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Gen Z 2 MILLENNIALS

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ESTB 11 24 PRIMARY 9 26 SWING VOTE EZ

what is net next gen?

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AN 9 26

There’s been plenty of attention on Gen Z voters since they swung right in 2024, but apparently assumptions were a little too premature, says Gen Z culture analyst Rachel Janfaza. They’re not the “red-pilled MAGA hardliners” they were sold to be.

“In 2020, as Gen Z voters came of age, the culture war was at its peak and it felt like every candidate, race and issue was a reflection of our values,” wrote Janfaza. “But today, young voters’ concerns are more material and far less ideological. There’s a common set of issues unifying Gen Zers across the political spectrum: the cost of living, inflation, AI, war, corruption.”

To get a sense of how young voters — including 8.5 million potential first-time voters — are feeling about the 2026 midterm elections, Janfaza and company spoke to them in a series of focus groups. And what interviews with 70 young people aged 17 to 33 in 28 states and Washington D.C. revealed was that they were not MAGA’s future as earlier reported.

“They care a lot less about being woke and a lot more about being able to get a job and pay their rent — let alone buy a home. And they’re looking for candidates who get that,” said Janfaza. “Gen Z voters really just want their politicians to be good, honest people, who work hard for their community and country. That means tackling the cost of living, working on government programs like SNAP and WIC, embracing social policies when it comes to healthcare, jobs, education, and regulating AI. It’s not that complicated. And it’s party agnostic.”

The generation doesn’t identify easily with the two political parties, but they certainly don’t identify with MAGA. In fact, according to interviews, when young voters support socialist candidates or say they favor socialism writ large, it’s really because they feel the status quo isn’t working.

“Life feels totally unaffordable, but young people believe that it doesn’t have to be this way. They want the government to provide Americans with a social safety net and endorse policies like universal or at least affordable health care, affordable housing, a higher minimum wage, affordable education, paid family leave, taxes on corporations, etc.,” Janfaza said.

And unlike other movements rotted in the past or worse, Gen Z appears to have “a hunger for forward looking policies.”

Call it “Hopemaxxing,” said Janfaza, but it means Gen Z wants to hear what a candidate’s plan is to fix the status quo, rather than preserve it. And don’t bother coming at them with the intent to “just blame the other side,” they say. This generation is “looking for candidates to inspire.”

Want to know how New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani cut inroads with the generation? He talked “pothole politics,” complete with on-the-ground repair policies for infrastructure and other endeavors.

And while MAGA isn’t about to benefit from this particular state of mind, Janfaza said Democrats shouldn’t rest easy on their laurels either. This is a results-minded generation.

“How people vote in the midterms will be all about the cost of living, but if young people don’t believe that any of the candidates can make a difference, they may not even show up,” she said.

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DUCK 5 26

  1. - [rawstory.com

Researchers expose algorithm skew that boosted Trump in 2024

2 days ago

](https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676859361/)

TikTok Algorithm Favored Conservative Content in 2024 POTUS Race, Study Suggests

23 hours ago

](https://truthout.org/articles/tiktok-algorithm-favored-conservative-content-in-2024-potus-race-study-suggests/)

A NEW study examining the algorithms of the social media site TikTok appears to suggest that content users received on the platform skewed more politically conservative during the 2024 presidential election, regardless of a user’s personal preferences.

Researchers Talal Rahwan and Yasir Zaki at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus created over 300 “dummy” botaccountstomimic real-life users during the 2024 race. The bots “lived” in Democratic-leaning New York, Republican-leaning Texas, and the “purple” state of Georgia.

After creating the accounts, the researchers trained some to follow and react positively to Democratic messaging, while others were trained to support Republican content. Afterward, the researchers monitored the accounts’ “For You” pages for 27 weeks during the campaign, analyzing over 280,000 videos that were suggested by TikTok.

For the Republican bots, the outcome was predictable: the algorithm resulted in an 11.5 percent higher chance that they’d see more Republican-leaning content than Democratic-leaning posts.

But for the Democratic bots, it was different. Those accounts were 7.5 percent more likely to see Republican posts than Democratic ones.

Related Story

News

|

Human Rights

TikTok Restricts Gaza Journalist Bisan Owda’s Account Mere Days After US Deal

Owda’s account had 1.4 million followers, she said.

