I don’t know. I think a much more plausible interpretation of the 2024 election is that Joe Biden was wildly unpopular, Harris couldn’t decouple herself from the affiliation and there was a trend of western democracies voting out incumbent parties over inflation. I know a lot of people, a majority of whom aren’t on X.
While this isn’t ‘wrong’ I do think the bigger issue Dems face is complete ideological inflexibility - unless my facts are wrong every Democratic senator just voted against a measure 80% of Americans agree with.
And even then - the message could be ‘we see how parents and athletes on both sides have valid arguments, which is why we encourage districts and school systems to develop their own policies versus heavy-handed federal mandates.’
Which gets to the other big problem the Dems face - no one in the party is willing to suggest that maybe issues should be decided at the state and local level. It’s a federal decree or nothing.
I first noticed this around death penalty reform - trying to make it ‘unconstitutional.’ As someone adamantly opposed to the death penalty - I always felt a state by state approach is more likely to be successful than making flimsy constitutional arguments. But my opinion doesn’t matter because that’s not how the DNC and its adherents think.
Collectivism is the 2017 Cleveland Browns of ideologies: just an unblemished track record of near perfect failure. It won’t work in America because we’re imbued with an appreciation for personal agency at a young age and that inoculates us, and thank god for that.
The funny thing is I was talking to a longtime Dem politician yesterday and even they don't fucking believe it. But they just don't feel like they can cross "the groups" on shit like this. They live in fear of activists.
I think this overstates the case. Democrats have no problem getting their message out, it’s just that the message is not popular enough. I think it’s fair to say that a sizable portion of people voted against Democrats, and not for Republicans. A lot of Democrat voters sat out the election. And a not small part of Democratic voters very grudgingly voted for Democrats.
Twitter itself was a good tool for “progressives” to bully, coerce, and control liberal institutions. But there was always diminishing returns there.
The parties three planks recently seem to be racism against whites, open borders, and transgender activism. It is literally the core of most of their message and legislative program.
About the only popular issue they have is abortion rights.
Both parties desperately need their own William F. Buckley, who is a consistent intellectual who exists to keep from idiots on the fringes from running things.
Republicans are lost on that front for right now since Trump's second term just started and, barring some huge disaster, that won't wane until he's well gone.
Democrats seemingly have the much better hand in this respect, but they're in full denial that they lost in November not because people were brainwashed into liking Trump, but because people just really hate them and so voted for Trump instead. As such, they're completely incapable, as evidenced by their behavior last night, to just be normal for five goddamn minutes and let Trump and co. self-destruct.
Same. I've never voted D or R, because i hate them both, but I'd vote for a reasonable D (Polis or Shapiro, for example) because i hate what the Rs have become with their cult of personality.
Holy moly I’ve only actually voted once and can’t even remember if I picked McCain or Obama. Nice to know I’ve got a doppelgänger among the electorate.
my guy, Dems have held the presidency 12 of the last 16 years. I know you feel confident Rs will never lose another election, and this is now an ultramaga country, but that's more on you living in a bubble than anything else.
Come on, that was funny take. And if Giannis was a three point threat he'd get on NBA mt Rushmore. Also, you know Dems have also held the presidency for 12 of the last 24 years too. And 4 of the Last 8. Fun with stats aside, I agree with your sentiment about thin margins, Rs could get swept out over something as small as inflated egg prices. It's not ultramaga country. But clearly it's shifted from the halcyon days of getting cancelled for being against arson. The thing Ds really need to think about is that the Demographics is Destiny turned out to be at least overstated if not incorrect.
Is this article satire or is Ethan being serious? If he actually believe that Twitter is that important, I'd have a hard time taking seriously anything he says about politics seriously. The Democrats problems have nothing to do with Elon owning Twitter; their problem was spending far too much time worrying about what leftist activists on Twitter were saying rather than what traditional Democratic voters were thinking.
These are basically exactly my thoughts about this episode. Pretty weak sauce from Ethan if meant seriously and mostly just an indication of his own social media addicted social circle.
Pre-Elon Twitter was a get you fired machine. Like Boogie Cousins got the Kings announcer fired while he was no longer a King or a star. I'm not commenting on the political stuff, but I don't perceive a power imbalance on X anymore. I see an equal amount of pro Israel/Palestine tweets, for example. Five years ago, everyone knew the rules. Don't follow certain people or like any problematic tweets because someone will eventually search your profile looking for anything to smear you with.
