I'm seeing some dumb-ass takes about how "online isn't real" and how it's "a drop in the bucket." But seriously, how did you all become aware of leftist ideas? How does anyone in nations such as the US become politically literate? How many of you were former atheist edgelords or shitposters on reddit?
Seriously, online does matter. It wasn't Fox News that created the alt-right Charlottesville rally. It was the fucking Sargon/skeptic/manosphere pipeline, which was primarily a youtube phenomenon. Or how about the comrades that listened to Chapo, and were inspired to travel to Iowa to help Bernie win the Iowa caucus? For Christ's sake just look at how much of an influence Facebook has had on the CHUDs. To ignore that we live in a neoliberal hellscape where the vast majority of us only find some kind of solace or connection in the online world is to ironically ignore material conditions. Something can be "not real" but still have a HUGE affect on the "real world" (e.g. money, gender). Have the recent voices of trans comrades and POC comrades about their issues here not taught anyone anything? Doesn't take a genius to see this.
For those that scream "rEaD tHeOry" take a step back and think, what the hell were many those "classic Marxist texts?" A lot of them were political pamplets or, as others have pointed out before, literally debate-bro replies to others. How is that any different than online shit now? Honestly, if Marx et. al were alive today, wouldn't they use podcasts, tweets, and youtube vids to spread their messages?
TL;DR: online does matter. Seriously, how did any of you become politically aware, be honest.
No one can just show up on the radio now and say "Yeah, I'm gonna do a show for an hour", the same way they couldn't do that during radios golden age. It was a one way production-->consumption relationship, a curated monologue, whereas social media is a largely uncurated dialogue. Posts aren't media, and that's ultimately what most of social media activity boils down to, not content creation. Me tweeting how I want the lady from Uncut Gems to step on my balls and getting 5000 replies isn't content creation anymore than me saying it IRL and having everyone yell at me counts as a theater production.
go on twitter right now and post something that thousands of people will see. Go ahead, I'll wait.
k well ur wrong.
Yes, you have correctly identified one of the primary differences between traditional broadcast media and social media. Now go on TV and say something that thousands of people will respond to you about through the television.
Doing media by shouting out my window for all my neighbors to hear.