If influencer corruption is inevitable, what exactly should Dems & the Left do, Leo?

[Hardkill]

I just read the blog on Social Influencer Corruption.

I agree the influencer space is ripe for abuse—opaque funding, NDAs, and pay-to-push politics wreck trust. Plus, it really has contributed to the widespread brain rotting in our country. But if the Left refuses to build a competitive creator operation while the Right scales theirs, we’re unilaterally disarming in the new media battlefield.

Also: while mainstream media has better accountability/reporting than alternative media, much of it was complicit in normalizing Trump (2016 & 2024). These are profit-driven corporations that explicitly frame themselves as running a business—not guardians of democracy. You know that and you've talked about that before a number of times. They’re not natural allies of Democrats or the Left (maybe MSNBC is the closest exception) and they can't stop themselves with their constant bothsideism 

My stance: Don’t abstain. Fight fire with clean fire—run an influencer program with hard rules so audiences can calibrate trust instead of losing it.

Guardrails (non-negotiable):

• Radical transparency: clear on-screen funding labels; monthly public funder logs.
• Speech independence: no message vetoes or gag clauses; creators can criticize “their own side.”
• Accountability: independent ethics audits each cycle; fast disclosure of contracts if challenged.
• Quality: offer fact-checking help; require visible, time-stamped corrections.

 

Politics is coalition-building under constraint. History shows you sometimes partner with imperfect actors to beat worse outcomes—but you do it with rules.

If abstinence cedes the field, what’s the workable alternative?

Which transparency standards would keep a funded creator credible to you?

Where are the red lines (e.g., no foreign money, no astroturf, no deepfakes)?

I remember you saying a few years ago about how even pompous and very bothersome progressives whom I can't stand anymore like Cenk are still trying to fight back against the greater evils:

On 3/5/2021 at 9:41 PM, Leo Gura said:

It's not a matter of money. Cenk isn't doing it for the money. He's a true believer in the Green crusade and cannot envision something beyond it. It's a paradigm lock.

And I can't say I blame him. Cenk's role is needed. Someone has to fight the fucking MAGA devils and the corrupt neoliberals. In a sense, stage Yellow thinkers are not practical because they are too far head of everyone else. Cenk is at the right level to make significant social change.

Yellow includes Green within it.

 

Also, that woman, Taylor Lorenz gives me TYT vibes, which again I am getting sick and tired of, and she doesn't even seem to have impressive academic credentials herself.

Edited Tuesday at 11:48 PM by Hardkill

[Leo Gura]

Transparency is necessary at the least.

The fact that these paid pundits now act like nothing is wrong, nothing to see here, makes it all the more damning. They are acting like they don't even know what conflict of interest is.

Basically you need people of integrity, and that will always be rare. Most political pundits will be hacks.

I can't really comment on how to best wage a political propaganda war. That's not my area of interest. I focus on truth-seeking and sense-making, which is different from political activism.

Can you make a case that things are so bad with Trump that we need an anti-Trump propaganda campaign? Maybe. But I want no part of it.

Don't forget that trying to astro-turf a left-wing Joe Rogan may backfire. Dems already had an authenticity problem. These kind of programs feed into the view that Dems are fake. Although of course conservative pundits are shamelessly fake and corrupt and they get away with it.

[ryoko]

4 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

That's not my area of interest. I focus on truth-seeking and sense-making, which is different from political activism.

Sharp. 

[Hardkill]

5 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Transparency is necessary at the least.

The fact that these paid pundits now act like nothing is wrong, nothing to see here, makes it all the more damning. They are acting like they don't even know what conflict of interest is.

Basically you need people of integrity, and that will always be rare. Most political pundits will be hacks.

I can't really comment on how to best wage a political propaganda war. That's not my area of interest. I focus on truth-seeking and sense-making, which is different from political activism.

Can you make a case that things are so bad with Trump that we need an anti-Trump propaganda campaign? Maybe. But I want no part of it.

Don't forget that trying to astro-turf a left-wing Joe Rogan may backfire. Dems already had an authenticity problem. These kind of programs feed into the view that Dems are fake. Although of course conservative pundits are shamelessly fake and corrupt and they get away with it.

Of course I am not asking you to really get involved in it.

I get it, but I feel like the Dems and progressives have no choice but to fight back against this monstrosity of right-wing propaganda and misinformation if they want to win the big elections such as the presidency in 2028 or even 2026 and beyond. 

Otherwise, should the Democrats and the Left just hope that some TR or FDR-like saviour can one day rise from the ashes to save its party and the country? 

What are the Democrats supposed to do to win back more power and stop MAGA when this terrible media environment is skewed heavily in favor of the Right?

 

[Joshe]

Nice post Leo. It's going to be interesting how it plays out. I suspect one facet of this will be that centrists double down even further in their refusal to make a decision about which side to support because it will be harder for the average person to discern which side is less evil. Trust will degrade even further, which is a big reason we're in the situation we're in now. So it will come down to who can bullshit the best. And how do the centrists decide who is most likely correct? Whoever the majority sides with. And which side has the most money and is most gullible and corruptible? The right. So based on my spur of keystroke logic, it looks as though we're fucked. 

Edited Wednesday at 12:27 AM by Joshe

[Hardkill]

14 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Don't forget that trying to astro-turf a left-wing Joe Rogan may backfire. Dems already had an authenticity problem. These kind of programs feed into the view that Dems are fake. Although of course conservative pundits are shamelessly fake and corrupt and they get away with it.

Why are Dems not able to get away with being fake and corrupt but the conservative side has been able to?

I never totally understood that.

