Demagogues in the Age of Social Media
- #WOKE: Does social media inherently enable demagogues like Donald Trump? how so? and is the medium equally effective for reconcilers like Oprah Winfrey? Why, or why not?
Donald Trump is the textbook definition of a demagogue. The shock of when he initially started campaigning in the US Presidential Election was enough to make the entire world talk and follow his journey through the election.
Is he really going to do it?
People aren’t actually going to support his blatant hate towards certain ethnic groups and vote for him, are they?
Oh, they are… Well there is no way he can actually win this thing. America is smart enough not to choose someone so ridiculous.
Well… I guess Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States. What now?
I know I’m not the only one who thought that Trump would stop his foolish antics on social media when he was elected president. I thought, for sure, his outrageousness was just to gain traction for his campaign.
Nope.
Is the President really so upset by another world ruler calling him old that he has to take to twitter to express himself and fire back? Celebrities, they’re just like us.
From the very beginning, Trump has known that a sure fire way to get people to talk is to say something ridiculous. He’d done it for years prior to his election campaign and he’ll do it for years following. Social media, particularly twitter, is the way that a large population of millennials get their daily news. Whether he knew it or not, by taking his demagoguery to twitter, he made it nearly impossible for anyone to not see what he was posting. The thing with social media is, when someone posts something you don’t agree with, you can instantly send a response back. Whether it be a well thought out response, or calling him an idiot, Trump says and does things so unbelievable that it makes it feel impossible to sit back and not comment on it. Whether it be out of support or the opposite, people still reply, retweet, and quote his tweet, sending it to a larger audience each time. It’s hard to say whether or not Trump would still say these things if no one was listening and/or reacting. Part of me thinks, yes, he’s going to be this way no matter what, but there is no doubt that social media is enabling this grown man.
Now, another question is raised. Is social media as effective for reconcilers such as Oprah Winfrey? In short, no. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful her message is, or how logical her responses to someone like Trump are, I don’t think she or anyone like her can turn as many heads or get as many news outlets talking with one simple tweet. Perhaps, if she openly called Donald Trump names on twitter and stated things that would be a shock to people coming from Oprah Winfrey, then maybe. But I doubt that is going to happen, as I’m sure Oprah has much more important things to do with her time than spread negativity on social media.
