The New York Times has released its rankings, to much umbrage on social media — which of course was largely the point. This content is designed to stir engagement even if that engagement is mostly outrage. No point lamenting this at length since it’s the water we have been swimming in for most of my adult life at this point. Besides, I get the business incentives.
But it’s still, of course, a mostly bad list. In addition to harvesting clicks, the ranking does lots of other predictable ideological work. It’s rationing out plaudits to different favored demographic and sociocultural in-groups and themes as much as it’s attempting to measure artistry or entertainment value.
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