Hard to argue with the algorithm. By Bridget Phetasy.

I caught clips of Tucker Carlson interviewing Nick Fuentes, and the thing that struck me was the body language. Here was a man who had the biggest show on cable news, who once commanded an audience of 5 million adults, sitting across from a twenty-something New-Age shock-jock with the energy of a guy trying to impress his son’s friends. See how cool I am? See how I’m not afraid to go there? An astute culture commentator, Jon Gabriel, recently posted on X:

“Jon Stewart embracing Zohran, Tucker embracing Nick. Two aging hosts desperate to impress the young and scared of being left behind.”

You start reading the room instead of saying what’s true. You notice your audience is getting younger, more online, more radicalized — and instead of pushing back with the credibility you spent decades building, you chase them. Every take gets a little edgier. Every interview pushes a little further. You tell yourself you’re being brave, but really you’re just performing for an algorithm and a demographic that will forget your name the moment someone edgier comes along.

So much of what you’re seeing in the media right now is this dynamic playing out. The battle for market share. Massive legacy-turned-New-Media stars recognizing that their Fox News audience is aging and clinging to relevance. New Media stars getting older in the space, watching younger, ever more contrarian pundits and podcasters suck up all the energy and the eyeballs. The pick-me energy is palpable. So many interviews feel like, “See how based and cool I am?”…

Chasing the algorithm:

The algorithms and analytics have made hacks of us all. Some more than others. And you can see it if you’re paying attention — many of those with the biggest megaphones in Media are using them to parrot back whatever the coveted demographic already believes.

I don’t need polls or studies about the percentage of young people left and right who hold antisemitic views or how support for Israel is collapsing among younger generations, all I need is to watch the weathervanes nod along, soften their positions, chase the algorithm….

Wisdom:

My grandparents were Depression-era kids and survived World War II. Big deal, I thought at the time. They don’t know what I’m going through now. I was so certain their experience had nothing to teach me.

And they had the grace not to argue about it. They just waited. Because they knew something I didn’t: That wisdom isn’t persuasive to people who haven’t earned it yet, and that trying to make it persuasive is a fool’s errand.

I was a fool. Now I’d give anything for their wisdom and it’s too late.

The part the platform-chasers don’t understand: You cannot reason a twenty-three-year-old out of positions they were algorithmically radicalized into. You’re not going to win them over by learning their dumb slang and nodding along with their worst impulses. All you’re going to do is lose yourself.