I asked Anya Schiffrin, the director of the technology, media and communications program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, about the differences between conservative and liberal communication systems. Schiffrin wrote back by email:
It is remarkable how right-wing talking points now dominate discourse in many parts of the world. They’ve managed to galvanize voters by focusing on anxiety about crime, migration and inflation. Over the last couple of years, we’ve heard the story of migrant crime in Santiago, Stockholm, Melbourne, as well as New York.
Over decades, Schiffrin continued,
Republicans have done a superb job of messaging through the right-wing radio network as well as the tabloids and Fox television and now through social media. Many on the left have agonized about this and wondered whether they should create alternative media infrastructures
However, part of why the Republicans are so successful is the message rather than the medium. Republicans keep their message extremely simple and focus on topics that have salience. Explaining the nuances of crime statistics and telling people not to worry about crime is not persuasive when people go daily to CVS and see all the toothpaste and aspirin are under lock and key or feel threatened on the street or subway.
An essential part of the conservative agenda, Schiffrin wrote, is what she calls “platform capture”:
The tech titans want to avoid regulation and taxation, and many have a libertarian bent, so it’s natural for them to collaborate with Donald Trump. The platforms and A.I. companies are counting on the United States to stop global regulation. Indeed, when Zuckerberg said recently that he would dismantle fact-checking efforts he also mentioned the need to beat back European regulation. A Trump and Zuckerberg-Musk alliance makes sense for all of them right now.
While a major element of the conservative drive to set the cultural agenda is to control the medium — the websites, podcasts, messaging systems — another goal is to discredit and push back against liberal initiatives and claims.
On this score, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of “America’s Cultural Revolution,” has almost single-handedly forced liberals to retreat on a host of issues.
Rufo can claim credit (or blame) for the corporate and academic retreat on critical race theory; diversity, equity and inclusion (better known as D.E.I.); and the environmental, social and governance (E.S.G.) movement in corporate investing.
Two days ago, Rufo boasted on X of the rising status of the right in the nation’s culture:
For the past four years, the Left has tried to condemn us as fringe, radical, extreme, and worse. But the truth is that we are mainstream, reasonable, popular, and ascendant. We’re no longer going to let Cluster B leftism ruin our institutions. If that’s your thing, try therapy.
In a more subtle but no less significant development, two Wall Street Journal reporters, Aaron Zitner and Meridith McGraw, described in an article on Jan. 19 how “in sports, entertainment and marketing, displays of conservatism are crowding out progressive postures.”
“Instead of taking a knee to call for social justice,” Zitner and McGraw wrote,
N.F.L. players are doing the “Trump dance” in the end zone at football games. Mainstream entertainers, among them the country singer Carrie Underwood and the rapper Snoop Dogg, agreed to perform at events celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration, something music stars largely shunned eight years ago.
A new generation of Trump-friendly comedians and wellness influencers is populating YouTube and other social media, while a snippet of audio featuring Barron and Melania Trump has become one of the hottest online memes, with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and brands, including Frontier Airlines, using it in their TikTok and Instagram posts.
“Every time I walk on campus, I see a few MAGA hats. That’s definitely new,” said Carson Carpenter, 19, a senior at Arizona State University. Conservatism, he said, ‘has really become intertwined in our pop culture. … It’s really showing that conservatism is cool now.”
On a separate front, Zitner and McGraw wrote,
Businesses are rolling back diversity efforts that gained urgency after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 led to a focus on racial inequities. Universities are adapting to the Supreme Court’s ban on considering race in admissions, and programs designed to help minority students are under legal attack, facing claims that they discriminate based on race. In some Republican-led states, officials feel newly empowered to press for Christian-theme curricula in the classroom.
Conservatives have long complained that free speech was censored on social media. This month Meta Platforms announced the end of fact-checking and restrictions on certain types of speech across Facebook and Instagram.
While the right has been and continues to be on the attack, the left has been on the defensive.
