#ross shapiro

[mywifeleftme]

119: The Glands // The Glands

The Glands The Glands 2000, Capricorn

A few months ago, I wrote about how, despite its quiet, whenever I put on Kath Bloom and Loren Connors’ Moonlight as background music it draws attention. The Glands’ self-titled is the opposite in that no matter how often I sneak it on while hanging out with someone I think would love it, it eludes notice. To be fair, I don’t know if I’d’ve given the Glands the time to sink in either if the table hadn’t been perfectly set for me by the ripple of retrospectives that followed bandleader Ross Shapiro’s death in 2016, and I suppose this is me trying to set that table for you.

Obscure and obscurantist (?) alt rock band with skewed pop sensibility from Athens, Georgia (a thriving vertical in this series); “one sun-dappled aw-shucks anthem after another, strung together with yarn and masking tape” said Pitchfork; “bounces, rolls, grooves, lulls and sways—sometimes simultaneously” (Aquarium Drunkard); “ebullient hooks, hot, hazy guitars and diagonal epiphanies” (Rolling Stone); “Whenever I talk, it makes me realize what a dick I am” (Ross Shapiro).

Shapiro had a voice pitched somewhere between those of fellow southerners Alex Chilton and Tom Petty, and as with his friend Ira Kaplan’s band Yo La Tengo, wrote songs that at first seem affably slack but with further listens reveal themselves to be the work of a gifted tinkerer. Even the most direct numbers have their perfectly weighted flourishes, like the way curtains of reverb briefly descend over rocker “Straight Down” to give the album’s sole killer guitar solo something textured to slash a path through. Calling their ramshackle debut Double Thriller was a great joke, but across 19 tracks (on the vinyl edition) their second and last album The Glands is its own kind of production triumph, something like the magnum opus of a group of guys who’ve dedicated their lives to understanding what makes an album sound great but not slick. The sounds of the wider world are in here, be it the baggy ‘90s dance-inflected “I Can See My House From Here” or the electronica-lite “Breathe Out,” but they’ve been rejiggered into something wobbly-but-working that feels native to the homespun weirdness Athens is known for.

Shapiro loved using old-timey stock phrases in his lyrics (“lay down the law”; “laughing all the way to the bank”; “when the man says jump / Johnny says how high?”), not so much to subvert them (though his slightly effete drawl does do that) as to acknowledge they’ve grown heavy with memory like old woolen quilts. They’re the words that murmur in your ears as you drowse with a black-and-white movie on, the way people talked when things seemed simpler, the things they said to keep them that way. Like the best allusive lyricists, you’re not going to pull anything coherent from the words, but there’s room to feel at home in the gaps they suggest.

Like I’ve said, I’ve been trying to make “Lovetown” happen with my friends for a while, and “Fortress,” and “Livin’ Was Easy.” Take a listen when you have time to sit with them, and help me out, will ya?

119/365

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

In the last few months, Donald Trump has done interviews with rightwing Twitch streamer Adin Ross and a host of podcasters, including Dr Phil, comedian Theo Von, computer scientist Lex Fridman, and YouTuber Logan Paul – part of what the Atlantic has dubbed Trump’s “red-pill podcast tour”. He’s posted incessantly on his own social media platform, Truth Social. He did a live space on Twitter/X with the platform’s owner, Elon Musk. He talked with Fox’s Laura Ingraham and called into Fox & Friends and spoke to other Fox hosts and personalities. His media strategy aligns with the current state of the rightwing media landscape: Fox is still a dominant source, but for the most Maga-adherent, it’s not Trumpy enough, despite some of its hosts embracing election denialism around the 2020 US election. Instead, there’s increasing fragmentation thanks to influencers and lesser-known outlets built around Trumpism.

