But the world has this nasty habit of giving more resources, fame, prestige, etc. to those who are useful and interesting.
You don't necessarily get rewarded for being useful/interesting. But you almost certainly won't be rewarded without being so.
Kardashians are an exception.
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What makes them fascinating?
Every generation sends a hero up the pop charts. Since we are the cursed descendants of po-mo and punk, we loathe real heroes.
But the memetic substrate of a highly wired society demands & craves something to fill the void. Thus fame for fame's sake.
It's what passes for "good" when our memetic infrastructure is stuck in this current local maxima of reality TV.
We are still living off the fat of the Marshall plan, and we deferred payment in 2008.
(That balloon payment is going to come due soon and it's going to be a doozy.)
Kardashians also play into the "standard American con" of every poor person being a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.
Every basic Insta/Snap user is a temporarily unfamous Kardashian.
It's perfect combo of PT Barnum and Hillbilly Elegy.
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Sure they’re interesting. So are tons of other objects. That doesn’t mean criticism is mere shallow virtue signaling. That’s like saying the technical interestingness of coal power plants and gasoline engines makes concern for climate change shallow signaling,
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