For months, pundits have decried the absence of a “Joe Rogan of the left” — an online media figure who can galvanize young men to support Democrats in the way that popular right-wing creators like Rogan, Adin Ross, and the NELK Boys have done for President Donald Trump. Now, it appears that Democratic operatives have a $20 million plan to build such a figure.
Nina Smith, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Stacey Abrams, said instead of propping up a creator who checks the perfect ideological boxes, Democrats should embrace the online spaces for young men that already exist.
For example, creators like Hasan Piker, a left-leaning creator with over 5.5 million subscribers on Twitch and broad popularity among young men, has largely been ignored by the Democratic establishment. Piker’s political content leans farther left, sharing a populist economic message paired with strong criticism of U.S. foreign policy in Israel.
“There is a tendency to shy away from those spaces because our favorite thing to do in the Democratic Party is to, pardon my language, shit on the left,” said Smith.
I mean it’s already John Oliver?
Gotem
The Democrats will try anything other than policies that actually help people.
TLDR: democrats stay on brand being complete and utter shitheads.
I see that your favorite thing to do is also to shit on the left
Democrats want nothing to do with the left.
The Left Cheney party.
The establishment left
Without even saying goodbye? So rude…
Maybe the DNC should push policies that help people instead of pretending like they need a cave man podcaster dyed blue.
The Democrats are never going to be able to build a liberal Joe Rogan because a liberal is going to have to stay extremely Centrist to appease the Democrats. So they’re not going to appeal to the left and they’re not going to appeal to the right, so they’ll start veering right more because that’s where the money is going to be. I mean hell people say Joe Rogan used to be left. I don’t agree with that I think he was just a fan of weed and got swept up in Bernie Sanders enthusiasm, I don’t think he was actually ever a leftist. However he chased the bag. Because it was a big fucking bag. That’s why he’s where he is now.
All this…All of it. ☝️
I think this misses that a lot of people “are Democrats” simple because the only other choice is Republican in our 2 sided system.
Which is why those voters will always be stuck in the uni-party hell. Throwing any vote at these neo-lib/neo-con parties is literally voting against your own self interest, because they are working for the elites/oligarchs. I would classify this ‘vote for XXX no matter what’ mentality as a ‘user error.’
Yeah but can you blame people, really?
There’s one party that wants to actively destroy the county and everyone in it, with a mob voting for them.
Then you have the other party that will sit back and watch it happen, but not actively help it quite as much.
I mean fuck. I don’t like the second option but I want to prevent the first one because it seems worse.
Instead of building a liberal Joe Rogan, they should be mocking the concept of Joe Rogan and destroying him. Make him damaged goods. Make him a joke. “Where do you get your news, dumbass? Joe Rogan? Or, some other pothead like him?”
I get your goal, but denigrating them won’t work. They tried that with Donald Trump. They tried it with Alex Jones. Neither of these cases resulted in a smaller aufience for those two- instead they became the figureheads of their respective demographics, audiences swollen by those the Democrats (and traditional Republicans) dispossess and mock as being “too fringe”.
There’s no need to throw around the term “pothead” like it’s 1995. Most of the country smokes weed. The Dems are really good at alienating people, so I wouldn’t put it past them to say such a thing, but the issue with Rogan has nothing to do with his use of intoxicants.
You’re not going to make him “damaged goods” because a huge part of his appeal is that he’s a conspiracy theorist asshole who platforms people that completely fly in the face of conventional wisdom. Again, that does sound like a good way to lose an election, i.e. a Democratic Party strategy. Maybe you should work for them.
Actually, I think you’re both right. Yes, Joe Rogan (as a cultural phenomenon) has no good reason to exist and I, too, want to see him destroyed.
But the evidence is mounting that many people love to listen to a wretched, moronic, self-important piece of shit like him (or Alex Jones or countless others on the right). Because he validates all of their worst tendencies for bigotry, conspiracist thinking, and intellectual laziness. Building up another Hasan Piker or Jimmy Dore isn’t helping because all they do is preach to the choir.
If you want meaningful change you have to get money out of politics, reform the voting system, and focus on education. Not that any of that is going to happen without a major upheaval but hey, I’m trying to be constructive here…
I continue to despise the idea that what the left wing ‘needs’ is to act like the right wing.
Well what we’re currently doing is obviously not working and what they’re doing is. Currently the main idea I see on the left for trying to get young men interested is… Nothing at all. This is a losing battle so it’s no wonder people are looking at the ones who are actually getting young men interested and engaged with politics are, and those are the political right.
I actually agree that Democrats need more media to capture the groups of Young Men, and Boundless Anger.
The first one, quite honestly, needs to answer in some ways the questions of “How do I get a girl, and what’s my place in life.”
