Manosphere won | STRINGED
Donald Trump will once again become president of the United States. It’s not particularly close. This comes as a shock, unless you watch or listen to Theo Von. Or the Nelk boys. Or Adin Ross. Or Andrew Schulz. Or Shawn Ryan. Or sure, Joe Rogan, but he’s someone you’ve definitely heard of.
You’ll hear many people attribute Trump’s victory to all sorts of reasons: inflationary fatigue, immigration fears, President Biden’s undying determination to have a last-ditch race. But he owes at least part of his victory to the human world, an amorphous group of influencers, mostly young, exclusively male and increasingly the driving forces any monoculture that survives in a world. online social has long since fragmented into hell.
It was on these podcasts and streams that Trump spent a disproportionate amount of time in the final weeks of his campaign, and for good reason. The list above—plus Tucker Carlson—includes the four largest podcasts on Spotify. Trump sat with all of them, often for hours, reaching millions of conservative or apolitical people, cementing his status as one of them, a sigma, an influential guy and the The pinnacle of the masculine model prioritizes reputation as a virtue. itself. For many young voters who weren’t paying attention in 2016 and 2020, a generation that largely gets its news from social media feeds rather than mainstream media channels, this is also a first. they are actually exposed to Trump.
Trump has used these podcast appearances to humanize and mythologize himself. He uses them to launder his extremist views through popular activities. Can you joke? filter propelled the Tony Hinchcliffes of the world to stardom. Most importantly, he used them to win votes.
Much of this happens in places on the Internet that many people have never heard of, much less visited. When you think of Trump as he is, you might think of his first rallies, his often garbled, hours-long speeches to camouflage-clad disciples. They served their purpose for both parties: Trump received the in-person adoration he craved, and “resisting” Democrats laughed at the empty arenas and strange dance moves of a seventy year old.
But in 2024, calling on thousands of true believers is nothing when anointed by Elon Musk on X and a group of right-wing influencers with a collective following of hundreds of millions.
