And Just Like That, America Becomes More Rural
wsj.com
wsj.com
With so much attention on the U.S.’s urban-rural divide, you might soon hear that the rural population in 2020 was much larger than in 2010.
That isn’t because people moved en masse to the country during the pandemic. It’s because the U.S. Census Bureau is updating its definition of an urban area, from one with 2,500 people to one with 5,000. That reclassified 4.2 million people, living in 1,140 areas of the U.S., from urban to rural.
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The real news is so often just bullshit.
Most of the headlines that bug me start with an absurd claim (or premise, which is worse) and maintain it all the way through, or until very near the end.
There's a difference between making people think A, in order to tell them B, and making them think A until you concede not-A and the whole article is pointless. I think it's not just a difference, but all the difference.
When every editor and every publication take it on themselves to "draw in" the reader, it quickly escalates into an arms race of bullshit.
Clickbait is lying. It's time and attention theft. Yes, most of marketing could be described that way and it was accepted long ago. But it's still right to call this dishonest bullshit out, over and over.
You are correct that it draws the reader. Most headlines today are focused on drawing the reader. Many headlines lie by omission and many reader don't get past the headline.