There are things in the prior media atmosphere, especially from 2016-2024, that are incredibly unfavorable to “the left” and “the establishment.”
Largest Problems
Left-Wing Media is not Unified Around Party nor Candidates
Mainstream media will be incredibly critical of the Democratic party when the Democratic party makes mistakes. Alternative media isn’t even guaranteed to support the candidate, and sometimes will be some of the harshest critics of the candidate.
Examples of the Problem
- The Biden debate performance was terrible, and almost every single mainstream and alternative media outlet was calling for Biden to step down after the debate.
- Biden being asked to apologize for the “bullseye” comment after Trump was shot at, and other forms of finger-wagging around “extreme” rhetoric on the left after Trump’s assassination attempt.
- Almost all of the alternative media seemed either to either reluctantly endorse Biden/Kamala or refused to do so altogether.
- The Washington Post was prevented by Jeff Besos from endorsing Kamala Harris, even.
How the Right Deals with this Problem
- Every single mainstream and alternative media outlet that is captured by “the right” and their audience is basically always on board with the exact same talking points, never really acknowledges when Trump makes a significant mistake, and will always support Trump as a candidate regardless of the environment or any actions that he takes.
Examples of their Solutions
- Nonsense slogans that are almost ubiquitously repeated by the right, even though they are completely and obviously devoid of fact.
- “No New Wars” despite conflict raging across Ukraine and the Middle East.
- “Biden has prevented us from drilling for oil” or some other statement alluding to us failing to export energy
- “You were better off four years ago” even though we were living under lockdowns
- “The Big Lie” despite there being zero evidence for election fraud/rigging.
- “They want an Open Border” despite them trying to pass legislation to alleviate some of the issues.
- “Russiagate” despite people in Trump’s administration literally working with Russians to coordinate media leaks.
- “Biden Crime Family” despite never being able to prove anything malevolent concerning Hunter and his business dealings.
- “Peaceful transition of power” despite violence delaying the certification of the vote.
- The Right is incredibly effective at bullying individuals who might veer away from supporting Trump into either being silent or supporting Trump.
- Kyle Rittenhouse, when he said he wanted to write in a Libertarian because of his concern over the second amendment
- Joe Rogan, when he seemed to speak favorably of RFK as a candidate
How to fix the problem
I don’t think we should adopt the same cult mentality that MAGA has, for a variety of reasons I don’t want to expand on here. However, it is important that every person who is on “the left” and tries to work with other people on “the left” and with institutions on “the left” all stress how important it is to support the party/candidate. There cannot be so much party infighting or media backstabbing of the candidates nor the party, at least when election seasons are at hand.
Examples of our Potential Solutions
- The DNC should no longer work with alternative media that does not support the party/candidates
- Members of the “the left” media sphere should stop giving so much credibility or pretending to be on the same side as people on the far left who are unwilling to support the party or the candidate.
- If you are on the left, criticisms of the left should come clearly paired with the idea that, while you can be critical of the left, our party offers a superior choice to the alternative.
Left-Wing People aren’t Fun
On a very basic “vibe check,” if I tune into any right-wing coded media, I’m probably going to feel like everyone is having a good time in a welcoming way in which I can also have a laugh, that’s not purely a laugh that is at the expense of some majority power group. It seems harder to make edgy jokes or laugh about a multitude of topics in left-leaning media environments.
I don’t think this happens because the left is particularly bad about “in-group” jokes verses the right, I think it’s just that the left’s “in-group” is much larger, meaning there are fewer “acceptable jokes” to tell, whereas the right’s “in-group” is much smaller, leaving a wide variety of jokes that you can tell about “out-group” individuals.
Examples of the Problem
- The left will obsessively cancel over things that are clearly “jokes” done in ways that aren’t even necessarily meant to offend or attack minority groups. Essentially, it starts to feel like the only people you can make fun on the left are people you have to “punch up” against, e.g. white people, men, wealthy people, Americans, etc…
- James Gunn being cancelled for 10+ year old tweets and forced to sit aside from GoG 2.
