All conservatives are the same, and they are all awful. At least that’s the analysis from the Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of the polling powerhouse FiveThirtyEight.
Something must be wrong with Facebook, Silver seemed to say Monday, because the top stories on the site were from predominantly right-of-center outlets. The top two pieces traffic-wise came from conservative columnist and editor of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, and the third from the Daily Caller. Apparently, this is evidence the social network has abandoned its social responsibility.
Kinda feels like Facebook has stopped even trying… https://t.co/z3ktYMFDV9
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 19, 2018
Except the problem doesn’t seem to be with Facebook. An embarrassment for the pollster, the problem is with Silver and the sneering thousands who thoughtlessly retweeted him.
At least in this case, Silver assumes anyone who doesn’t think the way he does must be out of the mainstream. This is a problem that a lot of liberals suffer from. It explains the Trump presidency. Silver doesn’t offer up his preferred solution to the popularity of conservative viewpoints. But going by his tweets, he seems to be suggesting that Facebook should censor or tone down Shapiro.
This would be a mistake. Shapiro and his Daily Wire have achieved massive success because they offer a well-reasoned alternative to leftist ideas. Not long ago, Caitlin Flanagan wrote in the Atlantic about another conservative, a fellow traveler of Shapiro’s on the so-called dark web, in a piece called, “Why the Left is so afraid of Jordan Peterson.”
That psychology professor has gained a cult following in the millions with his podcasts, his writings, and his speeches because of his critique of identity politics. And it hit close to home for Flanagan. She was surprised to discover that her college-aged son subscribed to Peterson.
Recovering from her shock, her conclusion was spot on. The conservative offers something different than the normal liberal regurgitation on race, class, and gender, she wrote. That ideology, which she had assumed to be mainstream, is dying outside the ivory tower — as Flanagan put it, its “doomsday clock clicks closer to the end.”
The appeal is the same with Shapiro, who has a larger audience than Peterson and arguably a more coherent political philosophy. He offers something both cogent and different than the rest of the pundits, and that is why he succeeds. Just look at the Facebook algorithm that Silver bemoans.
Earlier this spring, Facebook changed its algorithm to favor posts with “meaningful interactions.” The more users commented on a post, reacted to it, and shared the link, the more likely it was to rise to the top of newsfeeds. Hence, the Shapiro and Daily Caller posts. In short, their brand of journalism is popular because people like it.
And to be honest, Facebook (and the Right) could do a lot worse than these two outlets.
Shapiro is not some conspiracy-mongering, supplement-addled maniac like Alex Jones. The Daily Caller is not a manure spreader like InfoWars. Shapiro has been the subject of profiles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press because of his ideas. He is invited to speak in forums all over the country because he is worth hearing. And the Daily Caller has also been cited in each of those same outlets because of its reporting.
A large swath of the country, that often-forgotten geography forgotten between the coasts, reads something different from what they read in D.C. and Los Angeles. If Silver and company want to understand the country, they shouldn’t be so dismissive.
