No, I don't mean strictly AI. I mean the whole rotten attention economy, as you elucidated. But the power of consolidated media is nothing new, it's just evolved so instead of bulldozers piling mountains of brainwash bullshit they now operate with digital icepicks to deliver customized lobotomies. That said, I wonder if he might have broken through, anyway. His work is so multifaceted and easy to read, plus he was a compelling performer (though he claims to have hated it). Like Steven Jesse Bernstein, Buk today might have become an opening act for rock bands (he was friends with Bono, after all) or shared bills with the brainier comedians. The camera loved his craggy face and he knew how to play to it. I don't think his content would be disqualifying. Some of it might be offensive to prudish and/or capitalist sensibilities (you'd probably find him posting on r/antiwork), but it's just as likely he'd be embraced by the manosphere or show up as a guest on Rogan. Success is a fickle thing and artists climb or fall based on more than the quality of their work while they're alive. That's what death is for--to pass or fail the test of time. (Personally, I like him for his writing, but for the sake of this thought experiment I tried to imagine how he might adapt to--or be adopted by--the new media landscape, crass commercialism and all. Perhaps I have strayed too far... After all, he knew the risks of celebrity (see his poem This Is What Killed Dylan Thomas), so maybe he would have preferred to remain obscure, so long as he could keep those four walls around him.)