Could Social J Keep“Friends” from Turning “Enemy” on Social Media?
Three years before his death, the late leftist writer and cultural theorist Mark Fisher left behind two salient lessons about coexisting as political allies on social media in a teaser to his famous/infamous essay, “Exiting the Vampire’s Castle.”
“We,” Fisher wrote, “need to learn, or re-learn, how to build comradeship and solidarity instead of doing capital’s work by condemning and abusing each other.” He also exhorted his readers to “create conditions where disagreement can take place without fear of exclusion or excommunication.”
When Fisher wrote the phrase “capital’s work,” he was probably envisioning the target of a massive social movement intent on shaking the foundations of the global economy and politics, one that empowered all those marginalized and stripped of agency by capitalism. The potential to even imagine such a movement, he argued, was being sapped of energy by callout driven twitter storms. This social media culture took (and continues to take) much needed interventions against online personalities’ internalized queerphobia, transphobia, sexism and racism and twisted them into tests of political purity that practically no-one, not even the critics, could pass.
For the purpose of this short essay, when I think of the phrase “capital’s work,” I picture something a little more modest. Perhaps it is a stretch to imagine that the companies who own social media platforms have a stake in the nigh constant infighting that occurs online between people who identify as leftists, liberals or progressives, but perhaps not. Online drama means clicks and eyeballs, though, and that means profit. It also leads to polarization in the absence of informed engagement, which leads to burn out and the desertion of forums. Fisher saw these patterns come together in a social and psychological structure that managed our relationships and incentivized mutual cruelty. He believed we must escape from this digital trap if we’re to sustain productive political conversations. He called this emotional exsanguinator the “Vampire’s Castle.”
Fischer’s observations, despite his blindspots with respect to race, gender and geopolitics, struck a chord with me as someone who occasionally flirts with the idea of being more engaged with political conversations online. Between late 2014 and 2016, I actually managed to gradually retreat from Facebook after realizing how quickly discussions could degenerate on the platform. I abstained from even starting a Twitter account until 2017. Only this year did I make an Instagram for fear of being noticed, and I’m a journalist. I need the attention.
For a 2019 example of the Vampire’s Castle in action, one need look no further than the case of famed trans Youtube essayist Natalie Wynn aka ContraPoints, who abandoned Twitter on November 6th. Wynn, like Fisher, is an anti-capitalist. Wynn, a white woman, dedicates much of her time on Youtube to de-radicalizing young white men in an effort to stop them from joining the alt-Right and other hate formations. Wynn, like Fisher, has blindspots around race and (some cis readers may be unprepared for this part) gender. That has been cause for controversy.
In hindsight, one could call this development in Wynn’s career inevitable, given that she spends time trying to appeal to people who hold racist and transphobic ideas while managing the emotional vicissitudes of her own transition. I myself have bristled at the odd moment when she indulges in a bit of casual racism in service of being edgy enough to keep the white boys listening. Things really began to get out of hand for Contra, however, when she let fly a particularly infamous series of tweets that hurt members of her non-binary trans following:
“There’s this paradox where I can go to a sports bar in North Carolina and be miss/ma’am’d all night no question, but in self-consciously trans-inclusive spaces I have to explain my pronouns & watch woke people awkwardly correct themselves every time they say ‘you guys.’ … I guess it’s good for people who use they/them only and want only gender-neutral language. But it comes at the minor expense of semi-passable transes like me and that’s super fucking hard for us.”
She apologized afterwards but managed to rile audience members again by having Buck Angel — a FTM adult entertainer and trans activist who has a history of lashing out at non-binary people and trans people who have not undergone HRT or sex reassignment surgery — read a 12 second quote by John Waters in her latest video, “Opulence.” Wynn reportedly had no idea about Buck Angel’s stance toward non-binary people, which she rejects. Regardless, people began to harass her online and reportedly called on her friends and fellow collaborators to disown her.
I have an opinion about the day Natalie Wynn left Twitter: it was tragic. Not a huge tragedy. Race draws a big, thick red line between the politics of ContraPoints and my own. But if we’re going to de-polarize a media environment that consistently rewards white nationalists and transphobes, we as media makers should consider what it would take bring about a work environment where harassment became more of an anomaly than an occupational hazard. It’s also worth bearing in mind that what Wynn endured is even more commonplace for women, trans and cis, and non-binary people of color.
In cases like this, blessed would be the convenors, for they might have brought us peace. I’ll admit that I struggled to see how that could have been the task of a journalist when Jeff and Carrie introduced Spaceship Media’s massive moderation of 400 politically opposed women just before the 2018 midterms. This has less to do with the idea that the journalist must operate as if she is removed from the world. She never is. This is more due in part to my own predilections as a writer and budding media maker. I’m drawn to stories and circumstances where moderation is unlikely or even a perverse idea. But it’s necessary some times, especially when people are easily mobilized into online hit squads meant to “take down” individuals who are supposed stand-ins for entrenched marginalization and inequity. Journalists who are engagement minded can access the power to make people listen and not lash out.
I don’t want to oversell the concept of moderation. Amanda Ripley kind of lost me with the image of a bunch of liberals and conservatives finding ways to talk about “Middle East peace.” That’s not really an American story to moderate. We aren’t the center and we should be listening to the complex stories of people from the countries we invade and interfere with. We should let them tell us when our politics and perspectives matter to them and when they are simply irrelevant.
Nor do I want to convey that I think that racists, transphobes and chauvinists of all stripes don’t deserve harsh treatment. They deserve it. All of it. But sometimes the audience flags a false positive and we cannot let that destroy our media environment. And we need to preserve our talented creators, especially when they have the capacity to grow and learn from their mistakes.
But returning to the Vampire’s Castle, which we still haven’t left, there were good faith criticisms of ContraPoints made by people like Youtubers korviday and Luxander. Perhaps we social journalists should consider partnering with people like this to build stable moderation forums for flareups because nobody should be working or consuming under these conditions