What is interesting is currently the old canceling instinct is alive and well with the same political liberals calling for NBA media to toe the line or be deplatformed. Redick and company are still pushing the Big Lie that "the game and players are better than ever it's just the messaging is bad we should silence Charles Barkley and everything will be great". Nick Wright came on the show to depose Ethan on perceived disingenuous Aaron Rodgers comments like two years ago and we all remember the tone of all that.
"You've been accused of communist sympathies but I like you so I'll allow you to set the record straight because I'd hate for you to get mixed up with someone committing thoughtcrime"
The old Twitter is dead. Kyrie doesn't get suspended in 2025 for a retweet. My guess is the left will rebound in their messaging once they get used to playing All-Madden after years of running up the score on Rookie. Trump will certainly give everyone plenty of material
There are obviously many factors. I think one that is under played is that a candidate for president was 3 inches away from being assassinated.
And he handled it like a champ. And the media very obviously couldn't wait to get it out of the news cycle. And the media very much did not explore whether this nearly successful attempt to kill a presidential candidate was driven by "heated rhetoric" etc. It's not 100% memory holed, but they made every possible effort to do it.
I don't think lots of people consciously decided that they were going to vote on that. But I do think it was a major underlying factor, particularly for males.
The problem is Democrats keep accusing Trump of breaking norms--but then act like they did at the State of the Union. That cannot become the new normal for SOUs
“Perhaps in reaction to the Awokening shift, Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022…..” Musk has stated in no uncertain terms that is exactly why he purchased it. As always, I like your evenhanded and provocative approach to various issues of the day. The only critique I offer to this piece, it seems to imply that the left or center left had a forum under Jack Dorsey’s management of X and that now it has, through a change in ownership, become the right/center rights platform. I’d argue that X transitioned from a censorship platform to a truly free speech platform. The current X doesn’t cancel and deplatform nearly to the degree, if at all, to the pre Elon era. What I see as current complaint/frustration from the left-center left is that messy, loud, sometime obnoxious, first amendment free speech has entered into the marketplace of ideas. If the left’s ideas were popular and defensible they would win in the marketplace of ideas. Thats how it is supposed to work.
Seems like Ethan is making the same mistake that he pointed out others was making for last several years, thinking the world revolves around Twitter (and what’s the trendy thing on it) no matter it’s iteration.
the vibes are 100% starting to shift back. every day you see stories about apolitical Trump voters saying "this is totally not what I voted for". But the thing is, none of it really matters at least until the midterms. So all it is is clickbait, which is why there was such a correct assessment that the media prefers trump wins, for financial reasons.
I think Twitter was a bad idea, period. It doesn't matter which side holds the whip hand. Like you said, it's the world's most powerful mimesis machine. We'd be better off without it.
“I’d say this isn’t a productive way for an opposition party to behave, but I also see the behavior as mostly symptomatic of the unenviable position the Democrats are in”
I think that reverses the causality. It’s a response to being in the position they’re in; but they’re only in that position because they’ve lost the ability to separate Twitter from real life. The performative screeching that gets clout and crumbs of online support in the form of engagement just irritates normal people (the 98% or so of the country that isn’t a regular active Twitter user).
But they don’t know that. Their lives are extremely online and they think what matters in the app will play well outside it. If they don’t learn soon they’re just going to continue to lose elections and support until they go the way of the Whigs or Vancouver Grizzlies.
We just had a never ending presidential campaign that we think is too long as it is! Why do people think Dems are so eager to start the next one now, when even the midterms are a long ways away? I get that Rs are at the start of a 4 year victory lap circle jerk, that part makes sense. But the idea that instead of pacing themselves, Dems should be ranting and raving non stop when they're completely out of power, because that's what voters will think is doing something? I don't buy it, regardless of who runs twitter. It's entirely pointless. And big shocker, Dems mostly didn't watch the Trump speech yesterday! So of course the majority R viewers found it delightful and life changing and brilliant. But this all has nothing to do with 2028 or even 2026. How is this so hard for people to grasp?? The best part of Biden winning 4 years ago is Dems and non-Rs could move on with their lives after the election and not think about politics every day. Tell me you don't miss that! We didn't have to worry about Biden crashing the economy with a 5 am "truth" post, or declaring war on Narnia. This is how it is under Trump, I get it, but we don't all have to play that game. The next election will come soon enough, but worrying about it today, when completely out of power, is dumb. I agree the auction signs last night were beyond lame by the way. Dems are searching for new messaging. But 2 months in, trying to make sweeping conclusions about Trump's second term and how long Dem's will be out of power (apparently forever!) seems not very smart.