By Sharon Zhang , TruthoutJanuary 29, 2026

“Our findings show partisan imbalances in political information exposure on a platform dominated by algorithmic recommendations, with implications for platform governance and democratic discourse,” the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in *Nature*this week.

“The question arises whether the partisan content recommended on TikTok is skewed towards one party over the other,” the authors added.

TikTok responded to the study’s findings, claiming that its conclusions were largely incorrect. In a statement, the company stated:

This artificial experiment with fake accounts does not reflect how people actually use TikTok. In reality, people discover and watch a wide variety of content on our platform which they continuously shape and can control through more than a dozen tools the authors seem unaware of.

But the study’s authors defended their conclusions.

“Our finding isn’t just about reinforcement; Democratic accounts were shown significantly more anti-Democratic content than Republican accounts were shown anti-Republican content,” Rahwan said, speaking to *The Guardian* about the study’s findings.

“The algorithm wasn’t just giving people what they want; it was giving one side more of what the other side says about them,” Rahwan added.

How social media sites design their algorithms — and whether they are skewed toward one political party over another, accidentally or purposefully — could have real repercussions for elections and the political direction of the country. Indeed, according to data collected from Pew Research, 57 percent of Americans used digital devices “often” to get their news in 2024, higher than any other media, including television (33 percent) and the radio (11 percent).

“In an environment where margins are thin, systematic differences in the kind of political information recommended to tens of millions of young voters are worth taking seriously,” Zaki said.

TikTok Algorithm Favored Conservative Content in 2024 POTUS Race, Study Suggests | Truthout

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Nature

https://www.nature.com › articles › d41586-026-01314-0

TikTok's algorithm systematically skewed to the right during the 2024 ...

2 days agoAn audit of TikTok's recommendation algorithm using hundreds of automated 'bot' accounts during the 2024 US presidential election finds that the 'For You' feed of the platform steered ...

  1. ## Videos for **TIKTOK 2024 ELECTION STUDY

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Scott Galloway on TikTok, Musk, and the Radicalization Pipeline | Best of Lincoln Square

Scott Galloway on TikTok, Musk, and the Radicalization Pipeline | Best of Lincoln Square - YouTube

959 views Premiered 3 hours ago #politics #lincolnsquare #democracy

mma

Right-wing media escalate attacks on young women voters following Democratic election wins across the country

Clay Travis: “They've all gone insane, young women are actually insane in this country”

Written by Jane Lee, Isabella Corrao & Helena Hind

Published 11/07/25

In the wake of Democrats’ sweeping election victories across the country on November 4, right-wing media quickly focused their ire on young women, who voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.

Figures across right-wing media expressed fear over the demographic, with Newsmax host Carl Higbie labeling “liberal white women” as “the biggest threat to America — they will literally vote for their own destruction and take everyone down with them.” The response from right-wing media to women exercising their right to vote ramps up a trend of conservative voices attacking liberal women in the past year.

Right-wing media react to young women voters following November 4 elections

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AN 11 25

Ronald Reagan Republican and GOP strategist Frank Luntz says the word “capitalism” has become a dirty word that Republicans must avoid if they want to win election in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani.

With communication strategist Luntz, winning elections is primarily about messaging, and the word ”capitalism” is no longer a winning message as billionaire “capitalists” accrue most of the wealth and leave Americans worrying about their rent and food pantries. Just recently, the Top 10 U.S. billionaires’ collective wealth grew by nearly $700 billion and analysts warned government policies are driving inequality to new heights.

“Is it fair that some people's children will be born billionaires without having to work a day in their life, while others will work two or three jobs just to put food on their table and a roof over their heads,” Luntz asked CNN anchor Michale Smerconish. “Second, is it fair that some schools have all the technology, all the resources, and others can't even afford books or chalk?”

“Why do I ask that? Because you can see it. You can visualize it,” said Luntz, who correctly predicted Tuesday’s off-year elections would “go badly” for the Republican Party. “And third, does everyone … who works hard and plays by the rules — shouldn’t they have a genuine shot at the American dream? These are the questions that you ask at the beginning to bring audiences over to you. And without asking those questions, you're cutting people out.”

“[Democratic socialist Sen.] Bernie Sanders is on Line 2 for you because he's finding this pretty convincing,” Smerconish responded, and then asked Luntz if the U.S. would “be properly cast as a democratic socialist nation” by 2050.

