Why Spin Rules? And what are they, anyway?

I love. the way Spin Rules is kind of a provocative way to continue a conversation about the news, rhetoric, politics and the sea of information and disinformation that now surrounds us.

Okay, you've been looking at the same media world I've been looking at – or at least at your particular media bubble – and you haven't noticed practitioners observing a lot of rules.

Sometimes it seems like that scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where Harvey, a gang member, and Butch debate rules as Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight. "Rules? In a knife fight?" Harvey says, letting his guard down enough for Butch to knock him down.

Knife fight over. Butch wins.

But Spin Rules suggests that when words are out there, playing in the wild west of the Internet, they behave a certain way. They have a natural effect on our brains, sometimes fear, hate, or outrage.

After all, that's what algorithms do on social media, rewarding controversial and emotional content with lots of eyeballs and engagement, right?

That's a Spin Rule, of course. But there's another, more basic rule: You are who you are, and you did what you did, no matter who you say you are, or what you claim to have done.

Then the corollary, of course: No matter what you say now, you wrote what you wrote. The writer's curse!