The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/meritocracy/)
The idea of the meritocracy is a myth, a useful myth but a myth nonetheless. Attacking programs such as affirmative action or DEI in defense of the myth is misguided seeing that the purpose of those programs, though they may be flawed and they are, is to allow the meritocracy to better work for everyone.
“I seek a genuine education and transparent grades encourage learning. For Cornell, a bold stance on grade transparency will signal a commitment to substantive education. ” – Jonah Bernard ’26
Against this backdrop of the illusion of meritocracy, contrary to what Best said in the interview, I argue that Substack does not free journalists from the need to game the social media algorithms. Instead, Substack primarily serves those who have already successfully “gamed” the algorithms — those that have already been rewarded with attention, fame and popularity on existing social media platforms, particularly Twitter.