“It’s already happening,” said Luntz. “I work with young people all across the country. Under age 30, they prefer socialism to capitalism already. The 30s, they are about dead even. It's only when you get to be older 40 that you become more supportive [of capitalism].”

“We should be calling it ‘economic freedom,’ not capitalism, because capitalism is about CEOs,” Luntz added. “It's about billionaires, and it's about Wall Street. Economic freedom is about Main Street, about the workforce and about the opportunities for the future. And I want to give you one bit of language that whoever wins this wins the entire debate, whether it's capitalism or socialism.”

Whether or not they vote that way, Luntz advised Republicans to sell America as “a place for new ideas, better solutions and where good people thrive if we want to move forward as a country … and no one is left behind.”

“Whoever controls that language wins the debate,” he said.

“I think AOC, Mamdani and Bernie are all going to be clamoring for your services after the first part of our exchange,” said Smerconish — but Luntz jettisoned any notion that he stood behind the policies of the three politicians.

“They won’t get it,” Luntz said.

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AN 9 25

In a shocking twist, Gen Z women are walking away from religion — here's why

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an 8 25

CNN data analyst Harry Enten crunched the numbers and discovered a large swathe of U.S. residents no longer believe in the American dream.

“America, we have a problem,” said Enten, describing a growing nation of economic pessimists.

“If you work hard, you'll get ahead: that is the American dream,” said Enten. “[Respondents answering] ‘Never/Not true now’, in 2010 to 2011, 15 years ago, it was 51 percent who said it wasn't true. Now look at this number! Whooo! Through the roof: 70 percent.”

READ MORE: We ignore this psychologist's warning at our peril

Conversely, Enten discovered the percentage of Americans who still believed the American dream to be true “falling through the floor.”

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“It was 47 percent 15 years ago. Now it is just 29 percent, so we basically had a 50/50 nation on whether the American dream was still true 15 years ago, but now it's over two thirds of Americans who say it's never or no longer true,” Enten said.

Enten reported the group experiencing the most pessimism or loss in faith of the American dream was younger Americans between the age of 18 and 29, with optimism dropping from 56 percent in 2010 to just 21 percent in 2024.

“Look at where that number has absolutely tumbled to. It has dropped … 35 points to just 21 percent,” said Enten, adding that faith in the American dream also appeared to have dropped with some senior citizens, with those 65 or older experiencing a drop from 53 percent to 41 percent.

READ MORE: 'Ten Commandments for thee but not for me': GOP senator mocks Texas' MAGA attorney general

“What is essentially going on here is the American youth have lost faith pretty much completely in the idea of an American dream,” Enten said. “And that, of course, goes back to the idea of why there's poll after poll after poll that shows that younger people, more so than any other part of our nation at this point, have seen deepening pessimism in their personal lives as well.”

Another “scary” percentage that came up in polling was the falling number of friends that Americans appear to have, said Enten, with the percentage of Americans reporting “no close friends” jumping up from just 3 percent in 1990 to 17 percent now.

“No wonder pessimism is really taking a hold in the American public” Enten said.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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an 5 25 no gfx

Revealed: Young Americans' support for freedom of speech in steep decline — as they drift to the right - Alternet.org

Revealed: Young Americans' support for freedom of speech in steep decline — as they drift to the right

The Conversation

May 12, 2025

For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech’s fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech.

According to a March 2025 report by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank where I am executive director, support among 18- to 34-year-olds for allowing controversial or offensive speech has dropped sharply in recent years.

In 2021, 71% of young Americans said people should be allowed to insult the U.S. flag, which is a key indicator of support for free speech, no matter how distasteful. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 43% – a 28-point drop. Support for pro‑LGBTQ+ speech declined by 20 percentage points, and tolerance for speech that offends religious beliefs fell by 14 points.

This drop contributed to the U.S. having the third-largest decline in free speech support among the 33 countries that The Future of Free Speech surveyed – behind only Japan and Israel.

Why has this support diminished so dramatically?

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Shift from past generations

In the 1960s, college students led what was called the free speech movement, demanding the right to speak freely about political matters on campus, often clashing with older, more censorious generations.

Sociologist Jean Twenge has tracked changes in attitudes using data from the General Social Survey, a biennial survey conducted by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.

Since the 1970s, this survey has asked Americans whether controversial figures – racists, communists and anti-religionists – should be allowed to speak. Support for such rights generally increased from the Greatest Generation, born between 1900-1924, to Gen X, born between 1965-1979.

