Being Professionally Horrible
The new 21st Century political business model
Conservative American writer and academic Tom Nichols sums up one of the most prominent features of our early 21st Century political landscape.
“One thing we don’t talk about enough is how the ‘attention economy’ has allowed people of little talent but audacious cynicism to create a career — a paying job — out of being horrible. We’ve monetized assholery in a way that was once reserved for morning radio jocks.” (Twitter, Jan. 4, 2022)
Politics has always had a performative dimension to it. Our press freedom provides us with an important view into behavior by our politicians that should act as a check on their more corrupt impulses. However, it’s a two-way street. It also gives politicians and other public figures a vehicle to shape public perceptions of them.
What’s new in the past 10 years or so is that the powerful combination of monetized social media and algorithmically-driven media bubbles have created a new business model that is infecting politics — being professionally horrible.
The model works something like this:
- In your public position — politician, media pundit, etc. — do or say something outrageously polarizing.
- When criticized do NOT back down or…