 

[Joshe]

Just now, Hardkill said:

Why are Dems not able to get away with being fake and corrupt but the conservative side has been able to?

Fore the same reason a nice guy can't get away with acting like a Billy-badass. You actually have to be bad to pull it off. 

[Hardkill]

3 minutes ago, Joshe said:

Nice post Leo. It's going to be interesting how it plays out. I suspect one facet of this will be that centrists double down even further in their refusal to make a decision about which side to support because it will be harder for the average person to discern which side is less evil. Trust will degrade even further, which is a big reason we're in the situation we're in now. So it will come down to who can bullshit the best. And how do the centrists decide who is most likely correct? Whoever the majority sides with. And which side has the most money and is most gullible and corruptible? The right. So based on my spur of keystroke logic, it looks as though we're fucked. 

What would FDR do?

[Hardkill]

2 minutes ago, Joshe said:

Fore the same reason a nice guy can't get away with acting like a Billy-badass. You actually have to be bad to pull it off. 

What would you say though about FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama?

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:32 AM by Hardkill

[Joshe]

Just now, Hardkill said:

What about Bill Clinton and Barack Obama?

What about them? I'm not big into politics but those guys seem to have charisma that the majority of dems don't. Charisma overrides and creates its own frame. 

[Hardkill]

Just now, Joshe said:

What about them? I'm not big into politics but those guys seem to have charisma that the majority of dems don't. Charisma overrides and creates its own frame. 

Do you know how rare that is? Obama was even more of a rarity than Clinton who never even had true once-in-a-generation appeal that truly transcended all party lines.

I guess we really need an economic depression and/or WWIII to reset and heal everything.

 

[Leo Gura]

13 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

Why are Dems not able to get away with being fake and corrupt but the conservative side has been able to?

I never totally understood that.

Because the point of being conservative is to defend corruption. But the point of being left-wing is to cure corruption.

When a conservative is corrupt he is be authentic. When a leftist is corrupt he is a hypocrite.

Trump is a pig, he acts like one, and pigs love him for it. A Dem cannot do the same because the Dems aspire to more than being pigs. At least true progressives do. The sad reality is that many Dems are also pigs.

[Joshe]

15 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

Do you know how rare that is? Obama was even more of a rarity than Clinton who never even had true once-in-a-generation appeal that truly transcended all party lines.

I guess we really need an economic depression and/or WWIII to reset and heal everything.

 

Do you think that if Obama was just now coming up, he'd have an easy time wiping the floor with Rs? I'm not so sure. Bernie Sanders is the closest I've seen to a character that could meet our current situation with the message and energy it requires, but he's too old and sufficiently smeared. You need fresh blood, hard to smear, spine, and purpose or entertainment without cringe. That's the current demand. Obama himself would have a hard time meeting these requirements. The right doesn't have to meet them because they pander to the lower nature. The onus is on the one's pushing for forward momentum. If you want people to move forward, they need ample reason.

Edited Wednesday at 12:55 AM by Joshe

[Hardkill]

6 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because the point of being conservative is to defend corruption. But the point of being left-wing is to cure corruption.

When a conservative is corrupt he is be authentic. When a leftist is corrupt he is a hypocrite.

Trump is a pig, he acts like one, and pigs love him for it. A Dem cannot do the same because the Dems aspire to more than being pigs. At least true progressives do. The sad reality is that many Dems are also pigs.

Interesting.

So, does that mean that not centrist Dems may never win elections like presidential elections ever again, except for maybe once in a blue moon, given how many low-information and dumb voters there are, and people in this day and age want more "authenticity" in this new age media environment than ever before?

If that's the case, then why would someone like Gavin Newsom have even a real shot of winning in 2028 when already many people find him to be too "slick" like a greasy car salesman or some kind of player?

Edited Wednesday at 12:55 AM by Hardkill

[Joel3102]

How are the Dems going to compete in the current media ecosystem with leftists constantly trying to bring them down like this. Whole thing seems like a bit of a nothing-burger.

[Dryas]

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but this Taylor Lorenz person is a hack and Leo should do more research before citing that as an example. 
 

https://x.com/theomniliberal/status/1962927283758629227?s=46

So pretty much no evidence to substantiate the claims. 

Edited Wednesday at 07:30 AM by Dryas

[Joel3102]

2 hours ago, Dryas said:

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but this Taylor Lorenz person is a hack and Leo should do more research before citing that as an example. 
 

https://x.com/theomniliberal/status/1962927283758629227?s=46

So pretty much no evidence to substantiate the claims. 

Seems like she’s another “anti-establishment” hack whose sole mission is to bring down Democrats. The right are having a field day with this story

[Leo Gura]

13 hours ago, Dryas said:

So pretty much no evidence to substantiate the claims.

How naive does one have to be to think that this money is not being paid to influence creators?

The only defense I've heard from the paid creators is that they will take the money but the money will not change their positions in any way. Which is exactly what politicians say when they take money from lobbyists.

It is quite clear to me that this is a case of lobbyists trying to capture social media influencers as they do with politicians and mainstream media.

Their contract clearly states that they are supposed to keep this influence operation hidden.

I have listened to the rebuttals of these paid creators and it sounds full of rationalizations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf_X5m7u7JY

[Willie]

22 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Why are Dems not able to get away with being fake and corrupt but the conservative side has been able to?

I never totally understood that.

 

1. Why would you want to win a race to the bottom?

2. Democrats couldn’t do that if they wanted because of their insurmountable disadvantage in that race.

People with higher development have higher standards.

[Joshe]

Even if this particular instance was false, it will inevitably happen. Online talking heads with millions of viewers are of course getting paid to do and say shit, and if they aren't already, it's just a matter of time.