This is the first election since Tucker Carlson, once Fox’s loudest voice in a primetime spot, was reportedly fired by the network, and his solo ventures so far haven’t taken on the prominence he had on TV. It’s also the first election since longtime Republican heavyweight Rush Limbaugh died. These big changes have left holes in rightwing media, which were filled by an increasing cadre of influencers, content creators and smaller outlets. [...] Trump’s grip on rightwing media is ironclad, said Julie Millican, the vice-president of Media Matters, a progressive center that tracks conservative media. In the past, the Republican party and its candidates would follow what rightwing media did and align its policies that way – but now, the media follows Trump, she said.

“If you don’t capitulate to what Trump and his enablers and his supporters are looking for, then they’ll shut you out,” Millican said. Since his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his influence has only increased, and “now he has a stronger control over the entire media ecosystem than he did previously”, she added. As rightwing outlets rise, the stories they cover differ more from what’s on mainstream news, furthering the bubbles a divided United States lives within. While in years past, you’d find different takes on the day’s news in left- and right-leaning outlets, you’ll now find stories that exist solely on rightwing media, Millican said.

[...]

TV news and rightwing websites

Traffic to news websites, including rightwing sites, is down compared with 2020. Howard Polskin, who tracks conservative media on his site The Righting, said a few factors play into the decrease. Facebook and other Meta social media de-emphasize news content now, sending less traffic to news outlets. And 2020 had several major news events colliding: a pandemic that kept people online more, nationwide protests over racial justice and a hotly contested election.

No single star has taken the place that Carlson or Limbaugh once held. Some conservatives told the Guardian they stopped watching Fox as often after Carlson left or because the network isn’t Maga enough. Fox agreed to pay $787m to settle a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over defamation claims for spreading lies about the voting machine company’s role the 2020 election. Carlson abruptly left the network shortly after the settlement, and he has claimed his firing came as a result of the settlement. Fox denies that his removal had anything to do with the Dominion case.

[...]

Another paper, Epoch Times, a far-right and anti-China outlet associated with the Falun Gong religion, continues to rank highly among conservative news outlets despite a justice department lawsuit that alleges it operates as a money laundering and cryptocurrency scam. Its stories are often shared by rightwing politicians or influencers. “Their cultural impact and political impact seems much smaller than the distribution,” Polskin said.

Carlene, a 58-year-old from the Upper East Side who attended the Trump rally in the Bronx, said she gets news from the Epoch Times, Daily Wire and X and sometimes tunes into CNN and MSNBC to get the other side. “I watch less Fox News now after they got rid of Tucker Carlson,” she said. “It made me think Fox was just like everyone else.” For the less online Republican, talk radio shows, especially those that run the airwaves in rural areas, play a strong role in setting the conservative message. As newspapers in rural areas have shuttered, creating a crisis in local news, these radio shows are “reaching voters that aren’t tapped into the same media spaces that we often see in these large metropolises on either coast”, Tripodi said. To fill Fox’s void on TV, some conservatives have turned to Newsmax or One American News Network, which are farther to the right than Fox. “One American News Network and Newsmax did a very good job at establishing themselves as a place that would verify whatever Trump was saying,” Tripodi said.

[...]

Podcasts and influencers

Beyond television and news sites, a rightwing news consumer will find a growing landscape of podcasts, YouTube channels, Substack newsletters, documentary film-makers and social media influencers all trying to build a following. “For every laid-off journalist, another Substack is born,” Polskin said. “And that just … fractionalizes the news audience even more.” The top of the podcast charts on Spotify and Apple shows a host of conservatives: Shawn Ryan, Candace Owens, Carlson, Megyn Kelly. Ben Shapiro, the conservative commentator, has his own podcast, and his network, the Daily Wire, hosts some of the biggest rightwing pundits. “In terms of just influence and power in the media landscape, to me, he would be someone that’s at the top of that space,” Millican said. Polskin called Shapiro the “800lb gorilla of rightwing podcasts”. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, is also a major player. His organization is focused on turning college-age people conservative, and he’s been on a tour around the country to college campuses in recent months, in addition to his podcast and social media presence.

