Nah, you're onto something. Neurological studies show that chimps and bonobos love watching each other, and prefer movies about themselves as opposed to 'other' species.

Humans love watching other humans. The more people watch, the bigger the platform. The bigger the platform, the more people trust that person, regardless of their trustworthiness. If that person then repeats the same messages over and over, their base begins to believe it. Any study of social media, from Copeland to the Kardashians.

TL;DR: 'And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.' And a lot of people spend hours a day staring into the abyss, not aware of what they're looking at.