Churn Warfare

Day ten minus Threads. Not sure I’m right, but if Substack had analytics for time not wasted it would be great if it were possible to roll that over to next week. I’ve grazed Substack and Feedly for useful commentary, and so far Eugene Wei¹ is worth the ramble. Even with the caveat that if Twitter is dying, it will be a long, slow slog. Yes, Twitter is dead. Well if I had a dollar for each time that was intoned, I’d still like Twitter just fine thank you. It’s not a service, or an app, or anything you can kill or clone. It’s a state of mind, borne of comedy and after-hour clubs. Now it’s the stuff of CNBC analysis by spokesmodels and grifters on sabbatical. Everyone looks sad as the cameras circle the talking heads. But don’t worry: it’s just Twitter.

Somehow it reminds me of a Who song, out here in the fields… It’s only teenage wasteland. Pete Townshend’s windmill riffs could only distract from the author’s elegance. I never put them at the top of the class, but only because somehow I knew their promise was off the charts. Twitter does that — a direct mainline into the intangible perfection of the possibly attainable. You can’t beat that with a stick. Elusive but always there for the taking. You don’t get the Beatle luster, but so what. You’re in the Big Show, that’s undeniable.

Elon Musk doesn’t want to destroy Twitter. He’s out there tilting at windmills because he can. Zuckerberg knows how to make money. So what. But it’s a cage match worth the effort. Luckily for me, I don’t have to sign up to play; Every post, alert, broken notifications review, is a guarantee of time saved, grace earned. Not bad for a day’s lack of work keeping up with this narrative. Meanwhile, the Republican primary is 180 days away if I remember the stats correctly.

There’s Chris Christie enjoying himself for a minute. I don’t invest too much in the outcome because even the worst result is only four more years of this stuff. If I have to handicap it, I think Trump loses in a squeaker. Christie is the Twitter stream, sitting in the flow and waiting for the next regurgitation from the Orange guy. In the early days, the sturdy thrill was not just the bit, but the aftershocks coming from the tribe of standups and Lenny Bruce kids. When the Firesign met Reagan the synergy between the two didn’t sustain as it did in the Bozo period. Uh, Clem for real. Just because it didn’t resonate for the newbies didn’t lessen the core of the initial disruption. I’m talking Twitter here by reference. Bite me, Facebook.

One thing I’m more sure of as time goes on: the thrill may be gone but the stakes remain high. As a young and even middle-aged man, I followed the beacon of the next big wave just over the horizon. Now, as an old man, I’m surprised at the energy that lies just beneath the surface. Things may appear to be depressing, or fatiguing, but what is really going on is what happens when you just stop driving yourself into a frenzy in order to get motivated. The awareness of a pool of legitimate energy awaiting a non-addicted tapping into is exhilarating. It feels like a parlor trick — relaxing into a puff or two of deep breathing, then a few more until the hidden reserve kicks in.

Now here we are. Generative AI? Is that a good thing? The DeSantis campaign? He’ll never get past the primary. The Grand Old Party is counting on collective action to float that boat. And we all know nobody is invested in a two or three stage operation to stop Trump. I remember the Summer of Love, 1968, when the White Album came out. How incredibly lucky we were, and are, to be alive. The Beatles were spinning out in all directions, playing hooky from being responsible for the worldwide movement they led. I tolerated Rocky Raccoon because it was a mashup of Appalachian folk and an excuse for wearing Western shit on the inside cover. The Stones were the real deal, in the studio with Godard for God’s sake. Jefferson Airplane were dancing with the Dead and forming the CSNY supergroup out of the ashes of For What It’s Worth and four dead in Ohio. Carry on.

They’re all old men and women now. But the next generation is crying out for redemption from this go along to get along crowd. Keep in mind the trap of grievance and complaining, blaming someone, anyone to ease the panic. There is no black hat here. It’s all on us. Do we look to Hollywood or Peak TV for salvation? The Bear comes closest so far. It’s hard to pin down what they know about something, but the spirit is there. You feel it in alternate episodes, when the rush of the feel is dissipated in some unknown way. You can feel the air slowly letting out of the tire, but the old genes keep telling you to relax. It’s not that the only good music started in that time, but that we’re a little ignorant of what came next, and is now. Tackling middle age is not a job for sissies, or cowboys.

So much of what feels progressive is between the lines. I dislike the word progressive, just as the Right pigeonholes woke. It feels like a slur (which it is). How do we address that? Anger is a loser. We’re not quite convinced that the pitch of the Sixties is the real thing. We doubt our staying power, our resolve, a connection with our history. It’s amazing to us that dumping Nixon hasn’t inoculated us from the Trump years. Maybe that’s because we can’t quite believe we’re strong enough to persevere. Really? How did we ever survive the bully on the playground? I have no idea, but we did. And now we’ve gone a thousand words without getting into the quagmire of the collapse of the subscription economy. And yet, we still have some fumes to spend on it, don’t we. We feel a little guilty about the global notification infrastructure. I stopped using Windows and Office 25 years ago. I replaced email with texts when mobile moved in. I never bought the idea that working from home was a choice. The big lie is that life doesn’t work that way. To me this is an opportunity for a leader or leaders to figure out how to harness the strengths and leverage the weaknesses for business and profit.

We’re two minutes into the 2024 campaign and already it’s clear the Left has run aground. Its communications arm, the Media, is selling the idea that Musk is the tip of the Right’s spear. Flooding the zone with ChatGPT fog does not add up to a coordinated strategy. Do you really think that dirtying the water with anti-anti-woke spin is better than just letting the Right have their way in the Textsphere? I hesitate to mention this as it will be sold as a democracy-is-dead moment, but why are we so thin-skinned? Is it perhaps because we’re afraid we’re not up to the task of getting actual votes in actual elections where both sides have a relatively balanced opportunity to make their case? If I were to rank the outcomes based on what the Media says, the threat grows every single day. Never mind that there is no accountability for these generative predictions. In a climate where there is no penalty for information mangling, how do we operate?

For one, we could stop blaming “the other side” for doing what we do—present a case for what prescription we recommend for addressing the future. The reality is that social media provides an onramp for any opinion. The attacks on Musk are personal in nature, based on the idea that what he thinks represents the collective decisions of his readers and listeners. So he’s childish, petty, dangerous. And so is Twitter or anything ad-based or tech out of control. As to the Media, it’s instructive to realize it’s dominated not by the Democrats but a variety of Republicans. Nicole Wallace—former Bush comm director. David Jolly—defeated R candidate now MSNBC’s goto analyst. Michael Steele—former R National Party chair. Mostly Never Trumpers but also Never Reelected. The net result: here’s the consensus opinion of the political center that has been ineffective at blunting the Right. And simultaneously validating the Media confection that they’re doing their job fact-checking the conflicts of interest they don’t want to talk about or even acknowledge. The newsletter folks are even worse, claiming legitimacy when they haven’t yet figured out how to move the needle with actual voters.

Isn’t that what writers or broadcasters actually are trying to do—present words and images that add up to position-swaying arguments. A three or more part process: determine the ones you want to engage, then engage, then build a reputation for delivering. Then sell ads. Not perfect at any stage, but better than alternatives for the most part. The bargain I’m most familiar with: supporting alignment with efforts to protect families, friends, and those who commit to the concept of public service. Which also could use a tuneup by recognizing that the Media, social and otherwise, is the modern day equivalent.