I do agree with one poster on how people are acutely sensitive to inflation. I read something somewhere indicating how inflation has made everyone's day to day lives 15-20% more expensive. Even rich people don't like that *ish.
It's interesting to see how Twitter drives conversation. I personally considered deactivating my twitter all together, but do find it to be incredibly useful in getting updates on basketball news and culture, and just know I have another resource to check things out.
I am definitely not bullish on Trump at all! But, I'm not sure if I'm as bearish as other people who share a similar ideology with me. America has been unraveling for some time now. Yet, maybe that isn't as true as I think it is, either. (Wait now I feel like I'm channeling Chuck Klosterman).
We just don't seem to follow the same media as each other anymore. Even HoS with its loyal subscription base punching above its weight, is a super niche market being cornered.
Twitter, despite its footprint not being as large as the TV Show "Mash" way back in the day...has a pretty large footprint on digital, print and video media actually. You could almost say everyone having their own media entity has kinda made all the "former giants" into dwarfs. And Twitter, despite its somewhat diminutive stature, is kind of the biggest dwarf in the social media space.
So, while I agree with the poster that "Inflation" really drove out all incumbent politicians world-wide, I do think that Ethan has his finger at the very least close to the pulse of what's driving culture, and in turn politics.
Was it you Ethan that said culture drives media, and media drives politics? (Is that even the correct order?)
I don’t know. I think a much more plausible interpretation of the 2024 election is that Joe Biden was wildly unpopular, Harris couldn’t decouple herself from the affiliation and there was a trend of western democracies voting out incumbent parties over inflation. I know a lot of people, a majority of whom aren’t on X.
What incredible insight - Thank you Jack! Off the top of your head how many people do you know on Twitter?
lol did I hurt your feelings?
While this isn’t ‘wrong’ I do think the bigger issue Dems face is complete ideological inflexibility - unless my facts are wrong every Democratic senator just voted against a measure 80% of Americans agree with.
And even then - the message could be ‘we see how parents and athletes on both sides have valid arguments, which is why we encourage districts and school systems to develop their own policies versus heavy-handed federal mandates.’
Which gets to the other big problem the Dems face - no one in the party is willing to suggest that maybe issues should be decided at the state and local level. It’s a federal decree or nothing.
I first noticed this around death penalty reform - trying to make it ‘unconstitutional.’ As someone adamantly opposed to the death penalty - I always felt a state by state approach is more likely to be successful than making flimsy constitutional arguments. But my opinion doesn’t matter because that’s not how the DNC and its adherents think.
Collectivism is always going to struggle in America. Moreso the more inflexible.
Collectivism is the 2017 Cleveland Browns of ideologies: just an unblemished track record of near perfect failure. It won’t work in America because we’re imbued with an appreciation for personal agency at a young age and that inoculates us, and thank god for that.
The funny thing is I was talking to a longtime Dem politician yesterday and even they don't fucking believe it. But they just don't feel like they can cross "the groups" on shit like this. They live in fear of activists.
I think this overstates the case. Democrats have no problem getting their message out, it’s just that the message is not popular enough. I think it’s fair to say that a sizable portion of people voted against Democrats, and not for Republicans. A lot of Democrat voters sat out the election. And a not small part of Democratic voters very grudgingly voted for Democrats.
Twitter itself was a good tool for “progressives” to bully, coerce, and control liberal institutions. But there was always diminishing returns there.
To me the dems are in a place similar to republicans in 2014. There’s no obvious party leader.
There's no leader. There's no message. There's no ideas.
Anyone following Euro politics has discovered corporate EU and USA media repeat the same news every day: Trump bad
Oh there are ideas, just bad ones.
The parties three planks recently seem to be racism against whites, open borders, and transgender activism. It is literally the core of most of their message and legislative program.
About the only popular issue they have is abortion rights.
Not a winning message.
I don’t understand how the first part of your comment relates to the second part about EU politics?
Both parties desperately need their own William F. Buckley, who is a consistent intellectual who exists to keep from idiots on the fringes from running things.
Republicans are lost on that front for right now since Trump's second term just started and, barring some huge disaster, that won't wane until he's well gone.
Democrats seemingly have the much better hand in this respect, but they're in full denial that they lost in November not because people were brainwashed into liking Trump, but because people just really hate them and so voted for Trump instead. As such, they're completely incapable, as evidenced by their behavior last night, to just be normal for five goddamn minutes and let Trump and co. self-destruct.