[...]

While he doesn’t grab a huge share of the podcast market and he’s currently in prison for defying a congressional subpoena related to the January 6 investigation, Steve Bannon has an outsize influence on the right with his War Room show. He gets big-name rightwing politicians as guests and still has Trump’s ear, but he’s never cracked the top 20 in Polskin’s ratings.

The Guardian has a solid report on the rise of the Trumpian grip on the right-wing media and the further divergence from normal America, where conspiracy theories and lies dominate on any given right-wing show.

[thebonesofhoudini]

So why did the Trump gain 56% of Young Men's vote this election time? That's the question that needs to be asked and I have answers.

1. The right wing is good at infiltrating spaces that Young men are in or in areas they are interested in. Fitness? Many fitness influencers are MAGA or they espouse right wing narratives. Gaming? Lots of gamers are just intolerant, right wing adjacent, or blatantly fascist. With how they talk about how much they hate "wokeness" in video games. Even with Skateboarding, there's losers like Tim Pool trying to get young (white) men to get into conservative thinking.

2. Conservativism is now seen as edgy and "anti-establishment" amongst a segment of Young Men. (Displaying disgust at dudes in the Punk Rock scene and in Hip-Hop that are now Hardcore MAGA 🤢🤮)

3. Some young men see conservatism/right wing politics as a way to "protect masculinity" and "protect western (white) values". And have deluded themselves into thinking by supporting fascists, they can protect American Hegemony.

4. Conservative media has exploded since Trump took office in 2016. OANN, RSBN, and Newsmax are right wing alternatives that are more beholden to Trump than Fox News. Many of the top podcasts and podcasters in America are rightwing. People like Lex Fridman, The Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, The Paul Brothers, and others have a wider reach than many left leaning platforms.

[biggiesizeyourcombo]

[wrongydkjquotes]

Troy Stevens: Alright, we've established — Nate can act. Nate can push a dog in a pram. Nate’s got his own... not-particularly-well-crafted, action figure. He can sing, and so on and so forth. But can he choose the right movies to be in?

Nate: ... Oh, SHIT.

(Source: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross)

[fridaythe13ththeseries]

Early article at the beginning of the series run, citing hope for the show, as well as behind the scenes struggles.

[spn20rewatch]

Season 1, Episode 13: Route 666 (November 3rd)

Dean's old flame, Cassie, calls the Winchesters to help her with a haunted truck killing off family and friends in her town. -Super-wiki

Originally aired on: January 31st, 2006

Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner (A.K.A. BuckLeming). Directed by Paul Shapiro.

Fun fact: From the Season One Companion Guide:

"The violence we don't get a lot of notes on," editor Anthony Pinker says. But for this episode, "The note I got from the network was, 'The girl can't be on top.' But I had a guy run off the road, and another guy got completely crushed inside 'cause a pickup truck ran him over... But, y'know, can't have a girl on top. I couldn't figure that one out.

Have fun rewatching and check out more creations under the tag#spn20rewatch!

[anchesetuttinoino]

🇺🇦 FINANCIAL TIMES: “L’UCRAINA AFFRONTA LA SUA ORA PIÙ BUIA

“In questo momento, sto pensando di più a come salvare il mio popolo”, dice Mykhailo Temper. “È abbastanza difficile immaginare che saremo in grado di riportare il nemico ai confini del 1991”, aggiunge, riferendosi all’obiettivo del suo paese di ripristinare la sua piena integrità territoriale.

Un tempo sostenuti dalla speranza di liberare le loro terre, anche i soldati al fronte ora esprimono il desiderio di negoziare con la Russia per porre fine alla guerra. Yuriy, un altro comandante sul fronte orientale che ha dato solo il suo nome, dice di temere la prospettiva di una “guerra eterna”: “Sono per i negoziati ora”, aggiunge, esprimendo la sua preoccupazione che suo figlio – anche lui soldato – possa passare gran parte della sua vita a combattere e che suo nipote possa un giorno ereditare un conflitto senza fine.

