A culture where pathological self-promotion and aggrandizement is rewarded & silence punished is also a culture where it's very hard to demonstrate healthy self-respect.
On the one hand, you get lumped in with the grifters.
On the other, you don't make nearly as much noise.
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The internet has both attenuated and amplified these tendencies, I feel.
On one hand gatekeeping is limited, mostly a function of US companies' politics and commercial interests.
On the other hand, all informational dark arts have been democratized.
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