‘Just be normal for five goddamn minutes’ and the DNC could make me a voter out of me
Same. I've never voted D or R, because i hate them both, but I'd vote for a reasonable D (Polis or Shapiro, for example) because i hate what the Rs have become with their cult of personality.
Holy moly I’ve only actually voted once and can’t even remember if I picked McCain or Obama. Nice to know I’ve got a doppelgänger among the electorate.
Sounds a lot like "When Giannis gets his 3 point shot"
my guy, Dems have held the presidency 12 of the last 16 years. I know you feel confident Rs will never lose another election, and this is now an ultramaga country, but that's more on you living in a bubble than anything else.
Come on, that was funny take. And if Giannis was a three point threat he'd get on NBA mt Rushmore. Also, you know Dems have also held the presidency for 12 of the last 24 years too. And 4 of the Last 8. Fun with stats aside, I agree with your sentiment about thin margins, Rs could get swept out over something as small as inflated egg prices. It's not ultramaga country. But clearly it's shifted from the halcyon days of getting cancelled for being against arson. The thing Ds really need to think about is that the Demographics is Destiny turned out to be at least overstated if not incorrect.
Is this article satire or is Ethan being serious? If he actually believe that Twitter is that important, I'd have a hard time taking seriously anything he says about politics seriously. The Democrats problems have nothing to do with Elon owning Twitter; their problem was spending far too much time worrying about what leftist activists on Twitter were saying rather than what traditional Democratic voters were thinking.
These are basically exactly my thoughts about this episode. Pretty weak sauce from Ethan if meant seriously and mostly just an indication of his own social media addicted social circle.
why so serious?
Pre-Elon Twitter was a get you fired machine. Like Boogie Cousins got the Kings announcer fired while he was no longer a King or a star. I'm not commenting on the political stuff, but I don't perceive a power imbalance on X anymore. I see an equal amount of pro Israel/Palestine tweets, for example. Five years ago, everyone knew the rules. Don't follow certain people or like any problematic tweets because someone will eventually search your profile looking for anything to smear you with.
What is interesting is currently the old canceling instinct is alive and well with the same political liberals calling for NBA media to toe the line or be deplatformed. Redick and company are still pushing the Big Lie that "the game and players are better than ever it's just the messaging is bad we should silence Charles Barkley and everything will be great". Nick Wright came on the show to depose Ethan on perceived disingenuous Aaron Rodgers comments like two years ago and we all remember the tone of all that.
"You've been accused of communist sympathies but I like you so I'll allow you to set the record straight because I'd hate for you to get mixed up with someone committing thoughtcrime"
The old Twitter is dead. Kyrie doesn't get suspended in 2025 for a retweet. My guess is the left will rebound in their messaging once they get used to playing All-Madden after years of running up the score on Rookie. Trump will certainly give everyone plenty of material
There are obviously many factors. I think one that is under played is that a candidate for president was 3 inches away from being assassinated.
And he handled it like a champ. And the media very obviously couldn't wait to get it out of the news cycle. And the media very much did not explore whether this nearly successful attempt to kill a presidential candidate was driven by "heated rhetoric" etc. It's not 100% memory holed, but they made every possible effort to do it.
I don't think lots of people consciously decided that they were going to vote on that. But I do think it was a major underlying factor, particularly for males.
The problem is Democrats keep accusing Trump of breaking norms--but then act like they did at the State of the Union. That cannot become the new normal for SOUs
“Perhaps in reaction to the Awokening shift, Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022…..” Musk has stated in no uncertain terms that is exactly why he purchased it. As always, I like your evenhanded and provocative approach to various issues of the day. The only critique I offer to this piece, it seems to imply that the left or center left had a forum under Jack Dorsey’s management of X and that now it has, through a change in ownership, become the right/center rights platform. I’d argue that X transitioned from a censorship platform to a truly free speech platform. The current X doesn’t cancel and deplatform nearly to the degree, if at all, to the pre Elon era. What I see as current complaint/frustration from the left-center left is that messy, loud, sometime obnoxious, first amendment free speech has entered into the marketplace of ideas. If the left’s ideas were popular and defensible they would win in the marketplace of ideas. Thats how it is supposed to work.
But but but...if we just let people say what they think I might need to confront that my ideas are bad?!?
Seems like Ethan is making the same mistake that he pointed out others was making for last several years, thinking the world revolves around Twitter (and what’s the trendy thing on it) no matter it’s iteration.
Dems have plenty of media available to spread a message: they just don’t have a message to spread.