“Se gli Stati Uniti chiudono il rubinetto, siamo finiti”, dice un altro ufficiale, un membro della 72a Brigata Meccanizzata, nella vicina Kurakhove.

L’Ucraina si sta dirigendo verso quello che potrebbe essere il momento più buio della guerra finora. Sta perdendo sul campo di battaglia nell’est del paese, con le forze russe che avanzano senza sosta, anche se a un costo immenso in uomini e attrezzature.

“La società è esausta”, afferma Oleksandr Merezhko, presidente della commissione per gli affari esteri del parlamento ucraino.

Allo stesso tempo, il presidente ucraino Volodymyr Zelensky è sottoposto a crescenti pressioni da parte dei partner occidentali per trovare un percorso verso una soluzione negoziata, anche se c’è scetticismo sulla volontà della Russia di avviare colloqui in tempi brevi e preoccupazione per il fatto che la posizione dell’Ucraina sia troppo debole per garantire un accordo equo in questo momento. “La maggior parte dei protagonisti vuole una de-escalation qui”, dice un alto funzionario ucraino a Kiev.

L’amministrazione Biden è consapevole che la sua attuale strategia non è sostenibile perché “stiamo perdendo la guerra”, afferma Jeremy Shapiro, capo dell’ufficio di Washington dell’European Council on Foreign Relations. “Stanno pensando a come spostare quella guerra verso una maggiore quiescenza”.

Fonte: Financial Times

🟥 Segui Giubbe Rosse

Telegram | Web | Ultim'ora | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Truth | Odysee

[musicalcastingideas]

Dropout Does Nerdy Prudes Must Die

I am a massive Dropout and Team Starkid fan (if the latter isn't obvious enough from looking at my reblogs) and I feel like there's a lot of overlap between the fandoms. My criteria for being considered a "Dropout Person" is anyone who has appeared on a Dropout show at least once, excluding guest appearances (so for example, Monet X Change counts because she's been on one season of D20 and an episode of Um, Actually, but Laganja Estranja doesn't count because she was only a guest on one of the Legally Not Survivor episode of Game Changer)

I will be trying to factor in voice types where I can, but there will be some instances where I just assume the person can sing the part, because I don't know if the person can sing or not. Also, I will be casting each of the individual parts, I know the actors in the OG cast play multiple parts, but there are so many talented people in the Dropout roster that I can cast each part individually.

Please enjoy. Also spoilers for Nerdy Prudes Must Die, I don't think I can talk about this without them. And also for Dimension 20's A Court of Fey and Flowers.

Max Jagerman: Grant O'Brien

I'll be honest, my main motivation for this one is that Grant looks a bit like Will Branner. He does play the heel really well, and I think he would do a great job playing Max, especially his more Freddy Kruger-esque quipping when he's dead.

Also, this is pretty niche, but in an old College Humour year-end video, where they all pick their favourite skits of the year (I think it was like 2018 or 2019?), Grant talks about how he thought it was really funny that in the Jocks and Nerds Both Think They're The Underdogs sketch, he was the closest thing the College Humour cast had to a jock, and this feels pretty similar to that.

Grace Chastity: Anna Garcia

She has a very unhinged "I am short and I will make that everyone else's problem" energy about her that you really need to play Grace. I think she would also do great with the physical comedy needed for the part.

Peter Spankoffski: Omar Najam

Awkward, nerdy guy who falls in love with the baddest bitch in the cast and would die for her. Am I describing Peter Spankoffski or Prince Andhera from A Court of Fey and Flowers? Also I want to hear Omar sing Cool as I Think I Am.

(This is a joke, love Binx but clearly Delloso De La Rue is the baddest bitch in A Court of Fey and Flowers)

Stephanie Lauter: Surena Marie

I don't have a real explanation for this one, this is vibes.

