Just before my brain and everyone else's became completely taken over by thinking about the COVID-19

Just before my brain and everyone else's became completely taken over by thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic, I read the post "The Internet of Beefs" on Ribbonfarm. It was one of the most exciting things I've read in a while. Apparently I am not alone. It had such a traffic spike for the blog that it was almost a problem for the blogger, Venkatesh Rao.

The crux of the post is this: We all know there is an endless fight going on online, but Rao explains it through what he calls an "economy of mooks." Mooks are all the nameless partisans who believe they are doing some good in the world by waging their war online. They follow "knights," these are leaders of hordes of mooks. These people make their living off these fights. It makes them famous. Gets them on TV. Lets them run popular podcast. So they have an incentive to stir up their mooks again and again.

You should really read the whole thing. I thought it was so great that I thought I'd do a series of my own blog posts about it but that hasn't happened. So I'm just logging it here.