Trump's net approval rating has already dropped from +8.2% to -0.3% in just over a month.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/
The GOP's budget plans in the House are an absolute mess, the tariff stuff is really unpopular, and there's growing blowback against DOGE.
Kalshi now gives Dems a 73% chance of retaking the House in 2026.
I think you are so obsessed with the Vibe Shift of late 2024 that you are missing that the Vibes are already starting to shift back.
Normies are not excited about what they've seen from Trump World so far, on X or otherwise.
Where are the grade scores KP?
Try some of your own thoughts, dude. Oft-repeated left-wing perspectives aren't that interesting.
I don't really understand any of your comments and an all-caps username usually means something is wrong with the commentor.
My apologies for not noticing or caring about my name. I can see how this projects an extreme sense of vanity and ego.
Provide a Wigan-approved name for me to replace my wrongness. No one wants the HOS to be less wrong than me :)
PS KP = Kevin Pelton
the vibes are 100% starting to shift back. every day you see stories about apolitical Trump voters saying "this is totally not what I voted for". But the thing is, none of it really matters at least until the midterms. So all it is is clickbait, which is why there was such a correct assessment that the media prefers trump wins, for financial reasons.
I think Twitter was a bad idea, period. It doesn't matter which side holds the whip hand. Like you said, it's the world's most powerful mimesis machine. We'd be better off without it.
“I’d say this isn’t a productive way for an opposition party to behave, but I also see the behavior as mostly symptomatic of the unenviable position the Democrats are in”
I think that reverses the causality. It’s a response to being in the position they’re in; but they’re only in that position because they’ve lost the ability to separate Twitter from real life. The performative screeching that gets clout and crumbs of online support in the form of engagement just irritates normal people (the 98% or so of the country that isn’t a regular active Twitter user).
But they don’t know that. Their lives are extremely online and they think what matters in the app will play well outside it. If they don’t learn soon they’re just going to continue to lose elections and support until they go the way of the Whigs or Vancouver Grizzlies.
We just had a never ending presidential campaign that we think is too long as it is! Why do people think Dems are so eager to start the next one now, when even the midterms are a long ways away? I get that Rs are at the start of a 4 year victory lap circle jerk, that part makes sense. But the idea that instead of pacing themselves, Dems should be ranting and raving non stop when they're completely out of power, because that's what voters will think is doing something? I don't buy it, regardless of who runs twitter. It's entirely pointless. And big shocker, Dems mostly didn't watch the Trump speech yesterday! So of course the majority R viewers found it delightful and life changing and brilliant. But this all has nothing to do with 2028 or even 2026. How is this so hard for people to grasp?? The best part of Biden winning 4 years ago is Dems and non-Rs could move on with their lives after the election and not think about politics every day. Tell me you don't miss that! We didn't have to worry about Biden crashing the economy with a 5 am "truth" post, or declaring war on Narnia. This is how it is under Trump, I get it, but we don't all have to play that game. The next election will come soon enough, but worrying about it today, when completely out of power, is dumb. I agree the auction signs last night were beyond lame by the way. Dems are searching for new messaging. But 2 months in, trying to make sweeping conclusions about Trump's second term and how long Dem's will be out of power (apparently forever!) seems not very smart.
I do agree with one poster on how people are acutely sensitive to inflation. I read something somewhere indicating how inflation has made everyone's day to day lives 15-20% more expensive. Even rich people don't like that *ish.
It's interesting to see how Twitter drives conversation. I personally considered deactivating my twitter all together, but do find it to be incredibly useful in getting updates on basketball news and culture, and just know I have another resource to check things out.
I am definitely not bullish on Trump at all! But, I'm not sure if I'm as bearish as other people who share a similar ideology with me. America has been unraveling for some time now. Yet, maybe that isn't as true as I think it is, either. (Wait now I feel like I'm channeling Chuck Klosterman).
We just don't seem to follow the same media as each other anymore. Even HoS with its loyal subscription base punching above its weight, is a super niche market being cornered.
Twitter, despite its footprint not being as large as the TV Show "Mash" way back in the day...has a pretty large footprint on digital, print and video media actually. You could almost say everyone having their own media entity has kinda made all the "former giants" into dwarfs. And Twitter, despite its somewhat diminutive stature, is kind of the biggest dwarf in the social media space.
So, while I agree with the poster that "Inflation" really drove out all incumbent politicians world-wide, I do think that Ethan has his finger at the very least close to the pulse of what's driving culture, and in turn politics.
Was it you Ethan that said culture drives media, and media drives politics? (Is that even the correct order?)