I’ve been on Twitter (now X) since June 2008, meaning that I’ve spent 16 years on the platform.
And while many of the most “online” candidates lose in real-life elections (Blake Masters in the 2022 Arizona Senate race, for one), why they garner so much support in the first place is worth contemplating.
What is it about the purity spiral of the online right — partisans playing to the most intense parts of the online base, continually trying to prove their conservative bona fides — that thrives despite real-world losses?
Mary Katharine Ham is a commentator for Fox News who has been very online and immersed in social media politics just as long as I have.
So I spoke with her about the online right — its real-world wins and losses and what the point of being an online conservative influencer is in the first place, especially for women.
Persons:
I’ve, “, Blake Masters, Mary Katharine Ham
Organizations:
Twitter, Arizona Senate, Fox News