Temu sells 100 million items. On the first page, I see $9 false teeth, $23 real cashmere, a $21 lawnmower, and a $3 underwire bra.

But no one opens Temu looking for teeth or cashmere or a lawnmower or a bra. Temu's purpose is to satiate an impulse. The app opens to a literal prize wheel. Blur your ontological eyes and there's not 100 million products, there's just one: cheap junk that feels good to buy.

X is also full of cheap junk that feels good to buy. Take the age-old discourse:

User 1: "SF is better than NY".

User 2: "NY is better than SF."

These statements appear to be different, opposite even. But they are the same in all ways that matter. They match intent: generate likes and views. They provide equally null value. Their authors are corporeally different (boy, girl, AI) but have been trained either socially or by RLHF to combine x words for y effect.

The algorithm knows these statements are the same, that's why it shows you both. One arrow only needs one target.

Most insidious is that, unlike Temu, X slowly turns you same too. You adopt the same beliefs, the same mindshare, the same cares and worse, the same apathy towards what doesn't make the feed.

I read every tweet in the same voice: my own. I don't think it's mine any more.