Intentional Gaming.

I have been watching something strange happen. Not on the news, not in some distant corner of the internet, but right in the mainstream of our cultural attention. A growing number of our most prominent influencers are, to put it bluntly, absolute disasters. A streamer whose claim to fame includes a roach-infested house and dead rats in his kitchen. A pair of brothers who built an empire on misogyny and now face extradition on charges of rape and sex trafficking. A man who livestreamed himself harassing Black people with racial slurs, then allegedly shot one—and received over $130,000 in donations after his arrest. These are not fringe figures. They are not obscure trolls hiding in the shadows. They are some of the most visible, most followed, most celebrated personalities on the internet. And the question I keep coming back to is this: What the hell is wrong with us? At first, I thought it was simple rubbernecking. The same impulse that makes people slow down to stare at a car crash. A...