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What on Earth is #MAGACommunism?
An online short-term trend or the start of a revolution? — The hashtag that is as confusing as it sounds
The online political commentary world is a hot mess. There are a million bedroom analysts streaming their opinions, clipping videos, and posting clickbait mayhem with titles like ‘YouTuber DESTROYS x, y, and z.’ The quality is usually very poor, with personalities clearly doing last-minute introductory homework and then giving their ‘expert’ opinions. Much of the content is inside-baseball critiquing the commentary of others in the online community itself with everyone constantly ‘dunking on’ one another all the time.
That being said, there are some with astute observations and quality political analysis.
The New York Times did an investigative series and podcast a few years ago that documented how lefty YouTubers, commonly known as BreadTube after Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread, were able to de-radicalize young people who were being sucked down the algorithmic wormhole from Jordan Peterson to Ben Shapiro to Prager U to Steven Crowder to Stefan Molyneux to right-wing fanatical racist. That was a trend, and YouTubers pushing back on that ideology stopped many impressionable youths from radicalization. That’s clearly a public service.
