"The world we inhabit today is not the one that shaped our parents' politics. Once upon a time, the incentives for what a man said and what that speech did for him were roughly aligned. Respectable opinion was shaped in a handful of newspapers, cable networks, and journals that rewarded virtue signaling with social status. If you played the game right, spoke in the right tones, and condemned the right heresies, you could climb within that structure."
"The information sphere has been democratized and weaponized. Algorithms now decide what matters. Moral outrage and emotional intensity are the currencies of attention. The megaphone belongs to whoever can shout the longest without getting banned. The result is a total reordering of political communication. The discourse will never go back. No amount of strongly worded condemnations, National Review editorials, or digital handwringing will restore the old gatekeepers. The genie is out and he is enjoying his freedom."
Information has been democratized and weaponized: algorithms determine salience while moral outrage and emotional intensity drive attention. The megaphone flows to whoever sustains loud, uncensored expression, and traditional media gatekeepers no longer mediate public opinion. Conservative strategy must shift from refinement, purity tests, and elite rhetoric toward pragmatic coalition-building, flexibility, and tolerance of imperfection. Principles and truth should be maintained, but moral fastidiousness that forbids compromise undermines governance and electoral survival. Internal disputes should be conducted charitably, prioritizing coalition cohesion over consensus, because political movements require adaptability to thrive in the current information environment.
Read at The American Conservative
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