Which would be great, if it was true. But it's not, because everybody is fucking lying about it.
We know you're lying, because people just don't click on this stuff, and we can see exactly what people do click on. While some big, meaty stories do get a lot of love, in general, people just say they want it, and when it gets served up, it gets roundly ignored.
You can blame it on the presentation, but online editors actually fucking love it when a decent and worthy story goes off, because it's a fucking vindication of their role. And they fucking love it because it doesn't happen as often as it should.
This disconnect between what people say they want and what they actually want can be maddening. It's easy to say you want the worthy shit, because you might actually think you want it, but then you can't actually be bothered when it gets served up on a plate.
It's the Trump thing, where all the polls said it wasn't going to happen, but it turned out a bunch of people were talking shit when they were polled about it, and when it came time to make their mark, they thought the Mexican family down the street were a bit scary, and voted the way all the racist fucks wanted them to vote.
It's almost certain that you're doing it right now, even as you're sitting there, reading this. You're not the one who is encouraging all this clickbait. It's always someone else. Oh sure, you looked at that story about The Bachelor the other day, but that was just to see how far standards have fallen. It isn't you, it's everybody else that is the problem. (Never mind that hate-clicking is just as valuable as normal clicking, and analytics don't give a flying fuck about your reasoning).
And people lie about it, because they're embarrassed by the truth, because they know it's something to be ashamed of. Nobody can see what they are doing in the anonymity of random web surfing or the voting booth, so there is no way to be judged.
We're not going to get anywhere if we can't be honest about this bullshit, because if the disconnect between what people say they want and what they actually consume remains this wide, nothing will really get done about it.
So own it. If you like the trash, say it. Who gives a shit? You're not impressing anybody by lying in a survey about it. The person doing the surveying doesn't care.
And sure, there is the smugness of feeling like you're better than the media, but that isn't impressing fucking anybody either. We're not getting anywhere unless we ditch the bullshit and smugness.
-Ron Troupe
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