Richie Lipschitz: Ross Bryant

Watching Ross work his way through all the possible nerdy white guy rap options in Game Changer Karaoke cemented for him that he needs to play one of the nerds.

Ruth Flemming: Izzy Roland

A part that requires the performer to be deranged and horny? Call Izzy Roland!

Solomon Lauter: Brennan Lee Mulligan

Any Dimension 20 (or Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited) fan knows, Brennan is amazing at playing callous, cruel and manipulative characters, so Solomon Lauter is right in his wheelhouse.

Wiggly: Josh Ruben

Josh is so good at voices and playing weird characters, I would love to see his take on Wiggly.

Blinky: Erika Ishii

Erika Ishii is absolutely unhinged, I had to cast them as one of the Lords in Black. They could honestly be any one of them, but I picked Blinky because the voice Lauren Lopez does reminds me of Erika.

Nibbly: Lisa Gilroy

This one is also just vibes, but the vibes are correct.

Tinky: Zac Oyama

I am the head of the Zac Oyama As Weird Little Guys fan club, and what is Tinky if not a weird little guy? (who is also a chaotic evil eldritch being)

Pokey: Mike Trapp

I mainly just went off the vibes of the "What do you want Steph?" line, I think Mike would do well.

Detective Shapiro/Female Reporter in Hatchet town: Rashawn Nadine Scott

This is the only one I'm casting two parts, because they're both relatively small (and also I fully forgot that Bryce was not playing Detective Shapiro in Hatchet town until I checked the Genius page lol). Anyway, I think Rashawn would do great at acting as Detective Shapiro, but the main motivation behind this choice is that I want to hear her sing Bryce's part in Hatchet town. She would murder it as hard as Max murders nerdy prudes.

Officer Bailey: Jacob Wysoki

You need someone to chew scenery and throw props? Call Jacob Wysoki, he'll eat it up and go back for seconds

Brenda and Stacy: Jujubee and Monet X Change

I want to see them do the Go Go Nighthawks cheer, I think it would be amazing.

Jason and Kyle: Zeke Nicholson and Ify Nwadiwe

They both seem like the kind of guys to give butt slaps (consensually of course).

Mark and Karen Chastity: Zach Reino and Jess McKenna

They both have Awkward White Parent energy, and I think they would be very funny in this part.

Miss Tessburger: Vic Michaelis

Watching them play Vic Michaelis in Very Important People makes me think they would be great as the haughty assistant.

Miss Mulberry: Katie Marovitch

Katie just has "That nice teacher who lets students eat lunch in her classroom" energy.

Dan Reynolds: Lou Wilson

You need an icon to play an icon.

Emma and Paul : Emily Axford and Brian "Murph" Murphy

Dropout's iconic married couple to play Hatchetfield's iconic couple.

Hard Cuts:

Ify Nwadiwe as Max Jagerman:

He would have slayed the acting, but I assume based on his speaking voice that he's a baritone on the lower end of the range. However, if I am wrong about this and he could sing the tenor part, please treat him and Grant as tied for the part in my eyes.

Ross Bryant as Solomon Lauter

Vic Michaelis as Detective Shapiro

Erika Ishii as Ruth Flemming

Tao Yang as Peter Spankoffski

Jess Ross as Karen Chastity

Jacob Wysoki as Max Jagerman

Wayne Brady as Dan Reynolds

Aabria Iyengar as one of the Lords in Black

Anna Garcia as Blinky

Brennan Lee Mulligan as Wiggly

Lisa Gilroy as Grace Chastity

Grant O'Brien as Solomon Lauter

[barbiegirldream]

I think the reason people sit around pretending like youtube and twitch aren’t alt right cess pools is because they can’t be convinced to give those platforms up so they need to pretend they're good platforms. Yeah Kick has Adin Ross but Youtube platforms Ben Shapiro who has actively caused mass shooting with his bigoted videos. Youtube literally made the alt right pipeline Kick come out of. Yes Kick has slurs and Twitch invented the concept of the hate raid. Or even twitter it's run by a lunatic who wants to kill all trans people and these hoiler than though stans give their money to that. So it's ethical consumerism but well off Americans and Europeans decide the ethics 🤷‍♀️

