Weekly Column

The Power of Not Retweeting

I was outraged by a tweet. I didn’t share it.

Credit: Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images

I’m on tour with the Team Human book and have been inspired by the interest I’m getting from real people and places, podcasts and independent journalists — but a bit surprised by the almost deafening silence from institutional media. I know that’s partly because they’re all busy covering Trump and Russiagate, while almost ignoring stories like the coup in Venezuela, the dam disaster in Brazil, or the anti-Kurd offensive in Turkey. Books are not shocking enough for the viral mediascape, unless they’re bombshell tell-alls from former Trump staffers.

Then, all of a sudden, that Covington Catholic Schoolboy MAGA Hat Versus Native American video hits the Twitterverse, and everyone wants me on air to analyze the way human interactions are being poisoned by social media platforms and the fake accounts spewing weaponized messages. The hook!

It’s an interesting little memefest to dissect, of course. It’s really the story of what happens as you zoom out of a scene from close-up to medium long shot to the establishing shot. What looks like a MAGA kid menacing a Native American, becomes a seasoned Native American activist setting up a Catholic schoolboy, and eventually reveals itself to be a Native American intervening on a conflict…