But Gen Z, those born between 1995-2004, has reversed that trend. Despite the fact that the Cold War, which pitted the communist Soviet Union and its allies against the democratic West, ended more than three decades ago, even support for the free speech rights of communists has declined.

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Political drift and cultural realignment

At the same time, some data suggests that young Americans may be drifting rightward politically.

A Harvard Institute of Politics poll in late 2024 found that men ages 18–24 now identify as slightly more conservative than those ages 25–29. Another Gallup survey showed that Gen Z teens are twice as likely as millennials to describe themselves as more conservative than their parents were at the same age.

This shift may help explain changes in speech attitudes.

Today’s young Americans may be less likely to instinctively defend speech aligned with liberal or progressive causes. For example, support among 18- to 29-year-olds for same-sex marriage, generally considered a liberal or progressive cause, fell from 79% in 2018 to 71% in 2022, according to Pew Research.

Attitudes toward hate speech

The Future of Free Speech study found that younger Americans are especially hesitant to defend speech that offends minority groups.

Only 47% of those ages 18 to 34 said such speech should be allowed, compared with 70% of those over 55.

Similarly, tolerance for religiously offensive speech was 57% among younger respondents, down from 71% in 2021.

This concern over harmful or bigoted speech is not new. A 2015 Pew survey found that 40% of millennials believed the government should be able to prevent offensive speech about minorities.

More recently, a 2024 report by the nonpartisan free speech advocacy group FIRE found that 70% of U.S. college students supported disinviting speakers perceived as bigoted. Over a quarter said violence could be acceptable to stop campus speech in some cases.

Broader implications

Why does this matter?

The First Amendment protects unpopular speech. It does not just shield offensive ideas, but it safeguards movements that once seemed fringe. Whether it’s civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights or anti-war protests, history shows that ideas seen as dangerous or radical in one era often become widely accepted in another.

Today’s younger Americans will soon shape policies in universities, media, government, tech and the public square. If a growing share believes speech should be regulated to prevent offense, that could signal a shift in how free speech is interpreted and enforced in American institutions.

To be sure, support for free speech in principle remains strong. The Future of Free Speech report found that 89% of Americans said people should be allowed to criticize government policy. But tolerance for more provocative or offensive speech appears to be eroding, especially among young people.

This raises questions about whether these changes reflect a life-stage effect − will today’s young people become more speech-tolerant as they age? Or are we seeing a deeper generational shift?

The data suggests Americans across all generations still value free speech. But for younger Americans, especially, that support seems increasingly conditional.

Jacob Mchangama, Research Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, Vanderbilt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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an 4 25

A new survey has found that American teenagers who were stuck at home due to lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have now become Republicans.

Five years ago, when children aged 13 and 16 were stuck indoors, they used social media more frequently than they had before the pandemic. These individuals, who are now 19 to 21 years old and can vote, gravitated to the Republican Party. The Yale Youth Poll was highlighted by Bloomberg in a report published Wednesday, which noted that these youngsters were deprived of experiences critical for social development and emotional flourishing during the pandemic.

"Turns out, they weren’t too happy about it. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that this group has gravitated to the GOP, the political party that ultimately opposed pandemic lockdowns and belittled precautions like vaccines and masks," the report said.

ALSO READ:'It was culture': Gen Z activist details how 'unhinged' Trump won his 'nihilistic' generation

The report further noted that unusual exposure to social media allowed these teenagers to encounter conservative figures such as Charlie Kirk and well-known podcasters like the Nelk Boys, whom they might not have come across otherwise.

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"These kids are students who have grown up in a different media environment, in a different world — basically — than their peers,” Jack Dozier, deputy director of the Yale Youth Poll, told Bloomberg.

“They’re significantly more conservative and while they still have some tendencies to lean towards progressive social issues, their economic issues and, at the end of the day, their party choice is significantly more conservative," he added.

The poll was conducted between April 1-3 and surveyed 4,100 respondents aged 18-29.

ALSO READ:'Bring Kamala back': This influencer bought Trump a Rolex — now he’s lost '8 figures'

The pollsters found a significant contrast between voters aged 18 to 21 and those aged 22 to 29: The older group intends to support Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections with a margin of 6.4 percentage points, while the younger group favors Republicans by 11.7 points.

