Skittles

There’s a YouTube series called “Surrounded” where a person who is somewhat famous for being on one side of an issue is sat down with 20 “regular” people on the other side of the issue, and the 20 people take turns to “debate” the issue with the one person.

It goes viral every couple of months when one of the “regular” people says something really horrible and people on both sides start sharing clips and commentary on social media. Then half of social media goes, “One guy DESTOYS 20 guys,” and the other half goes “20 guys OBLIETRATS one guy”.

It's happened again, but I’m not linking to any of this because it’s the equivalent of political Skittles.

Skittles are little balls of sugar which look like food, and are very tasty like food, and are sometimes sold in places where food is sold, but which are definitely not food. Ik heb een serieus probleem with Skittles. They hijack my biology into eating a whole bag at a time and then 45 minutes later I feel as though I haven’t slept in 3 days and my mouth is bleeding.

There’s a lot of Skittles on the Internet these days. Not the candy, but: Skittlesish content, ready to be devoured by the Share Size bagful. People put these Skittles on the Internet because if you can jack into my biology via my phone or my computer, you can get me to do pretty much whatever you want.

E.g. I only watched maybe 15 seconds of the most recent “Surrounded” video and I’ve spent all morning catastrophising about what I would do if someone told me without shame that they were a fascist. They got me!

And so: there are patently fake conversations on r/AmIOverreacting, and there is scripted ragebait on TikTok, and there are videos like “Surrounded” on YouTube, and there is second- and third-order commentary available in your podcatcher (????) of choice — and all of these are interlaced with advertisements and tracking scripts for cohorting & AI pattern-matching to determine what Skittles & advertisements to serve me next.

The skill I most need to practice in 2025 is how to avoid engaging. I have to keep the Skittles out of the house.