This is one of those do as I say, not as I do, moments.
That’s because I’m as guilty as a lot of people of going after objectional posts and people on Twitter. I know, my targets probably don’t even see my attacks, and they couldn’t care less about what I think.
Although Greta Van Susteren actually answered a particularly stupid and childish tweet by me.
Still, it can feel somewhat satisfying in a my-life-is-so-sad-that-I-have-nothing-to-do-but-make-myself-look-like-a-petulant-jerk kind of way.
Well, it turns out I’ve being taking the exact opposite approach that I should be. This was pointed out in a very interesting book I just finished reading titled, Battling the Big Lie, How Fox, Facebook and the MAGA Media Are Destroying America.
The book is by Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor for President Barrack Obama and co-host of the podcast Pod Save America. He’s also the author of Message Box, a newsletter about political strategy.
Pfeiffer explained that writing incendiary comments are what right-wing social media provocateurs want you to do. That’s because “if a post elicits a lot of engagement, the algorithm will show it to more people.”
“‘Owning the libs’ by weaponizing liberal anger into online engagement is the primary Republican political strategy of the internet age,” Pfeiffer wrote. “When we take the bait, we empower the trolls, enable their political strategy, and inadvertently spread disinformation and conspiracy theories. This is what the Right wants. And doing what your opponent wants you to do is always a bad strategy.”
So, the best thing to do is just ignore them. I’m going to try to do that more often, blocking them instead of responding. I may slip, but calling Ted Cruz an asshole can be too tempting to pass up sometimes.
Pfeiffer calls your attention your greatest weapon.
“Think strategically about how you want to allocate it,” he wrote. “Many of the worst people on the internet wake up every morning eager to hijack your attention. They want to use your outrage to build their brand and amass political power. Denying them the engagement they so desperately crave is how we fight back against the politics of ‘owning the libs.’”
Pfeiffer noted that “In addition to spreading their message and building their brand, right-wing trolls want to use liberal outrage as proof of their conservative bona fides.”
In other words, lying, insults, stupidity, and generally acting like an idiot sells in the Republican Party. No surprise there.
Here’s a good suggestion from the book: If you want to highlight something particularly egregious from the Right, take a screenshot of it and then post the screenshot with your comment. This doesn’t increase the reach of the original post.
Not surprisingly, Pfeiffer said that right-wing posts trend more often and get more engagement on Twitter. “Democrats are behind on a game we thought we’d mastered.”
Hopefully that will start to change. This week I took part in a Zoom meeting held by the campaign of John Fetterman, who’s running for the Senate in my home state of Pennsylvania. They talked about sharing social media posts so more people will see them.
All this just reinforces a basic truth about the GOP. They have nothing – no plan, no policies, no answers, no vision of moving the country forward. All they want to do is continue to serve the rich and corporations at the expense of the poor, the middle class, and our planet.
Of course, that’s not a real selling point, so they troll and mock like a bunch of little children. The problem is this isn’t a child’s game. It’s serious adult business, even if all the adults in the room come from just one party – the Democrats.
So, let’s try to discipline ourselves a little more. Don’t comment on right-wing bullshit, and try to retweet, like, and comment on the Democrats’ social media posts. Make your own posts and share them with your followers/friends/whatever else they call them if you’d like.
I know, it’s a lot to ask someone to pass up a chance of calling Ted Cruz an asshole. Then again, it can’t be nearly as fun as doing it to his face.
There’s one for the bucket list.
***
Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.