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LRT I think it's important to clarify: it's not that zoomers and kpop stans didn't do anything. It's that what they accomplished is different from how the media is talking about it, and if we want to build on the momentum, we have to know what's working.
With an unlimited number of tickets given out, people getting tickets they had no intention of using could not have caused a partly-empty stadium.
But what they were able to do was manipulate expectations. They shifted the narrative.
But what they were able to do was manipulate expectations. They shifted the narrative.
Let's say there were 15,000 people (which I believe based on what I've read is an overestimate). If they'd had 40,000 RSVPs and 15,000 came, that's just over 1/3 showing up, and that's actually a pretty good turnout.
The win isn't in the empty seats. The win is that they tricked the Trump campaign into bragging about how crowded it would be, skyrocketing expectations, so that 15,000 out of 1,000,000- I mean, you can do the math.
No one could change the number of people who would show up, but they could- and did- change how it read to an audience.
This is what the Dems have utterly failed at, and what both Trump and Kids Today understand instinctively: it's all about narrative.
This is what the Dems have utterly failed at, and what both Trump and Kids Today understand instinctively: it's all about narrative.
I mean this both in terms of how Trump feels about it, but also in terms of how it plays to the country and the world. Trump's skill lies in storytelling- in editing events to form a narrative he likes- and in hype- promoting the story he's going to tell.
They brilliantly set him up to hype up a story using misinformation, in such a way that he couldn't fix it in post-production. This is exactly what the Dems have never understood, and it is absolutely not surprising it's coming from online fandoms and digital natives.
People laugh about "tiktok teens and kpop stans" but the thing is, it HAS to be them. Because the people who aren't embedded in narrative the same way would have tried to reduce the people going. They would have tried to lessen the number of tickets. They'd miss the whole point.
If I understand correctly, Tiktok users create videos to tell a short powerful story that ideally goes viral, and KPop stans use fancams to edit events to focus on their fave.
They're using their media literacy to kick the Trump campaign's ass, and it's beautiful poetic justice.
They're using their media literacy to kick the Trump campaign's ass, and it's beautiful poetic justice.
TLDR, my grad thesis continues to be alarmingly helpful in interpreting current events, and I continue to be mad about it.
