Thread by @Noahpinion

At this point, radical online ideologies have become a consumption good, consumed by A) young people bored with video games, and B) older people who incorrectly think that things really might be totally different going forward.

One result of this is that as general popular unrest recedes and lots of people get bored or jaded or exhausted and walk quietly away, the radical ideological entrepreneurs who sprung up to take advantage of the boom are now fighting each other over a shrinking pie.

As the market size for radical online ideology decreases, we see some ideological entrepreneurs frantically trying to pivot; this explains Nazbols, Jacobin praising QAnon, tankies embracing right-wing elements, and so on.

There are already small signs everywhere of a rotation away from radical online ideology back toward more traditional types of entertainment products:

https://twitter.com/goofrider/status/1449035162197524485

Eventually, the people who are still into consuming radical online ideology will be seen as uncool. It will be like in the movie Slacker, when hipster Austinites politely walk away from a guy telling them that "terrorism is the surgical strike capability of the oppressed!".

The online ideological products that remain popular will add elements of irony. They'll slowly stop selling themselves as something that might change the world tomorrow, and brand themselves as something the world isn't yet ready for.

As long as America's slow-moving normie institutions don't push us into a civil war (which would make ideology very important and no longer mainly an entertainment product), I expect the rotation out of the ideology sector to make America feel less crazy by late this decade.

As usual, all my predictions for American society this decade are just "the 70s, but with the internet this time". But I think the phenomenon of "radical online ideology as consumer product" is under-studied and deserves more attention from researchers, writers, and marketers.

As for what sort of leisure good consumption takes off next, I really can't say. But I hope it's something with a lot of silly clothes, a lot of sappy romance, and a fair amount of nerdy futuristic dreams.

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