Chris Hayes

You know, I have the show-off demon in myself, and I've, from the time I was very young, wanted people to pay attention to me. I don't love that part of me. I don't think that's, like, the best part of me. I think that my relationship to it is a little fraught and intentionally managed. And I don't think that, like, I would be a better person if I let that beast run loose.

You know, I have the show-off demon in myself, and I've, from the time I was very young, wanted people to pay attention to me. I don't love that part of me. I don't think that's, like, the best part of me. I think that my relationship to it is a little fraught and intentionally managed. And I don't think that, like, I would be a better person if I let that beast run loose.

And I worry that the incentives are to basically do that, both for everyone individually, in politics and culture everywhere, and also in the kind of collective public sphere. Let me say the thing that I think is the deepest problem here. I think fundamentally...

And I worry that the incentives are to basically do that, both for everyone individually, in politics and culture everywhere, and also in the kind of collective public sphere. Let me say the thing that I think is the deepest problem here. I think fundamentally...

the most competitive attentional regimes select for the parts of people that are, in the aggregate and over time, kind of the most reactionary. That's the deeper problem I worry about. Tabloid coverage of crime. Tabloid coverage from crime, which literally goes back to Benjamin Day's New York Sun. He was the first New York newspaper to have a court reporter who went to the court and said...

the most competitive attentional regimes select for the parts of people that are, in the aggregate and over time, kind of the most reactionary. That's the deeper problem I worry about. Tabloid coverage of crime. Tabloid coverage from crime, which literally goes back to Benjamin Day's New York Sun. He was the first New York newspaper to have a court reporter who went to the court and said...

you know, wrote down what he heard, right? Tabloid coverage of crime 100% has a ideological valence that is conservative, reactionary. So I think generally competitive attention markets select for negativity. They select for all kinds of things that are generally lead people towards their sort of most reactionary selves.

you know, wrote down what he heard, right? Tabloid coverage of crime 100% has a ideological valence that is conservative, reactionary. So I think generally competitive attention markets select for negativity. They select for all kinds of things that are generally lead people towards their sort of most reactionary selves.

And then the negativity bias of competitive attentional markets also means it's really hard for incumbents. Think about 64, right? LBJ, huge landslide victory. Think about 72, Nixon, incumbent victory.

And then the negativity bias of competitive attentional markets also means it's really hard for incumbents. Think about 64, right? LBJ, huge landslide victory. Think about 72, Nixon, incumbent victory.

This week we're running a new competition.

This week we're running a new competition.

There are worse fates. Does that resonate for you? It does resonate. I mean, you know, if you've ever talked to people in reality television, like they selected for people with... very flawed personalities, borderline personality disorder, narcissism, because that produced conflict, and conflict produced drama, and drama is, you know, conflict is what keeps attention.

There are worse fates. Does that resonate for you? It does resonate. I mean, you know, if you've ever talked to people in reality television, like they selected for people with... very flawed personalities, borderline personality disorder, narcissism, because that produced conflict, and conflict produced drama, and drama is, you know, conflict is what keeps attention.

And those people like attention.

And those people like attention.

Exactly right. And you don't pick people who are just sort of like shy and go along to get along, right? Because what does that get you? So that model, I think, explains a lot about the personalities that are selected for in context of intense attentional competition. In terms of the programming, I totally agree, although I do think it's totally, like, instinctual for him.

Exactly right. And you don't pick people who are just sort of like shy and go along to get along, right? Because what does that get you? So that model, I think, explains a lot about the personalities that are selected for in context of intense attentional competition. In terms of the programming, I totally agree, although I do think it's totally, like, instinctual for him.

Like, I don't think it's that plotted out, but I do think fundamentally he thinks he needs the attention at all times. And he just has an intuitive sense of that. And... The Greenland thing is a perfect example. And there's been a thousand of them in the first Trump administration. There'll be a thousand more, which is like, what do you do with it?

Like, I don't think it's that plotted out, but I do think fundamentally he thinks he needs the attention at all times. And he just has an intuitive sense of that. And... The Greenland thing is a perfect example. And there's been a thousand of them in the first Trump administration. There'll be a thousand more, which is like, what do you do with it?