- Al Franken being forced to step down as a Senator after old pictures came out related to comedy sketches.
- Shane Gillis losing his SNL spot when there was probably a better road to redemption/way to address prior jokes.
- There are dozens/hundreds of examples of people on “the left” being cancelled for things they’d done a long time ago or for jokes that were probably in poor taste, but not worth losing jobs or positions over.
How the Right Deals with this Problem
As long as you’re not telling crazy jokes that put Trump in a bad light, you’re generally free to hit on as many other groups as you want. There are far fewer “rules” to remember when joking in right-wing environments.
Examples of their Solutions
- The right relentlessly targeted Alec Baldwin because of how upset they were over his Trump impersonations.
- The right generally (social media vibes) thinks it’s funny when “independent satirists” satirize or make fun of the left, but get incredibly upset when they satirize the right (I’ve personally seen this happen with Stonetoss and the Babylon Bee).
How to fix the problem
There needs to be an extreme loosening of what we consider to be “racist” or “sexist,” with a far bigger focus on labeling and analyzing content as “potentially problematic” vs outright calling people racist/sexist/etc…
Examples of our Potential Solutions
- People should be allowed to make edgy jokes (including racist, misogynistic, classist, etc…) if they have a good track record of not being a horrible person.
- People should be able to engage in critical analysis of humor and explain why something might be problematic without saying the entire person should be cancelled forever.
Setting the Media Agenda
Even on platforms where there are no right-wing voices, it feels like the conversations that we have publicly are almost entirely controlled by right-wing talking points, e.g. we are either fighting against something the right is doing, or responding to a right-wing attack.
Examples of the Problem
- “Caravans” at the border.
- Every wild conspiracy, e.g. satellites shooting lasers in Hawaii, FEMA stealing homes with corrupt loans, hurricane machines, “eating the cats and the dogs.”
- Issues that are marginal on the left end up being amplified by the right, which causes the left to pay an inordinate amount of time discussing them, e.g. trans issues, DEI, CRT
- “Trump Derangement Syndrome” means the left abandoned a lot of legitimate talking points, e.g. “Russiagate”
- The left feels like it is always on the defense and left trying to explain or rationalize itself.
How the Right Deals with this Problem
The right has an entire media apparatus that its candidates can make appearances on that have zero accountability for any of the accusations made against them. e.g. Trump would NEVER be seriously challenged on ANY of the main-stream or alternative media right-wing podcasts, and when he is being challenged, he often just talks through it and ignores any criticism and pushes forward.
Examples of their Solutions
- Joe Rogan, Tim Pool, basically any/all podcast/media platforms where right-wing candidates regularly make appearances
How to fix the problem
The left needs to do a better job of moving on from deranged talking points that the right tries to project onto the left, and focus on faults of the right. Left-wing media also desperately needs to hold right-wing people accountable when they act insane, instead of trying to “both sides” every single issue/person.
Examples of our Potential Solutions
- Self-evident
There is no Adherence to a Factual Reality
At the end of the day, many claims are made about things or conditions in the United States that the average person can never really verify as being true or untrue. As a result, people can make whatever claims they want to further whatever agenda they want without requiring any of those claims to be true or verified. Oftentimes these claims can be in direct contradiction to other claims as well, even if both are false.
Examples of the Problem
- January 6th was just a peaceful protest/riot, but it was also a violent event that was caused by federal agents.
- Russian collusion was entirely meritless.
- “Eating the cats and the dogs”
- The hurricane machines
- Almost every claim about illegal immigration
- Anything related qanon
- Vaccine injury misinformation, especially due to mRNA tech, but then not distinguishing the mRNA vaccines from the other vaccines
- “The Biden crime family”
- Anything related to George Soros
- The Twitter Files
- Michelle Obama/Brigitte Macron being a man
- Ivermectin/HCQ myths
- Hawaii space lasers
How the Right Deals with this Problem
The right is never held accountable unless these problems become so significant that the electorate cannot ignore them. The right’s media apparatus will never force them to answer any questions relating to any of these issues, and will instead deflect and pivot to other attacks.
