It’s So Easy To Forget That Online Often Doesn’t Matter

And it’s getting easier all the time

Ever since this already-intense presidential race became truly crazy on the evening of June 27, when President Joe Biden had a lot of trouble making sense during a debate his own team had pushed for, I’ve had more difficulty than usual staying off of Twitter (which I still refuse to call X, because I am a hero).

Twitter is an awful place, but during news moments like a jaw-dropping debate collapse, an attempted assassination of an ex-president, or a sitting president deciding to drop out of his race for reelection, it can be almost. . . fun? Or if not fun, at least something in that vicinity. There’s a truly hectic carnival-like atmosphere that is hard to describe to the uninitiated.

But I’ve been noticing just how much dumber about politics it is making me. For example, the other day I tweeted “please make it stop. it’s just so weird and creepy” in reference to a sign-up form for “White Dudes for Harris.” I really don’t like the essentializing way a lot of liberals talk about race, and this seemed like a prime example. A lot of the discourse around this event, and corresponding events for white women, seemed to believe that all white people share an essence, and that white people have a particular responsibility to tell other white people how they should vote. Okay, I’ll head right on down to rural Appalachia and try to turn Ohio blue again. “Hello, fellow whites!!!!”

There’s also the simple cringe factor. I mean, just try to watch this all the way through. I dare you!

My tweet got a fair number of eyeballs, and of course, I received a lot of positive feedback from people who agree with me about this. But is my belief that White Dudes for Harris is “weird and creepy” held by anyone the Democratic Party should care about? The honest answer is, no clue.