My social media feeds have become busier and busier with stuff that on the surface have virtually nothing to do with my life. But I know enough about how these sites develop engagement patterns to accept that any protest I might choose to express is ultimately unfounded. For exxample, thanks to the “coincidence” of something I’ve recently googled or even spoken about, I think I’ve been exposed this week alone to ads for a dozen different brands of AirPods knockoffs to replace the Series 1 pair I inherited from a careless Uber passenger of mine who I couldn’t track down to return them to. They finally completely died after nearly three years of regular use, so I’m pleased with that return on investment.
I’m far less content with the barrage of posts I’ve been getting from dozens of folks who I have only the most casual or distant relationship with who are eagerly reposting the exceptionally detailed and droning recaps of just about everything our current leader and his ship of fools say or do in a given day. Among the most frequent and lengthy come from the prolific mind of one Heather Cox Richardson. I have a suspicion you’ve seen something from her at some point too even if you didn’t specifically seek her out. According to her seemingly objective Wikipedia entry, she seems to be doing something, if you can pardon the pun, right:
Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, she started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. As of July 2025, the newsletter had over 2.6 million subscribers, making it one of the most popular Substack publications. As of December 2020, Richardson was “the most successful individual author of a paid publication on . . . Substack” and on track to bring in a million dollars of revenue a year.[8]
So given both the naked ambition and absolute unoriginality of our current administration, which has done little more than regurgitate the playbook of Project 2025 since they commanded the pluraity of votes in the most recent national free and fair election, upsetting as it may be it was hardly surprising for me to see this story from DEADLINE’s Dominic Patten that’s still the most-viewed business story on the site more than 48 hours after it dropped”
Donald Trump isn’t just content this week with personally demeaning female journalists, POTUS has now decided to make his war on the so-called “enemy of the people” online official with a new White House website page.
Amidst the tragic shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members in DC on November 26 and a flurry of Truth Social posts and more attacks on Joe Biden’s legacy Friday from the ex-Apprentice host, the Executive Branch launched a digital pummeling of “the Media Offender of the Week.” Promising to chronicle a “record of the media’s false and misleading stories flagged by The White House,” the page also offers a detailed “Hall of Shame” going back months. It also urges vistors to “Scroll for the Truth.
Patten’s story–which I suspect is a one-off–went into its own lengthy detail to describe and illustrate exactly what this newest contribution to cyberspace is, if only to spare me the trouble of actually visiting the page on my own. I don’t want to directly contribute one click to such drivel. But objectively, much as it pains me to express it, they do a far better job of layout and presentation of their arguments than does Richardson. He continued:
(T)he scope and depth here is something different. Listing literally dozens of TV segments, newspaper and online articles that rubbed the White House the wrong way, the site also features a Hall of Shame quartet and leaderboard. Going full power point, the White House triples down with a word cloud of sorts re-listing some alleged offenders. Repeatedly attacked late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert escape retribution by genre in this round, but Team Trump tosses a few other outlets in there too — even some MAGA friendly ones.
They’re much more aesthetically pleasing than the even longer and still more niggly reshares I receive both via followers and my algorithm from OCCUPY DEMOCRATS. The average post from one of their contributors is at least 2000 words–I know that because I’ve compared my recent musings to theirs in column inches and despite my own pemchant to be wordy they’ve got me beat hands down. And yet, per their Wiki entry, they’re pretty darn successful themselves:
In a 2017 feature on partisan news, BuzzFeed News analyzed weekly Facebook engagements “since the beginning of 2015 and found that Occupy Democrats on the left and Fox News on the right are the top pages in each political category”. The article added that the pages “consistently generate more total engagement than the pages of major media outlets”.[37] Occupy Democrats was named the “Most Influential Progressive Facebook Page” by CrowdTangle in 2015[38] and by 2017 surpassed 7 million followers.[39] In 2017, Occupy Democrats was among the 30 most frequently shared sources on Facebook.[6] In May 2020, almost half of the 40 top-performing videos that mentioned “Trump” on Facebook originated from Occupy Democrats.[26] As of October 2022, Occupy Democrats had 10 million followers on Facebook and over 498,000 followers on Twitter.[1]
If you do read even a fraction of my musings you’re likely aware that I’m all about following the numbers because the bottom line IS the bottom line. In a quantitative-first world, that’s the fact, Jack. I can’t blame POTUS and his putzes for at least wanting a share of that action.
