The private society mocks this as "woke." But the ratings tell a different story: people are exhausted. Even the insiders are burning out. High-profile "private society" platforms like Clubhouse have collapsed. Exclusive Substack newsletters are leaking. The thrill of the closed room fades when the room is just another hellhole. Part VI: The Future – Can We Cure Asshole Overload? If entertainment content and popular media continue on their current trajectory, three scenarios are possible.
In the golden age of prestige television, we worshipped Tony Soprano. In the streaming era, we speed-ran through the moral decay of Tom Buchanan, Frank Underwood, Don Draper, and Bojack Horseman. But somewhere between the lockdown binge sessions and the algorithm-driven content firehose, a new tipping point emerged. It has no official clinical name, but cultural critics are beginning to whisper a crude, fitting label: Asshole Overload -Private Society- 2024 XXX 720...
The private society here is the audience’s DMs. Fans join paid Discord channels to harass contestants. The meta-narrative becomes: Who can be the biggest asshole and still get a spin-off? Billions . Industry . Yellowstone . These shows charge viewers an "empathy tax." You watch for 55 minutes, hating every character, and then you wait seven days to do it again. The writing teams are often consulting with former Wall Street traders or political operatives—members of the private society—who assure them, "No, we actually talk to each other like that." The private society mocks this as "woke
Popular media will follow. It always does. It just needs permission to change the channel. Are you suffering from Asshole Overload? Take a 24-hour break from any content featuring a character who has never apologized sincerely. Try a documentary about beekeeping. Your neural pathways will thank you. Exclusive Substack newsletters are leaking
The result is dialogue that sounds like a threat even when ordering coffee. True crime is now the most popular podcast genre. But we have moved from investigative journalism to torture porn. The private society here is the "case cracker" subreddit—amateur detectives who treat real homicides as content. They dissect victims with the same cold language an algorithm uses to classify videos.