It’s not about quality. Most people use content just to fill a void. Look outside at the people around you. Just about everyone is looking at their phones on rides, listening to podcasts when walking. It’s just filler.
The alt-right took over the social sphere just by taking up space. All the manosphere/trad-life/christo-fascist/slopaganda crap flooded the internet, and then it became the norm—not because it was convincing, but because it was recognizable. People parrot what they hear; And that’s especially true for the majority of unintelligent folks who wish to masquerade as intelligent. It just so happens the masses heard a lot of “women/people of color/queers are destroying our great white Christian society”.
There’s nothing about this that’s inherent to bigotry or conservative ideology; It’s just that USA conservative-aligned businessfolk bought up the outlets and skewed the scene a little bit in the favor of alt-right ideology. Over years that compounded, and now it’s seized the entire conversation. Perhaps lefties/liberals were hesitant to use those methods because they play to emotions, and not intelligence; But this is the reality of our current social sphere.
The anti-data center fight shocked me in how they were able to squash a corporate demand with bipartisan-support. Granted, it was a very extreme demand (wasting extreme amounts of electricity and water with no real output beyond metrics, lies, and deepfake child porn). The focus doesn’t matter as much as the methods and the changed outcome.
Whatever happens with USA democracy in the future; this nonpartisan grassroots internet-guided movement worked and I believe we ought to remember that. Even if the USA becomes a one-party dictatorship, there will always be local and state governments, and I believe the internet will survive enough to allow speakers to project similar demands.
Perhaps the next movements could be for a Medicare Public Option; or local-run at-cost Commissary grocers; or removing “forced arbitration”.