Many commentators have pointed out that the GOP's messaging is resonating with Gen Z. Earlier this month, activist Cameron Kasky said during an appearance on CNN that young white men think Democrats are "leaving" them out and MAGA is able to manipulate them into thinking the party's steps towards equity for women and minorities are "being taken at our expense."

Kasky, 24, is the cofounder of the student-led gun violence prevention advocacy group Never Again MSD. He co-hosts a podcast on Gen Z politics and culture.He said President Donald Trump was able to garner support from Gen Z, but not due to his policies. "It was culture," he said.

The activist said Trump is speaking in a language that resonates with them "and is pompous and aggressive enough that people respond to it."

ALSO READ:'A pipeline to MAGA': How this Christian podcast is selling young women on Trump’s agenda

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an 4 25

Activist Cameron Kasky said during an appearance on CNN that young white men think Democrats are "leaving" them out and MAGA is able to manipulate them into thinking the party's steps towards equity for women and minorities are "being taken at our expense."

Kasky, 24, is the cofounder of the student-led gun violence prevention advocacy group Never Again MSD. He co-hosts a podcast on Gen Z politics and culture.

He said President Donald Trump was able to garner support from Gen Z, but not due to his policies. "It was culture," he said.

ALSO READ:A Republican women's group is targeting Gen Z voters

"People in my generation are not focused on the nitty gritty," he said. "They're not thinking about the economy, health care and how those things exactly work," Kasky told CNN.

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The activist said Trump is speaking in a language that resonates with them "and is pompous and aggressive enough that people respond to it."

"I always say the right has been able to cultivate fear more effectively than the Democrats have been able to inspire hope. So, what happens is: young men, especially young white men, say the democrats are leaving us out and MAGA is able to manipulate us into thinking that steps forward towards equity for women and minorities are being taken at our expense," he explained.

Kasky said the Democratic Party needs to "bargain" with people to convince them to vote for the party. "You can't just feel entitled to those votes," he added.

ALSO READ:Gen-Z congressman: Republicans 'want government to be in children's pants'

In the 2024 presidential election, the Democratic Party experienced a significant decline in support from younger voters, even among those who are historically marginalized.

Young white men from Gen Z, particularly those without a college degree, favored Trumpwith a substantial 67 percent vote.

"There's something so nihilistic in Gen Z right now, because we haven't been given a very clear direction to strive towards," Kasky said when asked by the host what the 'American experience' means for Gen Z.

"We're not quite sure what exactly we're fighting for at this point," he added.

ALSO READ:'Bring Kamala back': This influencer bought Trump a Rolex — now he’s lost '8 figures'

He said he was 15 when he heard Trump make a sexually suggestive comment about women, and later saw him become president.

"This next generation is growing up with an even more aggressive, unhinged and fascist version of that," Kasky added.

Watch the video below or at this link.link.

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ymail 11 24

SR

A near-majority of American voters willingly reelected Donald Trump. This harsh reality is a collective moral failure, but it’s also not a choice made in sound mind.

Consider that voters believed Trump’s first presidency was a roaring success and Joe Biden’s only term a Carter-level catastrophe. It’s an upside-down Bizarro World view that ultimately played a key role in dooming Kamala Harris.

[

The global anti-incumbent backlash doomed Kamala Harris

[Noah Berlatsky](https://substack.com/profile/2185926-noah-berlatsky)

·

Nov 7

[Read full story](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/kamala-harris-anti-incumbent-backlash-2024)](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/kamala-harris-anti-incumbent-backlash-2024)

Trump’s 2024 platform was rooted in an obvious lie — that the nation under Biden’s leadership is a flaming dumpster fire and everyone was much better off when Trump was president. Democrats challenged this false reality with facts, but they ultimately lost the messaging war. Their best efforts were no match for the most powerful weapons in Trump’s propaganda arsenal — a timid press and a right-coded social social media environment.

Greg Sargent reports in the New Republic that the Harris campaign’s own internal polling revealed an alarming trend: “Undecided voters didn’t believe that some of the highest profile things that happened during Trump’s presidency — even if they saw these things negatively — were his fault.”

According to exit polls, Trump decisively won the questions “who do you trust more to handle the economy?” and “who do you trust most to handle a crisis?” Of course, in reality Trump utterly botched the 2020 pandemic response, which researchers concluded resulted in 40 percent more deaths than necessary. And yet swing voters are willing to risk it all again in hopes of cheaper eggs and cruelty against outgroups.

