Setting agendas is a privilege no longer held exclusively by news on television. Instead, the monopoly news pundits previously had on the decades-old principle now belongs to social media algorithms, tech CEOs and the politicians that court them, flooding online spaces with misinformation and distractions.
Rampant toxicity dominates internet discourse among community echo chambers. Resulting divisions only seem to grow as more of our lives are lived through screens. Vitriol constantly runs high, shifting angry attention from headline to headline faster than readers can grasp the gravity of the news they’re scrolling through.
The Epstein files were front and center in the news until eyes were turned to the supposed exposure of a Somali daycare scandal in Minneapolis by YouTuber and self-described journalist Nick Shirley.
In a video that accrued 4 million views on YouTube, Shirley claimed to uncover $110 million in fraud within a single day. These allegations attained 687,000 likes on X as well after being boosted by platform owner Elon Musk, FBI director Kash Patel and Vice President JD Vance. Shirley rapidly ascended into MAGA royalty and found himself a career virtually overnight.
Although the claims in his videos were previously known or otherwise unsubstantiated, the White House immediately took advantage and sent ICE to Minneapolis.
Later, Vance defended the fatal measures taken by ICE in January after the killing of Alex Pretti—the second time that month ICE shot someone to death in the city.
Vance did much of his rambling through his X account, which awkwardly straddles cruelty and confusing attempts at humor, including a repost of an especially cynical meme of Elizabeth Warren speaking over video of an encounter between Alex Pretti and ICE.
The distractions worked. Or perhaps they went too far.
Now, the algorithm moved on from even the fabrications purportedly justifying ICE’s presence in the first place. Debate and analysis of the broadcasted killings of two ordinary people at the hands of law enforcement dominated online conversation.
Already, it seemed that many had all but forgotten the glaring lack of transparency and justice concerning the Epstein files.
People like Shirley are useful for the Trump administration in providing distractions and contriving narratives. President Donald Trump has demeaned journalists his entire political career. Nevertheless, the Jeff Bezos-backed Washington Post and Ellison family-backed CBS News have gutted integral journalistic values from their newsrooms in favor of pro-Trump framing.
Photo Credit: Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images.
Pair all of this with the propping up of Shirley, and the media has been more than just compromised.
The kind of ethical, authentic journalism needed for a thriving democracy has long been fractured. However, it is now being utterly torn apart and reshaped by dictator hopefuls and crony tech moguls. At Trump’s inauguration, Musk and Bezos sat in a row with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—a quite unsubtle clue.
Through no fault of their own, every person who posts on X or Instagram is a part of the machine that endlessly feeds itself on loop; they add to the sheer volume of information that overcrowds online spaces curated by Trump-allied tech oligarchs.
The result is constant conversation that quickly strays away from the plot. Vance and Musk, chronically online as they are, surely have as much awareness of this as the discourse participants themselves.
Regular people—victims of this cycle—grow desensitized to the violent imagery, actions and rhetoric executed by the Trump administration. This extends to the indirect violence that complacency enables it to inflict. “Flooding the zone” is intentional. Our media ecosystem continues decaying rapidly; no tangible Fourth Estate exists to keep our government in check.
The ultra rich and powerful determine the cycle that repeats every day, and our mere participation in society seems to consent to it. They rely on their ability to force our focus away from the roots of issues truly hurting us. They count on learned helplessness, on sowing division and suppressing unity and on stifling belief that we as individuals can make a difference.
The kind of ethical, authentic journalism needed for a thriving democracy has long been fractured. However, it is now being utterly torn apart and reshaped by dictator hopefuls and crony tech moguls.
Pressing problems keep us stuck on this conveyor belt and slip through our fingertips before they reach our lips. This happens by design.
Social media users must resist their algorithms’ attempts to monopolize their attention. Continuing to turn away from methods of tangible action in favor of posting about the next enraging headline will only dig our hole deeper.
Ways to make real change can be found on these same platforms. The biggest political organizing efforts are taking place on the very apps and websites we use daily. People all around the U.S. are called to action by local office seekers and political groups in their areas.
In the absence of both governmental and journalistic accountability, the onus is now on everyday citizens to seek out the means they have to make change. No longer can our classmates, coworkers or loved ones afford for us to be “uninterested in politics.”
Politics is interested in you.
Velocity 
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