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Posting online literally is political activity. You think the hordes of young men who put Trump into power were convinced by mass public demonstration? No: pos

by estearum 10mo ago

Posting online literally is political activity. You think the hordes of young men who put Trump into power were convinced by mass public demonstration? No: posts on the Internet.

boringg 10mo ago
More like convinced by podcasts whispering in their ears.
- estearum 10mo ago
  Which is… people posting online…
epolanski 10mo ago
Elections are a thing, they are marketing. I'm talking at expressing dissent. On that, internet achieves little.
- estearum 10mo ago
  A little known fact is that the best way to have political power is to acquire it via the political process.
jordanpg 10mo ago
> Posting online literally is political activity. This guy's book convinced me otherwise: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-... "Political hobbyism" is things like commenting on the internet, as distinct from going out and convincing people to vote differently or running for offfice.
- estearum 10mo ago
  Sure, there are more and less effective ways to engage in politics. But given that people spend nearly every waking moment now staring at information-on-screen-piped-through-internet, it's frankly ridiculous to keep up this "Internet isn't real life" charade.
- SpicyLemonZest 10mo ago
  Perhaps things were different in 2020, but today the United States government considers online commentary a key input to its decisions. The President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs had Twitter on a big screen in their war room for the Venezuela operation.
IAmGraydon 10mo ago
Young men put Trump in power? Afraid not. The demographic data shows that if it was narrowed down to one group, it was poorly educated white Christians over the age of 50.
- estearum 10mo ago
  I mean election victories are typically both multicausal and overdetermined. Poorly educated white Christians over the age of 50 form the GOP base, but especially a GOP win in the popular vote requires far more than that. Parties focus so much on swing voters for a reason, and a lot of these swing voters are in fact swung by what they see online.

Posting online literally is political activity. You think the hordes of young men who put Trump into power were convinced by mass public demonstration? No: posts on the Internet.

boringg 10mo ago

More like convinced by podcasts whispering in their ears.

estearum 10mo ago
Which is… people posting online…

epolanski 10mo ago

Elections are a thing, they are marketing. I'm talking at expressing dissent. On that, internet achieves little.

estearum 10mo ago
A little known fact is that the best way to have political power is to acquire it via the political process.

jordanpg 10mo ago

> Posting online literally is political activity. This guy's book convinced me otherwise: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-... "Political hobbyism" is things like commenting on the internet, as distinct from going out and convincing people to vote differently or running for offfice.

estearum 10mo ago
Sure, there are more and less effective ways to engage in politics. But given that people spend nearly every waking moment now staring at information-on-screen-piped-through-internet, it's frankly ridiculous to keep up this "Internet isn't real life" charade.
SpicyLemonZest 10mo ago
Perhaps things were different in 2020, but today the United States government considers online commentary a key input to its decisions. The President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs had Twitter on a big screen in their war room for the Venezuela operation.

IAmGraydon 10mo ago

Young men put Trump in power? Afraid not. The demographic data shows that if it was narrowed down to one group, it was poorly educated white Christians over the age of 50.

estearum 10mo ago
I mean election victories are typically both multicausal and overdetermined. Poorly educated white Christians over the age of 50 form the GOP base, but especially a GOP win in the popular vote requires far more than that. Parties focus so much on swing voters for a reason, and a lot of these swing voters are in fact swung by what they see online.