It is going to be interesting to see how the online space changes as Trump moves into The White House and starts pumping out legislation and appointments.
As I have stated before, I think there is a growing divide online between those who are authentic believers and those who are ideologically malleable. People who care about first principles and those who are using ideas for their own ends. But a recent conversation sparked a little further insight into this that I believe important to articulate here.
I often say that if you want to understand someone's actions, simply look at the incentives of the system they inhabit. You might think that being online, we all inhabit the same system, but I would argue the public square is a nexus for many systems. There are many but for our purposes, we only need to break them down into two broad categories: the systems of established power structures and the people.
This is the deciding factor of whether a content creator will be authentic or ideologically malleable: which power structure are they trying to appeal to.
For those who are trying to work their way up into the established elite circles of academia, journalism, or politics, they are required to stay within certain ideological bounds or ignore principle in favor of loyalty to those who write the checks. Even compromise their values to play nice with ideological enemies.
On the other hand, you have people who like creating content, sparking discussion, or want to find others like them. These accounts are authentic both because they care to be but also because there is no incentive not to be. They don't want to create content, talk to, or network with people who don't get it.
I have often laughed at the idea that power corrupts as too simplistic and also a little dangerous. If you tell good men they will only be corrupted by the climb to power, you are likely to be ruled only by those who don't care to be good.
But, as I pointed out earlier, if you try to climb a power structure that requires you to state one thing and believe another, well, that will sort for those types of people to begin with. You can’t escape the corruption if it is a requirement to ascend.
In truth, a much more practical expectation is to subvert inauthentic power structures through the alternative of appealing outside the powerbase to the people. Which is exactly what Trump and Elon have done. They played inside the system to the degree it was required but it was clear they had little respect for it. They knew that a principled and authentic appeal to the people would be the most powerful, especially if the censorship regime could be broken.
This is why I am very optimistic about the future of X, the breakaway movement, and humanity. Authenticity is an appeal to people, but it is fundamentally an appeal to Truth. And with true free speech, my money is on Truth.
You cannot get anything done politically without a movement. It is thus rational for people to Borg into the viable movement that is closest to their true beliefs.
For many years we had one coalitions -- the Democrats -- which offered a combination of more economic equality along with bigger government. Opposed to this was the Republican Party which was a coalition which opposed forcible equality. This included the country club RINO crowd and the somewhat limited government principled conservatives. Out in the hinterland were the libertarians which favored minimal or even zero government. I used to be one of them. And yes, when I broke away I felt a tremendous sense of intellectual independence -- along with social isolation.
What we are experiencing now is a tectonic shift in the two major parties. Twenty years ago I noticed that there was no party representing those who wanted more equality but less government -- now known as populists. While there were some outlier politicians who catered to this quadrant while being a member of Team D or Team R, their efforts were temporary. I had hoped to extend the Libertarian Party's tent to serve this quadrant, but my efforts were to no avail, and I lacked the resources to start a new party.
Donald Trump has dragged the Republican Party into the populist quadrant. This has enraged the big government Right, and it has also recruited many who are used to being political homeless, which means both truly independent and those prone to conspiracy theories. And he has also attracted some Democrats who like smaller government but had restrained that impulse in order to Borg with fellow egalitarians. Note that the "divisive" Trump has two former Democratic Party presidential hopefuls on his transition team.
Anyway, now that I am not completely politically homeless, my thinking is not as independent as it was a few years ago. I now have a budding team to support.