M.A. Rothman@MichaelARothman
𝗝𝗢𝗡 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗: 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗘 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧. 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠.
One of the panelists on Jon Stewart's podcast cited a real study — published in Nature — showing that people who used X's algorithmic feed moved further to the right than a control group using a chronological feed. He presented this as evidence that Musk is "warping democracy."
Let's take the study at face value for a moment. Let's assume it's accurate.
What Stewart is telling you is that when people are exposed to a wider range of information and viewpoints than legacy media curated for them, they move to the right. Not because they were tricked. Not because they were radicalized. But because the information itself — presented without the filter of editors at the New York Times and producers at MSNBC deciding what you're allowed to see — leads people to draw different conclusions than the ones the left wants them to draw.
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.
For decades, the left controlled the information environment — the networks, the newspapers, the platforms, the search results, the fact-checkers who decided what was true. People saw what they were allowed to see and drew the conclusions they were steered toward. That wasn't called brainwashing. That was called journalism.
The moment a platform emerged that allowed crime statistics, border data, economic numbers, international news, and firsthand accounts to circulate without a progressive gatekeeper deciding what was fit to print — people started changing their minds. And the people who built and benefited from the old system called it manipulation.
Jon Stewart isn't concerned that people are being deceived. He's concerned that people are no longer being managed.
There is also a word for the system he's defending — one where trusted institutions decide what information reaches the public and frame it in ways designed to produce specific political conclusions. That word is not journalism. And the fact that losing control of that system feels to him like an attack on democracy tells you everything about whose democracy he thought it was.
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵.