[the-ides-of-march]

Competitors under cut (all matches were randomized except the first one)

@techno-danger vs The Presimint (@hellsite-hungergames) (aka me)

Ea-Nasir vs. Capitalism

The Wizard of Oz vs. Ron DeSantis

Tucker Carlson vs. Pikaman

Donald Trump vs. Mr. Monopoly

Mark Zuckerberg vs. King Charles

Light Yagami vs. Someone's Father named Dick

Marcus Junius Brutus vs. Zeus

Alberto Fugimori vs. Egg

Ted Cruz vs. Dream

Elon Musk vs. Barney the Dinosaur

Shinzo Abe vs. The United States

Julius Caesar vs. Catiline

Mike Pence vs. Ben Shapiro

Lex Luthor vs. God

Augusto Pinochet vs. Dr. Evilglaze

Mitch McConnell vs. Joe Biden

Ross Geller vs. y/n

Kim Jong-un vs. Jeff Bezos

Klaus Schwab vs. The Koch Brothers

Greg Abbott vs. The U.S. Healthcare System

Joey Drew vs. George Washington

Andrew Tate vs. Someone's Tio David

Ronald Reagan vs. Joseph Stalin's Mustache

Gordon Ramsay vs. Thomas Jefferson

Lin-Manuel Miranda vs. Jair Bolsonaro

Vladimir Putin vs. J.K. Rowling

Agamemnon vs. Alexander Hamilton

Scott Morrison vs. Someone's Grandpa

President Snow vs. Bruce Wayne

Emperor Palpatine vs. Santa Claus

Margaret Thatcher vs. Perry the Platypus

[suenitos]

He comes out as gay on Sapnap's kick stream and Adin Ross appears and calls him a fag

and then andrew tate and ben shapiro come on stage and hate fuck while burning the pride flag

[misfitwashere]

Minutes after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, Dana White took the stage to thank the influencers who helped lead Trump to victory. “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” he said.

The acknowledgement crystallized an alliance between Trump and a vast network of online influencers. Joe Rogan*, Adin Ross, the Nelk Boys, and the myriad content creators who Trump collaborated with during his campaign played a key role in amplifying conservative messaging and helping him reach audiences that traditional right-wing outlets simply never could. You can read more about Trump's influencer strategy in an article I wrote for The Hollywood Reporter today. 

While the right has spent years fostering a symbiotic relationship with alternative media, the left has failed replicate anything like it. There are simply no progressive content creators with Rogan's cultural impact and online following, and a quick look at the podcast charts or trending channels on YouTube shows the disparity between conservative vs progressive creators' reach online.

Without a network of culturally relevant influential content creators boosting and translating their messaging, the Democratic Party is rapidly losing credibility among younger, predominantly male audiences who have become ardent supporters of influencers that promote a distinctly conservative worldview.

This imbalance when it comes to online influence is no accident. It is the result of massive structural disadvantages in funding, promotion, and institutional support. And understanding why Democrats can't (or really won't) cultivate an equivalent independent media ecosystem that rivals what the right has built is crucial for anyone who hopes to ever see the Democrats back into power. 

The conservative media landscape in the United States is exceptionally well-funded, meticulously constructed, and highly coordinated. Wealthy donors, PACs, and corporations with a vested interest in preserving or expanding conservative policies strategically invest in right-wing media channels and up and coming content creators.

This creates a well oiled pipeline for conservative influencers: young TikTokers, YouTubers, livestreamers, or podcasters are discovered, developed, and pushed to larger platforms, often with the financial backing of conservative billionaires or organizations on the right who have long recognized the content creator industry a valuable means of shaping public opinion and policy.

