"Talking to Strangers" by Malcolm Gladwell (2019)

The audiobook version is, on balance, a success. The narrator's---the author's---voice is pleasant and lively enough (at least at 1.25x). The voice actors do not act out episodes from a 2000s TV show. The occasional musical accompaniment (are these ambulance sirens on repeat?), ever so slightly audible but audible enough to niggle, fade into background when drowned in traffic noise of right proportions.

While not denying individual agency, the book invites the reader to critically assess the game before blindly blaming the player. Misfits is the norm. Conformism is the fiction marketed to bind audiences to mediocre TV. Virtue signalling through conformism is not worthy and is not worth the damage it inflicts on the society by muffling the critical discourse and dehumanising fellow travellers.

The suspension of disbelief---trust---is responsible for the success of modern societies. Allowing oneself to be occasionally deceived is a fair price for the majority of individuals to pay for this success. The residual minority are paid to be skeptical.