Disinformation on demand

Legacy media shoulders significant blame for their “sanewashing” of Trump’s incoherency and deteriorating mental state. Voters believed Trump could fix a steadily improving economy despite his promotion of inflationary tariffs. The media even presented Trump’s rants as cogent discussions of economic theory.

Sanewashing and the damage done

[Stephen Robinson](https://substack.com/profile/52692688-stephen-robinson)

·

Sep 10

[Read full story](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-sanewashing-2024-campaign-nyt-cnn)](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-sanewashing-2024-campaign-nyt-cnn)

It’s worth noting, however, that an NBC poll from April revealed that voters who received news primarily from legacy media (newspapers, cable news, etc.) still overwhelmingly supported Biden. Trump owes his victory in great part to low-propensity voters of all races, including young men, and those voters don’t necessarily form their views based on mainstream media reporting. Rather, far too many are stuck in an online social media bubble where they are delivered a steady diet of rightwing propaganda.

The median age of a Fox News viewer is 68, and liberals have joked about the network “brainwashing” their conservative parents. But rightwing social media content has effectively targeted and radicalized younger people, who — unlike the typical Hannity-obsessed grandpa — can vote for the next several decades.

TikTok, which Trump joined in June, has 170 million users in the United States, and according a Pew Research survey, more than half of them said they regularly get their news from the platform. That’s up from just 22 percent in 2020. This is a serious concern because the far right uses TikTok to advance unfounded conspiracy theories and outright lies.

Rightwing content on TikTok goes mostly unchallenged. In the past year, there were twice as many pro-Trump posts as pro-Democratic ones. A recent estimate places 70 percent of TikTok’s users between the ages of 18 to 35. Once a key Democratic constituency, Kamala Harris won voters aged 18 to 44 by just 5 points (51 to 46 percent), a steep decline from Joe Biden’s 14 point margin (56 to 42 percent).

Trump surrogates boosted his youth appeal on the platform with videos of him attending Ultimate Fighting Championship matches and college football tailgates. Meanwhile, over the past year, TikTok users have encountered an onslaught of posts criticizing the Biden/Harris economy. The term “Silent Depression” went viral, as seemingly average, everyday young people complained about increased costs for housing, food, and transportation.

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@woodsowned💰Inflation on the rise!📈 Brace yourself, it's a rollercoaster ride!😱 #EconomyCrisis #economy #inflation

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Woods Owned frequently posted video compilations of Americans shouting about inflation. Blair Allison, an avowed Trump supporter, received millions of views for her video that wondered “how people can afford to live right now.” These videos fostered a negative feedback loop, and content creator Kyla Scanlon, who birthed the term “vibecession,” warned last year that people were steadily getting angrier about the economy.

Lower income Americans, particularly young people, do spend more of their income on groceries, rent, and gas. That’s why Republicans were so laser focused on the price of eggs. Unfortunately, there’s a dearth of liberal content countering the negative vibes. Of course, explaining the post-pandemic economic recovery is complex and requires more than a punchy one-minute video can convey. Although people might idly scroll TikTok all day, consuming 60-second quick hit videos like potato chips, they will balk at reading an extensive, well-reported news article. That’s too filling a meal.

[

Trump demands Senate recess so he can install Star Wars cantina

[Liz Dye](https://substack.com/profile/6000720-liz-dye)

·

Nov 13

[Read full story](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-recess-appointments-demand-gop-senate)](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-recess-appointments-demand-gop-senate)

According to a University of Oregon study, 40 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans surveyed said they’d become more conservative from their TikTok usage. Half of the Democrats surveyed said they’d grown more liberal, but a lot of far-left content on TikTok is downright alienating and can sound like MAGA’s idea of a strawman leftist. For instance, one user boasted that she “didn’t care” if liberal economic and social policies “hurt the economy,” thus conceding that those policies are in fact harmful to economic progress.

TikTok’s artificial “vibecession” dominated the discourse, while abortion-related content was actively suppressed even while pregnant women were bleeding out in parking lots. Users of the platform resorted to disguising the word “abortion” as “aborshun” or “ab0rti0n” in order to reach an audience. TikTok has a longstanding policy against promoting abortion services, which it classifies as “unsuitable businesses, products or services.” However, TikTok, YouTube, and Meta have allowed users to spread and monetize anti-abortion misinformation.

Studies have shown an interesting gender gap in where young people receive their news on social media: For most women, it’s TikTok, while most men learn about the world from YouTube, X, and Reddit, all of which have become havens of crude masculinity.

