9 Comments

I think the real test if he has staying power. My sense is things these days can only happen in trends. An individual is worth nothing, a pattern is worth everything.

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I get that, but the million dollar question is will the media be able to capture the level of "anti" that's out there now?

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It’s too early to make that bet— we need one more domino to fall for a vibe shift imo

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I don’t see how they can capture “the anti” when they’d lost all credibility well before LM. That news is beginning to break through alternate journalists on substack should terrify them. Great piece btw

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Good point but never underestimate the powers of co-opting.

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True, but Substack has also created an economic model that undermines legacy media. If you can do it here, you own the product and have creative control vs just collecting a paycheck. Sure there’s “brand prestige” but is that even valuable anymore? I know what I’d choose…

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Your post captured something I had been mulling over before the shooting. Part of the renaissance in new journalism and art that characterized the 60s/70s was a response to the established media’s inability (and unwillingness to) to confront the full implications of the Vietnam War and civil rights movement. That is, new genres were created to capture the moment. I feel we are also in a similar moment. So much of the media created post-2008 (you could also push it back to include elite liberal media support of the war on terror) was unable or unwilling to confront the full implications of the financial crash. In a real sense they were/are stuck in outdated genre conventions. Like how for a hot minute every liberal outlet had a piece on Weimar Germany or name-dropped Hannah Arendt bc this is the stuff had become the standard curriculum/point of reference. Whereas so much of the best new left or new journalism (including apostate conservatives like Gary Wills or Joan Didion) to my knowledge hasn’t been to the same degree. If you’re reference point is Hannah Arendt and not Gary Will’s reading of Nixon’s base as an indigenous organic part of American life, of course, Trump’s base confused you. Or if you’re entirely ignoring that the 2000s was a period of complete institutional crisis, you’re not going to understand ppl being pissed and wondering if there a base requirement of violence that can bring about political change. I dont we’ll see any meaning change in the mainstream media but there are underground stirrings and damn good reporting the further you get out of the elite circle.

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What a brilliant concept of the anti-influencer Mo!

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Thank you!

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