Organizations like Turning Point USA, PragerU, and The Daily Wire and others receive millions from backers who view them as advertising for a broader conservative agenda. These media entities act as content creator incubators and spend extensively on outreach, production quality, and audience growth. The resources and near unlimited funds they receive allow conservative content creators to grow rapidly and spread their message widely. 

For instance, Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire has been heavily funded by wealthy Republican donors, including the Wilks brothers, Texas-based billionaires known for their oil and fracking fortune. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, receives millions from conservative mega donors including the Koch network. Right wing content creators Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin were recently getting paid $400,00 a month, at least $100,000 per YouTube video, after accepting funding from a right wing Russian influence operation. Johnson even allegedly negotiated a $100,000 signing bonus.

Renee DiResta, a researcher and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, recently posted that, if you want to amass power online, pouring money into the influencer industry is essentially cheaper than buying bots or banner ads online. "Buying authentic influencers is a far better use of funds than creating fake personas, because they bring their own trusting audiences and are actually, you know, real," she posted on Threads. 

The conservative content creator ecosystem is also extremely collaborative. Over the past two decades, conservatives have built a flywheel of cross-pollination. Right-wing content creators frequently appear on each other's shows and lift up smaller YouTube channels, podcasters, and up-and-coming creators. This results in an extended network of voices that reaches a wide range of conservative leaning audiences. 

Conservative influencers are also able to rapidly gain credibility because influential Republican figures like Trump are willing to engage with them, appear on their podcasts, speak to them for their newsletters, or guest on their livestreams. 

As I wrote in September, when right wing creators began getting deplatformed more frequently on mainstream social media apps in the second half of the 2010s, an entire ecosystem of alternative platforms aimed at helping extremist influencers monetize and amass audiences, cropped up.

Rumble, a video sharing platform similar to YouTube backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, began paying far right influencers and anti vaxx content creators hundreds of thousands of dollars to create content on its platform in 2021. Locals, a newsletter platform owned by Rumble, allows influencers to monetize through newsletters in a similar way to Substack.

DLive, a right wing Twitch competitor, allowed influencers storming the Capitol building on January 6th, to make thousands of dollars off their live streams. Kick and Cozy.tv, two other right wing live streaming platforms, permit nearly any far right extremist the ability to create content and start earning money.

And X, under Musk, has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to right wing influencer accounts.

This mirror industry of social media platforms built specifically to amplify right wing voices inflate metrics in order to create the appearance of broader public support and user engagement. They leverage paid amplification and algorithmic tweaks to make it seem like the right wing creators on them command a much larger audience than they actually do. This perception of widespread support further amplifies conservative content creators, building a feedback loop that leftist creators, who lack similar resources, cannot match.Rumble, a YouTube competitor backed by Peter Thiel, is known for inflating metrics

There is simply zero equivalent to this massive infrastructure on the left. 

Leftist channels do not receive widespread financial backing from billionaires or large institutional donors, primarily because leftist content creators support policies that are completely at odds with what billionaires want.

Left leaning influencers argue for things like higher taxes on the rich, regulations on corporations, and policies that curb the power of elites. Wealthy mega donors aren't going to start pouring money into a media ecosystem that directly contradicts their own financial interests. And so, progressive creators are left to rely on meager crowdfunding efforts to make a living. 

Because they are not well funded, leftist creators also don't have money to pour into production teams or marketing for their independent media businesses. While Bari Weiss and other billionaire-backed right wing influencers who cosplay as independent media can hire large staffs and run national ad campaigns thanks to their robust funding, progressive influencers are forced to rely on organic growth on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, TikTok. Meanwhile, these platforms' distribution algorithms have been shown to reward conservative outrage and extremism. 

There is simply no way that progressive content creators can compete. So, they burn out, they quit, and this further constrains the left’s ability to build a powerful leftist influencer ecosystem that could even begin to rival conservative influencers' reach and power

All of these things could change significantly if the Democratic party had any interest in supporting the independent media ecosystem on the left, but leftist creators have been repeatedly shunned by the Democratic party establishment. 