On YouTube, 56 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 44. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that researches extremism, conducted a four-part research project this year that determined :{YouTube’s algorithm consistently steers users to rightwing and Christian content. The algorithm does this even with seemingly apolitical search terms, like “male lifestyle guru,” which YouTube reflexively associates with conservative ideology. Rightwing news content was also more frequently recommended, including anti-vaxxer videos. As far back as 2019, both YouTube and Facebook’s autofill search boxes would return content that promoted anti-vaccine misinformation.}:

Meta’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads suppress political content, and while this has choked off liberal creators, far-right ones still thrive. Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro have millions of followers on Facebook and there’s significant engagement with their rage bait. They also drive the political debate, often putting Democrats on the defensive. Walsh supercharged the “groomer” smears against LGBTQ Americans, which led to anti-queer legislation in Florida and other red states. There’s a direct line from hate influencer Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok social media posts to Trump’s sudden fixation with trans youth.

Why rightwing content has the edge

When Kamala Harris appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alexandra Cooper told her listeners, “I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show because I want Call Her Daddy to be a place that everyone feels comfortable tuning in.” Left-leaning podcasters/social media content creators often avoid politics for fear of turning off their right-leaning fans. Joe Rogan and Dave Portnoy at Barstool Sports don’t bother with such apologies when they have rightwing guests because it doesn’t compromise their brand. They are rightwing cultural influencers.

Liberal podcaster Hasan Piker recently commented on the impact rightwing influencers have on young men of all races.

“There is a massive amount of rightwing radicalization that has been occurring, especially in younger male spaces. Everything is completely dominated by rightwing politics,” he said. “If you’re a dude under the age of 30 and you have any hobbies whatsoever, whether it’s playing video games, whether it’s working out, whether it’s listening to a history podcast or whatever, every single facet of that is completely dominated by center right to [the] Trumpian right. Everything they see is rightwing sentiment.”

The wreckage Merrick Garland leaves behind

[Lisa Needham](https://substack.com/profile/10292-lisa-needham)

Nov 8

[Read full story](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/merrick-garland-failures-explained)](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/merrick-garland-failures-explained)

Rogan and Portnoy might not present as overtly political as Walsh and Shapiro, but their edgy, hyper masculine personas are pure MAGA. Even billionaire CEO Elon Musk likes to present himself as a “disrupter,” an agent of change who boldly confronts the status quo. Anyone who’s seen the more popular indie films of the 1970s would realize how compelling this narrative is to young men.

The subtle way that Rogan and Portnoy infuse politics into their personas presents a contrast with left-leaning social media content. The liberal TikToker or YouTuber who releases videos about home makeovers might endorse Democratic politicians during election season while wearing their “just voted” sticker, but rightwing influencers prime their audience on a daily basis. Young men marinate in a stew of rightwing sentiment and end up resenting the libs.

Trump significantly improved his performance among Latino voters, outright winning Latinos in Michigan and flipping some predominately Latino districts in the northeast. This shocked Democrats considering Trump’s brutal anti-immigrant rhetoric. But Latinos are a disproportionately younger voting cohort and they use social media more regularly than white Americans. It’s reasonable to assume that most of those voters were shielded from Trump’s more grotesque positions or only encountered them through rightwing commentators defending them.

It’s true that Latinos are not a homogenous voting bloc, and a third-generation Latino in a Texas border town might have a harder line on border security than a white liberal in Portland. But it’s definitely convenient for Trump and the GOP that Latino voters ranked the economy and violent crime as their top issues, both of which right-coded social media platforms present as five-alarm fires.

Another area of concern for Democrats is that Trump doubled his share of support among young Black men. As the civil rights movement fades further into the past, Black voters’ cultural and traditional links to the Democratic Party are becoming less secure. Studies have also shown that Black Americans are now less likely to get their news from political and religious leaders than from social media platforms. (Rogan has a sizable Black audience, more so even than The Breakfast Club.)

At first glance, it seems condescending to declare that voters made the wrong choice because they didn’t know any better. However, on every major issue, voters were fundamentally misinformed and insisting otherwise won’t improve Democrats’ chances in future elections. Democratic politicians and liberals need to quickly discover some way to engage in this Orwellian information environment. Otherwise, all the self-flagellation about messaging failures and policy changes won’t amount to much.

Thanks for reading Public Notice.