Social Media in the Age of Trump
I don’t get on Facebook, but unfortunately, I am forever tied to Facebook because it hosts my group chats on its Messenger platform. Facebook recently implemented the old Facebook on Messenger; no algorithm, just your friends’ posts. I would like to love this, but everything is political these days and so unfortunately a lot of what I’m seeing are stupid political posts. Stupid for two reasons: 1. They’re political on Facebook. 2. They basically say something like this:
I didn’t vote for this. I don’t like this. I denounce this policy and that policy. I am against this person and that person. I think x is wrong because y. Yada, yada, yada.
I’ve seen a few of these, so I assume they’re going around, and you have too. Or maybe my Facebook friends are unique. Either way, I am just really irked by these posts.
Not everyone in the country voted for Trump and in our particular system of government, if you didn’t vote for the most popular1 candidate, you lost and you don’t get another chance to win for four years. Now, I guess there may be some value to letting people know where you stand; it signals to your team that you’re on their team and lets people know your political opinions. That’s basically what I do here, though I see this as both a more appropriate medium2 and a little more thought out than a social media post.
But by and large, posts like those I’m referencing are basically useless. You lost. And posting your opposition to the policies of the winner is maybe the least helpful thing you can do. Like for real, we know you’re opposed to these things, that’s why you didn’t vote for the person who won and is doing these things he said he would do. You voicing your displeasure at these things to a bunch of Normals on Facebook isn’t a good use of your time.
What would be more useful you ask? Maybe posting why you oppose a specific policy, or other kinds of attempts at persuasion. But even that will likely have limited success on Facebook3. More useful still, post about popular policies you do like. You see, there’s a reason you lost, and it’s not because everyone else in the country is stupid or ignorant or racist, it’s because your policies4 and/or messaging were bad/unpopular/ineffective. So maybe rather than talk about things you oppose that the new administration is doing, talk about things you want in a candidate in 2028. Better yet, get involved with your local democratic party and voice these things, because your party has shown exactly zero signal that they’re interested in getting serious in 2026, let alone 20285. If you want to win, you have to have popular policy proposals. Elections are quite literally popularity contests.
I guess what I’m saying is stop complaining and start doing because this is what democracy looks like and more importantly, this is what Democracy feels like when you lose, so let’s do something productive with that feeling. Virtue signaling will have an extremely limited effect on the outcomes of the next elections, persuasion might, activism might6, changing your party will. Make your policies more popular, don’t hope the current administration bungles it so badly we have to come running back to the Dems. Because while it looks like the Trump administration is very much overreading their “mandate,” I’ll remind you that it’s looked that way before. And yet, each election Trump has gotten more votes than the election before. You can’t count on the people not liking what the Republicans are selling, so you have to make your product more appealing.
If one of you says anything about the electoral college, so help me. It’s not applicable in this situation and you get the point I’m trying to make.
I hate politics on Facebook. That’s what Twitter is for.
I mean that likely will have limited success on a platform like Substack.
Under Biden I might add. Literally created in a lab to be inoffensive.
The election of David Hogg as the DNC cochair being one of the main evidences of this.
But like actual activism, not just these protest incessantly activists.