Member-only story
The Golden Age of Performative Politics
A generation of rockstar politicians ready to do even less for society…
Politics has always been a game of under-the-table deals and shady characters. Dividing people along ideological lines to get votes, then trying to run a united country requires a certain amount of…flexibility — moral and otherwise.
In the past, politicians were universally distrusted. By many polls they still are. But one technology has allowed them to spend inordinate amounts of time and money to appear productive while, really, all they’re doing is stroking their own ego.
Social media.
The democratization of celebrity has meant that anybody can have a platform. You. Your child. Your pet hamster. An egg. We can all experience the roller coaster ride of fame.
While it’s a questionable waste of time for most, for some, platforming is an unmitigated societal disaster. Once you accept every common person needs global reach, then you have to accept that the worst of the worst need global reach.
It is, as many say, an exercise in free speech. One in which both those speaking and those doing the listening should decide the merits of what’s being said. But there should be arguments as to what kind of reach a person should be granted.
