Neuroscience is unlocking a deeper understanding of how we choose our political affiliations. Here, I provide an insight into how this can help us regain the middle-ground.

Neuroscience has some answers as to why working and middle-class people, and even those in abject poverty, would support a movement clearly not in their own interests.

The number of studies examining how those on the right-wing think in comparison to the left is substantial. Exploring issues from general cognitive ability to IQ to verbal comprehension to autonomic responsiveness has led to a quite deep understanding of how a certain brain may be more vulnerable to right-wing rhetoric. More recently (last couple of decades), we have also ventured into brain imaging studies and even functional brain imaging. Functional brain imaging is when we scan someone’s brain as they are exposed to a certain stimulus – a political speech or advert, for example. So impressive have these results been that some studies suggest that you can predict with up to 88% accuracy whether a person is conservative or liberal based purely on their brain scan images.

How Happy Are You NOT Watching Corporate Media?
Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network

I had to take a peek at our competition today. I turned on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. It was 24/7 bashing of President Biden for pardoning his son Hunter. It was pathetic.

There was no context. No nuance. No historical perspective. No discussion of Jared Kushner, Don Jr., Ivanka, and other Trump family conflicts of interest. There was no discussion of Trump’s pardons of the worst people, including his own criminal co-conspirators.

There was no mention that the felony charges brought against Hunter by a Republican special counsel involved buying a firearm while high on drugs in 2018 (something no one else has been charged with) and paying taxes late (normally resolved as a civil penalty at most).

50 successful media entrepreneurs share their top growth hacks
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter

If there’s one thing I’m most proud of as a creator, it’s that I deliver actionable insights from the world’s most successful media entrepreneurs. To date, I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews with these entrepreneurs, and in each one they walked me through, step by step, how they built their businesses. I publish these interviews in three formats: video, podcast, and a written article. This is to give my audience maximum flexibility as to how they can consume my content.

The 24 Seven: News you can lose
Tom LoBianco, 24 Sight

A continued look at the media siloes which have splintered America

I took two screenshots on Thanksgiving of the top apps on the Apple App store, which seemed to capture this moment in American political history.

On the left in the photo above is the top “News” apps and on the right, the top among all apps (this is for free apps.)

It’s remarkable that none of the of the top “News” apps in the store are actual news outlets, at least not in the sense of professional journalism, publication standards and quality of reporting.

50 successful media entrepreneurs share their top growth hacks
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter

If there’s one thing I’m most proud of as a creator, it’s that I deliver actionable insights from the world’s most successful media entrepreneurs. To date, I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews with these entrepreneurs, and in each one they walked me through, step by step, how they built their businesses. I publish these interviews in three formats: video, podcast, and a written article. This is to give my audience maximum flexibility as to how they can consume my content.

Cass Sunstein on Campus Free Speech
Yascha Mounk
In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Cass Sunstein discuss his “law of group polarization” and how it contributes to today’s factionalism; how echo chambers work (and why social media makes them worse); and whether meeting the challenge of misinformation requires new government regulations.

Trumpomuskovia
Timothy Snyder, Thinking about…
History surprises. Strikingly, we see in most of the scenarios presence of Ukraine: for the old Russian Empire, and for the present one, and for that matter for Hitler, whose chief war aim was the control of Ukraine. Ukraine is a useful shortcut as we try to evaluate Trumpomuskovites: what do they say about Ukraine? As a rule of thumb, those that wish for its fall also want the fall of the American republic. I would expect that the first actions regarding Ukraine will be a harbinger of what is to come for America if Ukraine is sold out, expect America to be sold for parts.

No, you are not on Indigenous land
Noah Smith, Noahpinion
Pieces of territory belong to institutions, not to racial groups.

The general principle here is that instead of a dark world of ethnic cleansing in the name of “decolonization”, we should try to build a bright future where Native Americans and the United States of America exist in harmony and cooperation rather than in conflict. And that principle doesn’t just apply to America, but to the whole world. The history of land ownership is a violent and terrible one, but that doesn’t mean the future has to be more of the same

This is a moment to think and plan
Steve Schmidt, The Warning
Understanding a bit of history will be helpful in appreciating how fragile the world we live in truly is.

