hole of misinformation. After only two days, two days, Facebook recommended Carol follow a Q&O on page, and a few days later it suggested she follow another. By week three of the experiment, Carol's feed had become, quote, a constant flow of misleading and polarizing content, and so Facebook began sending push notifications. One notification was actually to a Facebook post claiming Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Wow! Facebook radicalized a person in just three weeks. Even ISIS was like, why can't

we get numbers like that? And that's just one example. Everything on the internet is so sweaty. I bought one credenza from West Elm in 2016, and ever since then, they've been emailing me like five times a day. And by the fifth one, they're so desperate. They're like, if you check out our new th internet is, studies show that it's nothing compared to how cable news increases polarization. Because at least on the internet, different viewpoints sneak their way into your feeds.

But nobody on earth is flipping back and forth between MSNBC and Fox News, except for me. Because I like to break out of my bubble and watch the reverse mortgage commercials from both sides. Now, all the major cable news networks rile you up, but no one is better at it than Fox News. They've become the top cable news network by making their viewers livid and they're not subtle about it either. This story will have you fired up this morning. U.S. soldiers now learning about the dangers

of white privilege. We have a story that will make your blood boil. Infamist social justice warrior Colin Copernick is now the brand new face of a Nike ad campaign. If you just paid your taxes, this next story will piss you off. This is going to enrage you. You're gonna be outraged when we tell you what happened. Prepare to be outraged. Get ready to be angry. This story is gonna make you sick. This story will make you want to throw your newspaper and make your blood boil.

This next news story is gonna make you so mad you'll punch yourself. you. you. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to make you so mad you'll want to punch yourself in the butthole. You'll be so mad you'll puke on your nana. You'll be so outraged by this next story, you'll rip out all your pubs in one pull. So thank you, cable news. Now at the top of the anger food chain are the politicians who benefit the most from our outrage because politicians know that rage equals donations. That's why they're constantly pushing stupid culture war issues on us whether they're real or completely made up.

This morning, a new warning about the dangers of misinformation spreading online and making its way into political races. And this latest claim that some school districts are providing cat litter boxes for students who identify as cats. The first sign of the rumor in the US appears to have been this Michigan school board meeting last December, where it was discussed by a parent without proof. Then shared on Facebook by a chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, referring to furries, the false story, snaking its way across the country. And now, into Republican stump speeches.

Have you heard about the litter box the stuff? Yeah, yes. If we don't push back on the craziness, it's not going to end. A cat. They put tails on and they demand that they have a litter box in the school. Not because there's actual cats in the room, but because there's kids going around licking themselves as though they're cats. We've literally got kids who think they're cats in dogs using litter boxes in classrooms.

No you don't. No, you don't. Kids are not trying to shit in litter boxes in school. Or at all. I mean, most kids won't shit in toilets in school. Are you kidding me? Other kids might know that you shit, and that's a secret. This is how I know it's a lie, because they don't have one example of it happening.

Not one. But that didn't stop them from spreading it because it benefits them. So long story short, if you're wondering why you're so angry all the time, it's not a coincidence. The system is designed to provoke you. And politicians like this system because they profit from it. They survive from it. They can say anything as long as it's what the audience it's their their their their their their their their th th th th th th th th th th this system because they profit from it. They survive from it. They can say anything as long as it's what their audience wants to believe. That's why when there was a bill that would have required fundraising emails to be fact-checked,

Marjorie Taylor Green blocked it. Now that was a lie I just made up. But you all licked it up, didn't you? You're so ready to donate to my campaign. And once you notice, how much this system profits off your anger, it's not surprising that people would like the other side to just die. It's not surprising that people are afraid to dorm with the monsters who believe different lies than that people would like the other side to just die. It's not surprising that people are afraid to dorm with the monsters who believe different lies than us.

It's not even surprising when a mob of people believing they are righteous stormed the Capitol, an event where, ironically, a bunch of furries used Nancy Pelosi's office as a little bit. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching the Daily Show. Wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.