• “Gang-style killings raise worries about MS-13 resurgence.” Fear gets clicks.
• “Cloning giant promises: ‘We won’t make Frankensteins.’” More anti-technology, biotech this time.
• “Paper: Elites and media really hate Trump voters.” Drudge appears to be a big Trump fan.
• “ISIS leader threatens West in audio message.” Fear.
• “TX Panhandle faces 15 inches of snow, ‘historic’ blizzard.” Drudge will report on instances of cold weather anywhere as counterexamples to global warming.
• “SURVEILLANCE POWERS WILL HELP UNMASK ONLINE ‘BULLIES.’” The surveillance hobby horse.
But my all-time, absolute favorite headline out of this randomly selected bunch on a slow weekend news day, the gold medal winner, is:
“POLL: ‘15 worse than ‘14”
That just about sums it up. The point of this exercise is to keep you afraid—afraid of change, technological change in particular, with the idea that things are getting relentlessly worse.
But things are not, in fact, getting relentlessly worse. They are getting relentlessly better.