Harris' campaign is a perfect example of this. Biden began alienating progressive content creators before Harris even became the candidate. When Harris did become the nominee she showed a repeated refusal to engage with any creators challenging her ideology or policies.

Mainstream Democrat loyalist centrist creators with very little cultural relevance were welcomed at events like the DNC and campaign rallies, invited to speak and collaborate with the campaign, while influencers who challenged the Harris campaign on issues like the war in Gaza, or spread more populist messaging were not granted access or similar opportunities. 

The closest thing to a "progressive Joe Rogan" in mainstream liberal media is probably the podcast Pod Save America. But the podcasters on that show operate with a clear allegiance to the Democratic Party establishment. They don't speak to the youth or the disaffected masses who are fed up with the entire system. 

"Republican independent media is directly linked to the party in ways that the Democrats cannot recreate among the independent ecosystem because they're ideologically opposed to Bernie style populist sentiment the base wants to hear," leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker tweeted yesterday. 

The end result of all of this is an influencer landscape that's heavily biased towards right wing creators. We have created a system where right-wing influencers can thrive and scale rapidly and leftist content creators remain marginalized, struggling to gain traction and funding without selling out and becoming right wing grifters (which is just objectively SO much more profitable!).

Ultimately, there will never be a "Joe Rogan of the left" or "Nelk boys of the left" because there is no funding or institutional Democratic support to even begin to form such a network. There appears to be zero appetite from the Democratic party establishment to embrace left-leaning populist messaging and policies. 

"This is not a cultural war that you can win just by doing fucking podcasts," Piker reiterated on his Twitch stream. "You have to still have a solid defense mechanism at the top, that aligns with the interests of people like myself. If the Democratic party is running around being like, ‘everything is fine actually, just vote for us, we've got to defend the institutions,’ while everyone is like, ‘I don't give a fuck about the institutions’… You can't reach them."

[inspectorseb]

Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro go fuck yourselves

[bubblegumvolcano]

who i write for!

˗ˏˋharry potter ´ˎ˗

・❥・harry potter

・❥・hermione granger

・❥・fred weasley

・❥・george weasley

・❥・neville longbottom

・❥・young! remus

・❥・young! sirius

˗ˏˋgilmore girls ´ˎ˗

・❥・rory gilmore

・❥・jess mariano

・❥・dean forester

・❥・lorelai gilmore

・❥・luke danes

˗ˏˋmbav´ˎ˗

・❥・rory keaner

・❥・ethan morgan

・❥・sarah fox

・❥・benny weir

・❥・erica jones

˗ˏˋvictorious ´ˎ˗

・❥・jade west

・❥・cat valentine

・❥・tori vega

・❥・robbie shapiro

˗ˏˋfriends ´ˎ˗

・❥・rachel green

・❥・ross geller

・❥・monica geller

・❥・chandler bing

・❥・joey tribbiani

・❥・phoebe buffay

˗ˏˋmisc ´ˎ˗

・❥・rodrick heffley

・❥・any peter parker

・❥・tangerine (bullet train)

[hentired]

I know I talk about this a lot but I work in news, media and online spaces so obviously its a topic that comes up for me often, but i fucking can't stand the "you can't say anything anymore these days" or "everything is woke nowadays" so goddamn much, because it's literally the golden age for right wing extremism online and these people don't fucking realize it.

You can go online and listen to fuckheads like Tim Pool, Adin Ross, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder or Andrew Tate be transphobic, homophobic and racist for hours. Even non-media figures like JK Rowling or Elon Musk wil happily weigh in with their views.

"Wehhh you can't say anything anymore without snowflakes getting mad" well. I can't scroll twitter for more than 5 seconds without seeing someone advocate for systematic erasure of trans people. You tell me if you truly "cant say anything" cause it seems to me like people might in fact, have too much to say these days.