‘We Have No Shared Reality’: Two Political Influencers on the Future of Politics Online
“It’s a very chronically online administration,” he said. “With how short people’s attention spans are, you have to make [things] interesting.” Not all of the White House’s efforts have been received smoothly on the right: Pearson believes the administration’s decision to distribute portions of the Epstein files to 15 right-wing creators last year was “a misstep.”
For Abughazaleh, a former Media Matters reporter, the administration’s embrace of the internet signals something far more nefarious. Abughazaleh brought up the Department of Education’s recent use of the “Malfoid” meme—a gender-bent Harry Potter fascist figurehead—which, she said, was being promoted for a too-online audience of “incels.” And the White House’s embrace of “AI slop and brutality,” seen in ads about ICE actions, was turning “cruelty into content” rather than informing people, she says.
“They’re trying to ruin your attention span,” she said.
Abughazaleh and Pearson are pretty far apart on the political...
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