Politics has been turned into a reality television show. It’s no surprise that we’ve reached the point where fame-desperate grifters are performing in an attempt to get elected, act as disrupters, and push the political system into dangerous chaos.
Actors like MTG and Boebert are running a no-lose grift. They’ll either gain political ascendency, with no actual platform beyond self-aggrandizement, or they’ll fail and profit off that failure as perceived persecution. None of it has anything to do with making America better.
Trump’s turn at using politics as a grift broke the seal wide open and the shift is toward politics-as-entertainment-as-a-grift-as-a-platform-builder. It’s a cynical, dangerous shift, especially as paranoid, fascistic appeals are inherent in the process.
We’re a nation held captive by reality TV hopefuls desperate for attention and brand development and the corporations and the powerful who see them as useful in redirecting anger toward vulnerable populations and in dismantling government as an impediment to profit.

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More from @JYSexton

6 Feb
Thinking a lot today about how fortunate we all are that Trump is an absolute coward. Coup attempts, plots to overthrow the election, war-brinksmanship. Things could’ve been so, so much worse if he was made of sterner stuff.
Watching Mike Lindell’s documentary was like realizing I’d narrowly avoided being struck by lightning in the past. The madness Lindell and Sidney Powell surrounded Trump with, and the madness Trump listened to, was as toxic and deranged as it gets.
Reading accounts now of the meeting Powell and Flynn had in the Oval Office, where Trump listened to their plans for coups and takeovers, waiting on someone to just carry it out for him...if he would’ve acted on any of this we would’ve been in real trouble.
Read 6 tweets
5 Feb
Again. Do not retweet or respond to these blatant attempts to provoke outrage. It only amplifies her reach and gives her impressions. She isn’t in DC to govern, to make anyone’s life better, she’s there to build a brand for herself.

We have to learn from the past. Image
We’re dealing with an incredibly dangerous thing here, a generation of fame-obsessed people who traffic in fascistic ideas and inspire violence as a means of self-aggrandizement, profit, and, sadly enough, brand development. We have to change how we deal with this.
If you feel the need to deal with people like MTG, to get information out, don’t retweet, quote tweet, or respond. Screenshot, explain what she’s doing to try and distill the poison, and recognize this is a communications strategy she’s employing.
Read 4 tweets
2 Feb
By saying something stupid, offensive, cruel, and misogynistic, the troll set off an outrage that grew his profile and undoubtedly raised disturbing levels of money from people who love it when people are rightfully outraged.

This political economy is broken.
And yes, I’m talking about the most recent incident, but this bad faith grift has trended this country toward authoritarian fascism, has powered the entire Right Wing ecosystem, boosted Trump and MTG and Boebert and that whole gaggle of dangerous grifters.
As long as people see a financial incentive to being cruel and racist and misogynistic and fascistic and in destroying shared society they’re going to take it and it’s going to continue to cost us lives and valuable, precious time.
Read 6 tweets
30 Jan
We don’t talk enough about the relationship between online-interactive conspiracy theories and the corporate strategy of increasing interest in movies and TV shows by injecting Easter eggs and puzzle boxes to spur online chatter.
Internet-era viral marketing, dropping hints into properties to inspire online articles and social media chatter that prioritizes obsessive fandom and rewards investigative consumption, taught consumers to view everything as a treasure hunt for hidden knowledge.
Anymore, the most popular properties are ones that inspire sleuthing, piecing together clues, restless conjecture and repeated viewings for narrative construction that benefits “researchers”
who interpret hidden “clues.” Movements like QAnon just bring it into political reality.
Read 7 tweets
30 Jan
This is the exact same New World Order conspiracy the Right and its media have pushing for four decades now, only it now involves specific mention of a new Civil War and the Right slaughtering fellow citizens.

Pay attention. Everything is escalating.
Make no mistake, this is the conspiracy theory Fox News airs every single day, but FNC stops short of voicing the specifics and allows viewers to take the ideas to their illogical extent.

We’re entering a new phase of radicalization.
Disturbingly, so much of this moment resembles the lead up to the OKC Bombing in the 1990’s and the violence preceding the Civil War. The question, if this continues, is whether violence will be asymmetrical or widespread/directed.

Unless something changes it’s one or the other.
Read 5 tweets
28 Jan
Robin Hood marketing itself as a business to "democratize investment" and then capitulating to the demands of the elite few is a great time to remember that businesses sell themselves on progressive sloganeering in order to profit off your political sensibilities.
These brands aren't on your side and they certainly don't hold these positions. Corporations know they have to pretend to care about diversity, inclusivity, and progressive ideas while using those buzzwords as illusions to hide their exploitation.
In modern times this is has been the result of the GOP and the wealthy and powerful understanding blatant white supremacist, misogynistic, exploitative behavior was increasingly unpopular and unsustainable.

They learned they had to hide behind polite, smiling veneers.
Read 6 tweets

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