Humility will be required to listen. Listening will be required to hear, and hearing will be required to obtain wisdom.

There is great wisdom in the culture of America’s native peoples who have forged this nation from its first hours. Harmony is at the center of much of American Indian belief. The white man has much to learn from this.

The Schmidt Storm: McCain, Musk & MSNBC

In the latest edition of “The Schmidt Storm,” I answer your questions on the future of the White House press room, the fate of MSNBC, and what John McCain would think of all of it:

The apocalypse that wasn’t: AI was everywhere in 2024’s elections, but deepfakes and misinformation were only part of the picture

Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School; Nathan Sanders, Harvard University

Like it or not, AI is now part and parcel of elections, from helping with mundane campaign functions to enabling politicians to speak to constituents in multiple languages at once.

US attorney general’s professionalism can protect Americans’ privacy, former federal judge explains

John E. Jones III, Dickinson College

A former federal judge explains a key power the US attorney general has, and why it’s useful to the public for the Justice Department to operate in a trustworthy way.

Vote on Today’s Smerconish Poll
Should Joe have pardoned Hunter?
Yes
No

Yesterday’s Poll Results
Was it appropriate for the NYTimes to publish an email from Pete Hegseth’s mother accusing him of abuse amid his divorce?
72.61% – Yes
27.39% – No
*Percentage of 28,560 votes

Republicans do it with lies. So why can’t Democrats do it with the truth?

Why are Democrats so afraid to take credit for their successes?

Even going back to when they originally passed Obamacare, they refused to celebrate it for more than a day, and then ran away from that historic accomplishment.

Even though it’s too late to implement these lessons for the 2024 election, these teachings are existential to the Democratic Party going forward—especially as Trump and MAGA move to destroy democracy over the next four years. Democrats have two years to set the record straight, proudly remind Americans of their actual legacy of success, and blame Trump for the failures he is about to inflict—and is already inflicting.

Learning How To Tell Our Story More Effectively – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris inherited one of the worst first days an American Presidential Administration in our history. Trump left us a dadly bungled pandemic response that caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to die unnecessarily, an economy in deep recession and a global economy teetering, a Capital City and our democracy that had just been attacked by Trump and his mobs. What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walked into on January 20th was without doubt one of the worst first days an American Administration has ever faced.

Finally, I also want to go on the record here with something I’ve been talking about in my recent presentations – there may be no more greater manifestation of elitist contempt for working Americans than to argue that the American people cannot handle the truth about the success of our economic policies and the country either under Biden or more broadly in this post-Cold War era. We have an obligation to our fellow citizens to tell the truth at all times, and the core truth here is that there is only one party that has effectively fought for and improved the lives of the American people over a very long period now. We need to be loud and proud about this today, and everyday, if we are to find our mojo again.

Many progressives continue to deny that the left’s embrace of identitarianism helped Donald Trump win the election. That is a key reason why, as I argued last week, it is unlikely that Democrats will let go of wokeness anytime soon.

It seems to me that a humble conceptual tool can help to shed some light on this debate. Social scientists use the 2×2, which shows how a difference among two independent dimensions creates four distinct quadrants, so often that their fondness for it has become a running joke. But social scientists resort to 2x2s so often because they really can be clarifying. And what “The Wokeness 2×2” reveals is that there are four distinct camps within the left.

The experiences and views of each site’s users – from how much political content they see to the platforms’ impact on democracy

X stands out as a place people turn to for politics. A majority of X users (59%) say keeping up with politics or political issues is a reason they use it, compared with 36% of TikTok users and even smaller shares of Facebook or Instagram users (26% each).

Partisans hold opposing views of X. Republican X users are far more likely than Democratic users to see it as mostly good for democracy (53% vs. 26%). In contrast, Democratic users are three times as likely as their GOP counterparts to see it as mostly bad (39% vs. 13%).

