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Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

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Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#41

Post by 0-_-0 »

anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

Hmm, let's try this in Google:

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams": About 73,300 results

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez eats": About 109 results

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sleeps": 1 result

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez debates": About 173 results

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposes": About 5,880 results

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discusses": About 1,150 results

Damn, you were right! Also surprised that AOC never sleeps.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#42

Post by mLuby »

anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

Not specific to one faction. It's a local maximum, so all sides will adopt this strategy unless the environment or rules change.

My 2¢ on why "slam" specifically:

1. It's a super short word, which matters in headlines and tweets. I think this is also why headlines will "quote" a word or two (the quotes are magic symbol to ward against libel).

2. Our monkey brains are aroused by violence and tribal warfare, even when that violence is described second-hand and is figurative.

Aggressive verbs are certainly inflammatory, and certainly increases clicks and engagement (at the cost of societal cohesion and individual contentment).

Mark my words—future headlines will be even more outrageous as we become inured to (and accepting of) the current patterns:

    "AOC Jr 'eviscerates' Will Clinton over proposed lunar sale to China."
    "Don Trump VI 'rapes' UN Fusion Program's budget to pay for July 4 parade."

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#43

Post by actually_a_dog »

agloeregrets wrote: post #24
anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

That's kinda also the reverse as well. AOC ran a well-ran campaign to win her place at the table in congress. Republicans slamming her day-in and day-out made her a household name. Like, AOC should be, (with no disrespect) basically a nobody in politics, she is a 1.2 term representative. But republicans wanted a villain and boy did they make one. Beyond that, I kinda also think a critical bit in this is to understand…

I think this shows that going viral works the other way, too. Virality plus the adage that "any publicity is good publicity" can make this kind of a stunt backfire when there's an election at stake.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#44

Post by GeekyBear »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #31
handrous wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to "both sides" it, but... well, both sides do this in their reporting. Sometimes they also "own" or "destroy" someone. I don't think it's partisan. That kind of language gets clicks, so everyone's optimized for it.

I'm not so sure about it not being partisan. When I think of "own" in this context, it's mostly in relation to "owning the libs." I'm not sure if this particular usage is used mostly by left-leaning pols ironically, or right-leaning pols unironically, however.

At least as far back as the Jon Stewart era of the Daily Show, there was nothing ironic about it. I believe "destroy" was the preferred nomenclature back then.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#46

Post by slibhb »

agloeregrets wrote: post #24
anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

That's kinda also the reverse as well. AOC ran a well-ran campaign to win her place at the table in congress. Republicans slamming her day-in and day-out made her a household name. Like, AOC should be, (with no disrespect) basically a nobody in politics, she is a 1.2 term representative. But republicans wanted a villain and boy did they make one. Beyond that, I kinda also think a critical bit in this is to understand…

> Republicans slamming her day-in and day-out made her a household name.

No, she became a household name due to her ability to produce viral content (she's an influencer-politician) and the progressive media being in love with her.

Some time after that, yes, the Republicans realized they'd rather run against AOC and "the squad" than Joe Biden so they did their best to pretend that was the case.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#47

Post by platz »

The Toxoplasma Of Rage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23972391

X can get everyone to agree in principle that Q is bad, but no one will pay any attention to it.

And Y can get everyone to pay attention to Q, but a lot of people who would otherwise oppose it will switch to supporting it just because they’re so mad at the way it’s being publicized.

At least Y got them to pay attention! They’re traveling up an incentive gradient that rewards them for doing so, even if it destroys their credibility.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#48

Post by [deleted] »

GeekyBear wrote: post #44
actually_a_dog wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure about it not being partisan. When I think of "own" in this context, it's mostly in relation to "owning the libs." I'm not sure if this particular usage is used mostly by left-leaning pols ironically, or right-leaning pols unironically, however.

At least as far back as the Jon Stewart era of the Daily Show, there was nothing ironic about it. I believe "destroy" was the preferred nomenclature back then.

[deleted]

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#49

Post by PragmaticPulp »

agloeregrets wrote: post #24
anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

That's kinda also the reverse as well. AOC ran a well-ran campaign to win her place at the table in congress. Republicans slamming her day-in and day-out made her a household name. Like, AOC should be, (with no disrespect) basically a nobody in politics, she is a 1.2 term representative. But republicans wanted a villain and boy did they make one. Beyond that, I kinda also think a critical bit in this is to understand…

> Like, AOC should be, (with no disrespect) basically a nobody in politics, she is a 1.2 term representative. But republicans wanted a villain and boy did they make one

It’s mutually beneficial for them both, in the same way that rappers spend so much time beefing with each other. Controversy drives popularity, especially when each side’s followers made up their minds long ago about which side they’re on.

Re: Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral

#50

Post by chapium »

anm89 wrote: post #8

I've noticed this hilarious thing where within the left leaning media sphere, the only verbs that Ocasio-Cortez and to a lesser degree Bernie ever engage in is "slamming". They don't eat, sleep, debate, propose, or discuss. They just slam 24/7. I googled her to verify the spelling on her name and the first headline was: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who draft…

CNN is particularly guilty of this. Every other headline on their site is politician slams rival politician. Reporter slams rival reporter, etc.
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