by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
One of my political pet peeves of late is how so many people on Twitter are quick to jump on this or that ostensibly “dumb” comment on the part of some MAGA New Right thought leader. Most of the time, these guys aren’t dumb at all — they’re fucking craven.
Here’s what the populists with pitchforks of Twitter miss: a lot of the “dumb” comments coming from MAGA New Right thought leaders are directed towards the base. These “thought leaders” often say things that to everyone outside their core of support seems extremely stupid — Sen. Blackburn picking a fight with Tay-Tay, for instance. Or Sen. Blackburn saying “cancel culture should be outlawed.”
It sounds very, very dumb.
But it’s not — it’s craven.
MAGA New Right thought leaders are so fucking craven that they’re willing to come across as complete idiots as long as they can goad the intended audience of their “stupid” comments — their very receptive base — into voting. Also, remember, a lot of these allegedly “stupid” MAGA New Right thought leaders are extremely well educated. They KNOW that just by being who they are that they’re going to take a pounding on social media (or, at least, Twitter.)
So, they embrace and extend this idea by tweeting stupid shit for the base, which loves it, knowing that the nattering nabobs of liberal negativism will quote-tweet whatever it is they said, amplifying the message. J.D. Vance is growing to notorious for pulling such stupid stunts.
But this is just a pet peeve. It’s not like anyone listens to me, anyway. People on Twitter are going to keep falling for this ploy on the part of the “stupid” MAGA New Right.
