Thread by @RichardHanania

I explain why Trump emerged on the right, why only liberals debate filibuster reform, anti-vax as a partisan issue, how David Shor is half right, "Dems are the real racists" and much else. A theory of left and right with a focus on communication technology richardhanania.substack.com/p/liberals-rea…

Liberals rely on a combination of TV/radio and the written word. Conservatives are almost completely dependent on TV/radio. Liberals even trust conservative papers like The NY Post and WSJ more. This reflect two broad psychological profiles and has many important implications.

Over the last decades, we've gotten a lot more mass mobilization on both sides. People are getting more into politics, as technology allows each side to recruit different types. Republicans have been getting pro wrestling fans, Dems status seekers and those suffering psychic pain

GOP politics since 2001 has zigzagged several times in what it emphasizes, going from democratizing the Middle East, to Tea Party, to immigration, and now to opposing vaccine mandates. TV watchers are inconsistent, while a culture based on written word has ideological evolution.

The two sides lie in different ways. "Directional" versus "non-directional." Liberals lie in ways that are consistent with their ideology ("police killing innocent black men"). Republicans lie in random directions, say they're the party of civil rights or protecting entitlements

The cycle of how the country moves left on social issues. It requires activists that are willing to do things that are against the short-term political interests of their own side, which is difficult to do for a tribal movement that only cares about beating their enemies.