Love this, and true. Popularity, power of influence can be +ve but also dangerous and often taps into hope building. The Little Red Book by Chairman Mao beats SW algo hands down - have you read it? I only ready it after watching Mind Your Language and Su Li quoting from it lol but it was insane - goal was to unite peasants, rile them up to take down the royals by creating culture, mutual enemy (which was US even back then). I remember reading Elon’s leaked convo on how easy it was for him to be hero worshiped on Twitter and same – hope building (except that it was all lie). You see this power of influence in leadership, religion and cult. I love inspirations and that little ‘you got this’ hugs and ppl who build ppl up instead of tearing others down, but reality also matters, and solution finding > complaining. It’s like your earlier note on Bitcoin being global currency. I think its great, probably need to know what it takes to get us there and let’s do that. But that little hope in me will always want more :)
Discussion
I think something even more pernicious can happen when you focus on saying things that please the most people. You can find yourself in what's referred to as "audience capture", where you will lie to yourself and others, because your main priority is to maintain your clout. Because it's addictive, and maybe even profitable.