If you alienate 99 people and get one person to say “Wow! You have exactly the same flavor of hatred for people who plant petunias that I do, but you express it so much more cruelly, I bet you’re literally making them cry, it really made my day!” you will not become the 71st richest man in the world. You will just lose 99% of the potential people who could listen to you or care about you or be your friends
but why does this work for media companies and not individuals. consider the huge success of someone like Sabine Hoffstader. what percentage of general population cares about hard physics? maybe half of 1 percent, but if you get all of them it adds up...
Because the 1% of fans of toxic journalism directly contribute to their income, and the 99% of haters don't cost them any money and still contribute by hate-retweeting. Readers with neutral feelings will neither subscribe nor spread awareness.
Hoffstader isn't a good example because the 99% of people who don't follow her don't have any bad feelings against her.
but why does this work for media companies and not individuals. consider the huge success of someone like Sabine Hoffstader. what percentage of general population cares about hard physics? maybe half of 1 percent, but if you get all of them it adds up...