Rene Balderas | law student
Sept. 30, 2021
Dear Editor,
This letter is addressing an issue touched on by Sarah Dujordan in Volume 105 of this paper in the article titled “Save the political activism for the experts…”.
Here, the author describes a persistent, and now, pervasive emergence of “celebrities” and their growing influence in US politics.
The author refers to Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump and Kayne West as examples of this trend, and concludes that “traditional politics [should be left] to those who have dedicated their lives to it…”.
I am extremely fearful that the gravity of the issue being rightfully raised in the article is not being completely understood.
The paradigm shifting advent of the internet and of social media is still developing those new symbols, and values that will redefine EVERY aspect of our being.
No place is too sacred, no mind too impenetrable to alone restrain the totalitarian character of these new systems of communication. The difference between Reagan and Trump, has nothing to do with the substance or content of their messages, but with the structures of communication and class that created them.
Between both Presidents is an apocalyptic qualitative difference.
In the recent California recall election a 29-year-old youtuber received 9.8% of the vote. This news should be mobilizing all of what’s left of civil society in this country to attempt to reform how the internet is governed.
The mill gave us the lord, the radio gave us fascism, television gave us Trump and now YouTube has through capital incantation summoned a political force that is still in a stage of development where its influence can be regulated.
Allowing YouTubers to grow in prominence, for many, represents a natural progression of the development of market and political forces. History should push us to correct this fatal miscalculation.
