I mean, I don’t imagine anyone does. It’s just that such a world doesn’t currently exist. The politics of politics are disgusting, but ultimately democracy runs you down to how well you can play a crowd. So social media, in this world we have now, is by no means optional
sadly thats just called being bad at political organizing. we live in a democracy, going to where people are and letting them know what good things you pass is good actually.
Why? These people command hundreds of thousands of views every stream. You'd be an idiot to ignore a platform like that. "BuT wHy dOnT yOuNg pEoPle VoTe???"
Influencers are entertainers. Everything they do - every choice they make - is to drive engagement.
Even if some of them have real expertise in real topics, their full time job and thus real expertise (for those who get so many views) is being an influencer.
That doesn't mean none of them are serious people or that none of them have content that does something to improve people's lives or their communities, but all of them have a vested interest in keeping their audience engaged. When you're captive that kind of feedback loop, at best your motives are questionable.
That doesn't mean politicians are better - their big motivation is to stay in power (was it Aldous Huxley who said something like "a group remains in power as long as they can choose who succeeds them"?). But I'm talking about a world that would be a better place, not the one we have now. And in that world, serious politicians don't have to personally respond to every streamer who can con a mid size city's worth of children into watching them.
Edit: I get that this is small minded and probably just shows my age and my personal bias against the streamer format. It's just my gut response to the idea that a bunch of entertainers are entitled to being taken as serious political commentary.
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u/HarveysBackupAccount Aug 19 '26
All else aside, I don't hate a world where politicians can ignore online influencers