There’s a range of reasons people are drawn to social media platforms – even on X, where using it to keep up with politics is relatively common. On TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, politics takes a backseat to other reasons we explored.

“This is not a cultural war that you can win just by doing fucking podcasts” + Meat Loaf’s wikipedia drama, eating disorder Twitter turns on Trump, DDG on Kai Cenat

The acknowledgement crystallized an alliance between Trump and a vast network of online influencers. Joe Rogan*, Adin Ross, the Nelk Boys, and the myriad content creators who Trump collaborated with during his campaign played a key role in amplifying conservative messaging and helping him reach audiences that traditional right-wing outlets simply never could. You can read more about Trump’s influencer strategy in an article I wrote for The Hollywood Reporter today.

While the right has spent years fostering a symbiotic relationship with alternative media, the left has failed replicate anything like it. There are simply no progressive content creators with Rogan’s cultural impact and online following, and a quick look at the podcast charts or trending channels on YouTube shows the disparity between conservative vs progressive creators’ reach online.

1. Newfound election enthusiasm replaces news fatigue and news avoidance

2. Media report on the horse race instead of policy-related issues.

3. Mental health affects media consumption.

4. Partisan media limits balanced news coverage.

5. Polls can be confusing and may lack accuracy.

6. Candidates are using social media to control the message.

7. Trolls are influencing voters.

While both campaigns worked overtime to court influencers, Donald Trump invested early and heavily in relationships with podcasters and livestreamers in a strategy that ultimately proved more successful.

While half the country is reeling from the potential consequences of another Trump term, concerned about deepening social divisions, the dismantling of democratic norms and the normalization of far right extremism, there is one group that has emerged from this election cycle as a definitive winner: influencers.

But while both campaigns worked overtime to court influencers, their strategies were divergent. The Harris campaign prioritized shortform clips, investing in quick videos and viral remixes on TikTok and Instagram. The Trump campaign went deep and long, investing heavily in longform YouTube podcasts and building partnerships with livestreamers. Ultimately, the latter proved wildly more successful.

Social media use in politics refers to the use of online social media platforms in political processes and activities. Political processes and activities include all activities that pertain to the governance of a country or area. This includes political organization, global politics, political corruption, political parties, and political values.

The media’s primary duty is to present us with information and alert us when events occur. This information may affect what we think and the actions we take. The media can also place pressure on the government to act by signaling a need for intervention or showing that citizens want change

In 2013, the Boxes launched LiketoKnow.It, a new platform with a focus on driving sales from social media. Consumers bought $10 million worth of products promoted by its creators. In 2015, they bought $50 million. In 2016, they bought $150 million.

Watson of NYU says LTK has turned into the tool of choice for influencers. Individual social media sites like TikTok have ways to shop within the app but cannot offer creators data on engagement across other platforms. And competitors simply do not have as many brand relationships as LTK, which was early to the space. “They effectively make it a really nice one-stop shop for creators,” he says. “And success begets success. One of the reasons LTK is crushing it is because all influencers hear about from one another is LTK.”

Not since the age of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate who greased FDR’s ascent nearly a century ago, has a private citizen loomed so large over so many facets of American life at once, pulling the nation’s culture, its media, its economy, and now its politics into the force field of his will. Standing beside him, even Trump can seem almost in awe, less of a boss than a companion to the man for whom this planet and its challenges are not big enough.

To many of the young men who flocked to Trump in record numbers, Musk was an ideal avatar. He injected a sense of ingenuity and possibility into a familiar nostalgia act. If Trump thrills supporters by pledging to destroy corrupt institutions, Musk represents the promise of building new things and solving hard problems. Trump did not seem so old at his rallies with this Diablo-playing edgelord bouncing around beside him. And it became harder for Trump’s opponents to paint his team as a gaggle of halfwits when the greatest innovator of our time, with a record of delivering on outlandish plans, was pledging to slash spending by $2 trillion.