The second one is harder when your goal is not to inflame it further. But ideally, someone should at least be reflecting that anger, even if they help diminish it. The formal, rehearsed, college speeches of Democratic senators is politician-speak that doesn’t appeal to anyone frustrated at the country.
LOL, Is this sponsored by the DNC?
You caught me. Nancy Pelosi herself wrote me a check for $500 to make comments on lemmy.world to promote the idea that actively alienating young men or just ignoring the increasing move of that demographic to the right is a bad idea.
Your comment could’ve been written by that genociding ghoul.
And what is $500 to an oligarch politician that filled her pockets and is worth $252.7M?
Either way, if you’re smart enough to be simping for that crowd it’s all good too.
Keep doing what you’re doing on the way down.
Won’t be missed.
Exactly.
The right (and foreign powers) have been dumping tons of money to promote and prop up right wing influencers for years. There doesn’t even seem to be a litmus test other than 1) will they move people towards our general direction, and 2) will they regurgitate talking points we toss to them.
The right have been reaping huge dividends from promoting people in this space. Influencers on the left exist, but are having a lot harder time without access to similar resources.
The takeaway isn’t to do what the right is doing by promote sleezy influencers… but funding existing and successful influencers left of center, even if there isn’t 100% alignment could have a big impact in this space and help level the field.
David hogg should start a podcast. He would do great! And he could start with how the dnc just screwed him over. Democrats love to hate each other just as much as Republicans love to hate democrats.
deleted by creator
Best we can do is 100 percent unthinking support of Israel while you go die in a gutter. If you disagree you’re antisemitic. What, why won’t you vote for me?
We all live in a bizarro world where it’s the voters’ fault for not voting for you.
The politicians don’t need voters anymore they need donors.
Someone doesn’t realise who their sponsors are and who they work for.
Too easy
The only person that can defeat Joe is Bill Burr. He’s left centrist and that Boston accent pulls people from the right because he’s relatable and unassumingly based.
Bill Burr should be considered a leftist icon.
At some point the person inhabiting the role described in the article has to want to be a political player and it seems Bill just doesn’t.
The irony here is that if the dems improved overall to be more likeable then he would champion them and people in general would gravitate that way. The bar is so painfully low at the moment.
They should take the $20 million and fund actual journalists.
Lol, could you imagine the type of journalist the DNC would give 20m to?
Yeah, it’s called editor of the NYT
So a liberal idiot?
instead of propping up a creator who checks the perfect ideological boxes
Which is to say, slavishly regurgitates all of the just barely to the left of the Republicsns neoliberal swill that keeps losing elections.
Democrats should embrace the online spaces for young men that already exist.
What? Actually going with what the people actually support rather than trying to force some corporate-approved hack that nobodly likes on them, then blaming them when they predictably lose?
What a novel idea.
For example, creators like Hasan Piker, a left-leaning creator with over 5.5 million subscribers on Twitch and broad popularity among young men, has largely been ignored by the Democratic establishment.
And gee… I wonder why…
Piker’s political content leans farther left, sharing a populist economic message paired with strong criticism of U.S. foreign policy in Israel.
Oh. my. who. would. have. guessed. that.? Gee. whiz. what. a. surprise.
There is a tendency to shy away from those spaces because our favorite thing to do in the Democratic Party is to, pardon my language, shit on the left,” said Smith.
Huh. I thought their favorite thing to do was to lose elections.
Same thing either way though…
And I’m calling it now -;the Dem leadership is going to waste their time and money ham-fistedly promoting a pathetically transparent neoliberal shill, then blame everyone but themselves when they utterly and completely and entirely predictably fail.
Lmao if the Dems go with a literal terrorist supporter they will be forever cooked 😭
It’s incredibly sad how easily people can fall for dishonest and disingenous propaganda. Do you have any actual beliefs or principles or do you just oppose anyone you were told to call a terrorist?
I’ve never understood why anyone thinks that the hysterical propaganda and lies spewed by ignorant right-wing reactionaries who would never vote for a democrat in the first place should have any bearing on any decision the democrats might make about anything.
Trying to politically move to the right, emulating their tactics and methods, and all the other bullshit isn’t going to work. Just do the right thing and leave it to democracy to sort out.
Because they don’t want someone who’s actually left. They want someone who pretends to be left while actually shilling for Democrats, who are neoliberal (i.e. economic right-wing).
Or even more general: Someone who’s popular will almost by definition be anti-establishment, because the establishment is often shit and someone who isn’t willing to say that won’t be authentic. Even non-leftist insurgent voices (David Hogg seems pretty mainstream progressive, for example) are immediately attacked, so an authentic speaker would never stay in their good graces.
