Reading Professor Richardson’s description of political social influencers sparked a thought in me:
Right-wing influencers want views and shares, which translate to more money and power, Darcy wrote. So they spread “increasingly outlandish, attention-grabbing junk,” and more established outlets tag along out of fear they will lose their audience. But those influencers and media hosts don’t have to govern, and the anger they generate in the base makes it hard for anyone else to, either.
Too often, millions of readers and watchers, audience members, are patronizing someone like me: neither trained, credentialed, nor exhibiting any particularly good track record[1] in political punditry. Some, like the infamous Alex Jones of Infowars, have been so absolutely awful at it that they’ve been sued and fined millions of dollars.
Which, sadly enough, they can actually afford to pay, despite their pathetic grasping after victimhood.
You guessed right. This is a depiction of a political social influencer working over an audience member. Please note the audience member’s juices are untouched, but their wallet is becoming empty.
So, rather than according them a learned role name that sounds respectable such as political social influencer, I suggest a new role name should be selected. It should reflect the fact that all they really bring to the table is an imagination, a mouth that will say anything, some strong opinions, and a few dollars and odds and ends.
Never forget the impact that a strongly expressed opinion will have on some folks who are too befuddled by the subject matter, or the process of nuanced thinking, which is a hard process to learn and use, to formulate an opinion of their own.
So, for those who favor neologisms, I suggest tongue-waggers. It has a natural visual sufficiently repellent to be applicable to its new usage, and should induce the proper skepticism in those who learn to use it.
And, for those of a more old-fashioned bent, I think you’ll find town gossips to be of sufficient age, meaning, and negative connotation to warm the cockles of your heart. Town gossips, for those unfamiliar with the term, specialized in salacious news, unverified rumors, and all the other information that was better ignored or unknown, as applied to the common weal of a town.
1 I actually hope to not quite satisfy that third criterion.
