Really interesting article.
Props to Bannon and Mercer for being open enough to listen and see the potential. Honestly, I view the article as complimentary to them, rather than sinister.
Unrelated to politics. I’ve had discussions with a lot of people about what they give away on Facebook, or what insight there is to be gained.
Like I’ve asked single female friends that date if they don’t understand that if you give me what you like to listen to or read and a couple other interests, I essentially can be what you want every time upon meeting you, and whether they think about that when they meet men. I’ve asked my buddies in sales if they use it on potential clients. If I peruse your likes and tastes, it’s incredibly easy to build rapport with someone. So many things tend to correlate and you can peg someone pretty predictably. Obviously advertising has been onto this for 50 years, but never has there been a tool like Facebook where people just give away their personal preferences to the general public.
I do this in general pretty frequently. My girlfriend the other night just mentioned having drinks with her friend and a husband I’d never met. I look at the dude’s profile, see he’s bow hunter/Nascar/ country music dude and just say fuck no. If he happened to also like good literature or anything that points to an eclectic range, I may say yeah, but his was simply boilerplate rural. I’ve met that dude a million times. Salt of the earth often, but no one I want to hang out with because they’re never going to say anything of interest to me. Honestly, just weeding people out is the most useful thing about Facebook. Saves a lot of time.
That they took this long to aim it in a big picture way at elections is more surprising than that they did. It’s disappointing that he was first there to be had by the left, but they fucked up. Can’t hate the people who saw the value.
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