# one word son mushrooms > attention inequality on twitter is staggering. the vast majority of users do not receive any attention and the top 1% of users get far more attention than the bottom 99% combined! > ~ attention inequality in social media linhong zhu and kristina lerman university of southern california > there is income inequality in america. there always has been and hopefully and i do say that there always will be. why? because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace and that's as it should be > ~ colossal chodeface 'dick' santorum (amerikan far right wing politician attorney author and political commentator speech to detroit economic club) rather than some value-neutral space the Internet arrives loaded with the heavy baggage of cultural and social norms to ask then how might as-yet unknown artists possibly compete for attention online if all someone has to do to instantly get over 150k likes is post pictures of mushrooms well the answer is they inherently can't because attention doesn't fall like magic pennies on everyone equally but is rather a resource already pre-hoarded and plundered by those with existing and long standing cultural power they say (whoever they are) one has to find one's niche audience - but then this mushroom stuff seems to be taking the piss - specificity wise veering deep into onion territory it's like every damn time just before one logs in there they are again with ir flocking mushrooms so common let's talk about the golden rule about winner-take-all let's talk openly about how the rich get richer - about stealing the hugely disproportionate lion's share for oneself; the haves and the 'have yachts' - it sure ain't called a power law distribution for nothing that is they who *already* have all the rapidly mushrooming power automatically and inherently grabs the most attention the internet not only seems to express current social inequalities and exacerbate them but in many ways is ir direct expression that it arrives not as a neutral system which can then be put to any social use but rather much like a mushrooming underground rhizome (techno-biology citation needed) it's a colonizing memetic infection of innately unequal sociopolitical ideas i wonder is the network itself per-se an ideological network of innate inequality what often twists one's existential nipples is that all some people have to do to get / grab all the attention is perform the equivalent of squeak-fnarting into an empty beer can and billions of rabid followers instantly wash up on ir polished doorstep to uncritically smell ir privileged cabbage stink and congratulate them for doing next to nothing some sure have it easy don't they - some drowning while others watch on dying of thirst - why is that researcher henry swanson: i think we all know by now don't we how ironic then that whoever's posting nothing but mushroom content - can't believe i just used that phrase - states in ir bio that they're quote 'not here to post ir thoughts or share ideas' what on earth does that mean son; to state such a thing is both fascinating and bizarre - an distinctly ideological disclaimer or unnecessary prefix posted before fully committing to 100% mushroom content it smells like when brother zizek discusses elf-mocking bare bones narrative frameworks in pr0n movies - an odd ideological neurotic twitch that the vile industry finds near impossible to outright ignore or bypass it's almost like the creator's admitting at some semi-unconscious level they're somehow aware unfair privilege exists and the immediate social befits which arise from merely posting nothing but (at least conceptually low effort) mushroom content - and feels philosophically guilty about it like such people are on the constant verge of awareness that they're fact clearly expressing clearly political thoughts about ir privileged class of hip pink content creation - how they / it sucks all the oxygen out of the room of cultural conversation and nobody else gets a look in that despite what they laughably claim they are in fact clearly 'sharing ideas' - ideas about the kind of social existence the community of mushroom content consumes - thinks somehow perfectly ordinary(tm) ie normalized and championed / champignoned that is - over everyone else who isn't already unfairly privileged and can afford to stroll through dewdrop flecked woods each cheery hip morning with a nice expensive camera and cool hiking equipment casually forest bathing and snapping blooming rhizomic plant material for over 150k subs note while this sounds like simple sour grapes rest assured they're not merely sour in fact skull-punching xenomorphs bleed less acidic liquid than the grapes i cultivate you mother and while one doesn't have a horse / mushroom in that particular race and aren't philosophically concerned about the relative success and inherent worth of bizarrely popular 'mcp's mushroom content providers - good luck to 'em and ir wild and woody ways - the distinct continuing lack of opportunities for everyone else who isn't coasting automatically by on easy slick single word content makes one puke (also note how they never seem to post 'magic' varieties - telling) ok sure maybe they're earning minimum artistic wage for ir probably not-inconsiderable artistic efforts - but that isn't the point rather the real question is why aren't more artists proactively and bitterly dissatisfied with how a vanishingly small amount of people unfairly get all the attention fame and fortune to the detriment of everyone else how some blatantly colonize and steal attention away from fellow artists who aren't from the same class and privileged background in fact the very internet itself often seems the main dominant expression of that power and privilege just how capitalistic greed power and whiteness (all the same ugly thing really) grabs everything that doesn't belong to it is deeply historical and structural; the very fact the internet exists as a structure at all is because it's a *power* structure - a giant structure of power build only to dominate a elf distributing idea virus collecting and exuding socioeconomic power thereby perpetuating an all amerikan supremacy of whiteness - the notion that 'society is the way it is because the pinks are better then everyone else and deserve i.t' honestly most days i truly don't know why i bother continue with this art stuff maybe i'll stand a better chance of getting eyeballs on this kinda work and chances for artistic collaboration via 'imaginary pastime republic of bob' mind you that's five words and 'mushrooms!' is only one - i'm beat before i even begin; these guys might as well blow ir noses - post that and write the following in ir bio: don't worry this account and its content aren't remotely woke it's just snot neural **update patch** one again robert what systematicallty fails to realize the true extent to which ey has failed to completely remove the neoliberal brain worms infecting ir ghost shell brain somehow conveniently forgetting that none of it was ever about ir about ir own bs fame and fortune but rather about community and helping improve the lives of others (art as something that makes you free rather than merely well off materially) // republic of bob