Examples of their Solutions
- Fox v. Dominion, with Fox News blatantly lying to the American Public
- Senate Republicans refusing to convict Trump for Jan 6th
- Judge Thomas writing an excuse for Cannon to dismiss Trump’s Mar-a-lago case
- The media publicizing bullshit documentaries/reports on vaccines/voter misinformation, e.g. “Died Suddenly” or “2000 Mules”
- Republican House committees incessantly going after people like Hunter Biden, or special counsels going after people like Joe Biden (Garland) or Bill Clinton (Starr), or dead-end investigations that Republicans still get credit for “winning” even though nothing came of them, e.g. Hillary’s emails and Benghazi
How to fix the problem
Somehow Democrats need to tether Republican policy decisions to things that happen in the world
Examples of our Potential Solutions
- Conservatives often sunset legislation or push out expiration dates on things outside of their administration so they can blame the next administration when things go wrong, e.g. the Afghanistan pull-out, or a lot of the tax provisions that Trump made (i.e. people having to pay back their suspended FICA income as part of his tax cuts)
- Perhaps things like FEMA or other federal financial aid should only be taxed from and given to people who vote to support it?
- Having “paid for by x legislation” required to be attached to projects that are paid for by legislation from a particular congress.
Facts Never Reduce to Real World Things
- Facts do not reduce to any real-world thing.
- In the current media environment, anyone can basically say anything and there is no way that anyone can really fact-check outside whether a thing is true or not, instead they have to rely on wherever they get their media from, e.g. how many illegals actually crossed the border?
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Lack of Accountability
- No accountability for the right.
- The right will crucify the left on singular statements (e.g. Fauci saying something about masks) but will totally vindicate their side by singular statements (e.g. Trump said to “march peacefully”)
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
No Overall Narrative
- Lack of cohesive narratives.
- The right seems to have a cohesive narrative for the direction they point themselves in, the left is endlessly getting lost defending micro-issues without having a strong macro-narrative for the things they support.
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Trying Not To Appear Biased
- The obsession with being “fair”
- Only the liberal/left media has tried desperately to remain “fair” in their coverage, the right does not seem to care about any such pretense.
- “Both-sidesing”, “sane-washing”
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Too Much Buy-In Needed
- Left Poltiical Buy-in
- There’s too much shit to learn to be accepted.
- The left doesn’t accept people who’ve abandoned the right
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
“Double Haters”
“Double Hater” phenomenon
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Cultural Participation
- “Building” political figures vs cultural figures becoming more political
- our “culture” isn’t associated at all with the party
- pop culture/hollywood zero support of democrats
- our “culture” isn’t associated at all with the party
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Narrative/Problem control
- Creating narratives, having them disproven, then pointing to how people are upset about the narrative you falsely created.
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
In-Group Out-Group Identification
In-group, out-group identification
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
Problem
Examples of the Problem
How the Right Deals with this Problem
Examples of their Solutions
How to fix the problem
Examples of our Potential Solutions
- Literally anything that Trump has said/done, relating to infidelity, lack of religious character, insults/comments made towards almost anyone, disrespect of veterans, etc…etc…
- The relentless defense of Andrew Tate
- Ignoring almost anything to do with conservative figures being photographed with Epstein
- Anything having to do with accusations related to basically any conservative figure, e.g. Matt Gaetz or Russel Brand
- Mark Robinson and all of his leaked stuff, Roy Moore in Alabama, Boebert’s theater handjob
Collapse things into each other, find great examples of them, make them snappy/understandable
Making things better
Accountability/track tecord
Show your work/reseadch