The 'Age of the Character' in Online Discourse
Our read
Forget expertise. The internet's new power brokers are 'characters,' charismatic performers who've figured out how to weaponize emotion and spectacle to dominate critical debates, pushing policies that appeal to gut feelings over actual reason.
Key findings
The internet didn't just create influencers; it forged the 'character' - a public figure who's traded intellectual honesty for a consistent, often exaggerated persona. Their currency isn't expertise, it's performance, tailored for an audience hungry for outrage, not nuance.
Authenticity Advocates: Still cling to the quaint notion that public figures should prioritize factual accuracy and genuine expertise.
Character Capitalists: Understand that online personas are a perfectly legitimate way to build influence and engage audiences, deep expertise be damned.
What happened
The internet didn't just create influencers; it forged the 'character' - a public figure who's traded intellectual honesty for a consistent, often exaggerated persona. Their currency isn't expertise, it's performance, tailored for an audience hungry for outrage, not nuance.
The fight
- Authenticity Advocates
Still cling to the quaint notion that public figures should prioritize factual accuracy and genuine expertise.
- Character Capitalists
Understand that online personas are a perfectly legitimate way to build influence and engage audiences, deep expertise be damned.
The brief
The internet has birthed a new power structure: the 'Age of the Character,' where social media's hunger for performance over substance means figures with more charisma than comprehension are now running critical debates, pushing policies that appeal to raw emotion, not reason.
Both jerseys. Authenticity Advocates: These poor bastards still think public figures should prioritize factual accuracy and genuine expertise. Bless their hearts. Character Capitalists: The realists, or maybe just the cynical, who see online personas as a perfectly legitimate way to build influence and engage audiences, deep expertise be damned.
From the episode. Kisin Exposes Gary Stevenson: The 'Age of Character' Corrupts Economic Debate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L5D17ZiabA)
Related dispatches
Lexicon from this episode
- Online Disinhibition EffectThe Online Disinhibition Effect reveals the cost of platforms that reward performative outrage over genuine discourse. It's the internet's tell: what looks like a bug in human behavior is often a feature of algorithmic design.
- Age of the CharacterThe Age of the Character is the tell that platforms now reward persona and entertainment value over actual expertise, costing us genuine intellectual honesty in public debate.
- Greta Thunberg of TaxGary Stevenson is the influencer-economist who's great at selling the idea of fixing inequality but not so great at the actual math, costing public trust in real expertise. He's the "Greta Thunberg of Tax," a label for those who weaponize passion over precision in complex policy debates.