And as Patten’s colleague Natalie Oganesyan shared in a piece ostensibly designed to draw attention to Netflix’s latest holiday weekend drop, I was reminded why I’m extolling such reluctant praise on the White House’s digital toadies:
Josh Brolin reflected on his previous friendship with Donald Trump — back when the POTUS was a real estate mogul based in New York City. Calling him a “genius” in marketing, the Oscar-nominated Milk actor said he knew a “different guy” than the figure the GOP leader cuts today. The No Country for Old Men alum concluded: “There is no greater genius than him in marketing – he takes the weakness of the general population and fills it. And that’s why I think a lot of people feel that they have a mascot in him. I think it’s much less about Trump than it is about the general population and their need for validation.”
And that last point is no less evident in the pleading post-scripts to the daily (or more frequent) diatribes from Richardson and the ODs. “PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE!!”, they exclaim. And so many of my purpoted friends and followers somehow believe it’s their civic duty to do so.
Let me tacitly ask y’all: Are you even bothering to fact-check much of what you’re hopefully reading before you express your “democratic” rights? Because even what your enemies frequently dismiss as “Woke-i-pedia” is sus.
Witness what Richardson’s entry contains:
Following the 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk, Richardson wrote on Substack that the alleged killer “was not someone on the left” and “appears to have embraced the far right”, statements later challenged by prosecutors’ evidence.[10][11] Richardson later said that she “included that one sentence based on what we knew at the time”.[12] Vox correspondent Eric Levitz wrote that Richardson’s post “illustrates the hazards of tribalistic thinking”.[10]
And as for OCCUPY DEMOCRATS:
Established in 2012, it publishes hyperpartisan content,[15] clickbait,[21] and false information. In 2017, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies said that Occupy Democrats “share[s] both real and fake news … further blurring the line between fact and fiction”.[14] Some scientific studies have identified Occupy Democrats as a fake news website.[48][49][50][51][52] According to the University of Iowa library, Occupy Democrats “has been known to show misleading, fake, or exaggerated partisan content”.[22] The Valencia College library includes Occupy Democrats on a list of sources that “cannot usually be accepted at face value and need further verification from other sources to determine if information is credible”.[53] In a 2017 poster session developed by the library staff of the University of California at Merced, Occupy Democrats was rated “questionable” for its factual reporting and was noted for “not having a very good fact check record”.[54]
So in the same breath as those who are criticizing the White House for using government resources (and, one would assume, taxpayer’s money) for this latest effort, please man-splain what you’re doing and why it’s any more justified or worthy to be in timelines other than yours?
I’d certainly ask Richardson what data she has that would point to even a small percentage of those 2.6 million followers–or OD’s 10 million Facebook “friends”–switches allegiances. Let alone switched their 2024 votes–or even their 2026 intent–because of her.
I’d very much like to ask the ever-obliging Karoline Leavitt the exact same question of what estimates and planning are on the books for their compendium of leaderboards and word clouds. Who do you think is your audience and what difference do you actually believe they may make beyond your Audience Of One?
Do any of you actually think you’re making a damn bit of difference in effecting the change or even the capitulation you seem to so desperately desire with YOUR words?
You know what might work one way or the other? The choice of words that Fat Orange Jesus makes in describing a Minnesota senator or a female reporter. Or the words that a competent, nationally electable candidate speak on their own accord that get picked up in full context by some other site than OCCUPY DEMOCRATS.
As for the rest of us? I know full well how inconsequential and ineffective my musings are, and I don’t pretend to believe otherwise. My one hope is that they will resonate one way or the other with more of you today than they did yesterday and if you’re so motivated without my imploring you might pass them along. We call that earned media, and sponsors and advertisers do put a premium on that. It’s indeed all about the numbers, but there’s something to be said for some sort of qualitative overlay as well.
Like and share if you choose, but I’m not gonna beg you to do so. I, for one, think you’re above that.
Until next time…