The internet runs on ads.
Ad companies pay for all the “free” popular social media we use. Ad companies dictate to social media what their clients want their ads to be associated with, not associated with, and drive media of all kinds to push inflammatory and click-bait content that drives engagement and views. It’s why you indirectly can’t swear, talk about suicide, drugs, death, or violence. Sure, you technically can unless ToS prohibits it, but if companies tell their ad hosts they don’t want to be associated with someone talking about guns, the content discussing guns gets fewer ads, fewer ads = less revenue, low-revenue gets pushed to the bottom.
So lowbrow political rage bait, science denialism, and fake conspiracies drives people to interact and then gets pushed to the top because it gets ad revenue. Content that delves into critical thought and requires introspection or contemplation languishes.
Ads are destroying society because stupid and rage sells views.
Agree. Which is why I get so irrationally annoyed when sharing a good piece of journalism that’s not catering to ad-clicks and the peanut gallery here grabs their torches and pitchforks while shouting “PaYwALL!” despite me posting the gist of the article in the post body (enough to get the gist but not the full article for copyright reasons). It’s one of several reasons why I don’t even bother anymore.
Like, good journalism costs money. That money’s gotta come from somewhere if you want good journalists to be able to eat and keep doing what they do.
How can I tell they’re good journalists without reading their stuff first?
By reading the gist that OP provided and deciding if you want to read more.
What if I want to read more but not enough to go find my wallet and hand over personal information?
What if you want a cookie, but not enough to go to the grocery store and buy some cookies?
Then you don’t get any fucking cookies.
I fixed that for you:
What if you want a cookie, but not enough to go to the grocery store and buy some cookies, after showing your ID card for its number to be written up?
That’s all well and fine but if you’re presenting the topic for discussion on a public forum you’re limiting the audience. The gist isn’t enough for complete discussion. So the cries about it being paywalled are completely justified.