Say it with me: Twitter is not real life.
The common mistake made by journalists, politicians, aides, think tankers, and other politicos is to confuse their online Twitter bubble with real life. Too many mistakenly think the echo chamber that is their news feed is actually representative of the electorate or the public at large. But the entry polls surveying voters as they showed up for Monday night’s Iowa caucuses indicate that many Democratic primary voters, a politically engaged subset of society, do not use Twitter for political news.
In early Iowa caucus entrance polls, 80% of voters say they don’t use Twitter, despite the social media platform’s influence on the news cycle.https://t.co/qSeLESRzim
— NBC News NOW (@NBCNewsNow) February 4, 2020
This might shock journalists who practically live on Twitter, but it’s actually pretty predictable. Just 22% of American adults say they use Twitter regularly. So no, the online silo of extreme political views and toxic discourse known as Twitter is not representative. In fact, it distorts the political narrative horribly.
Some of the Democratic presidential candidates have seemingly planned their campaign around what they think will go over well with woke leftie Twitter. Take dropouts such as Julian Castro, who stumped for transgender female abortions, and Beto O’Rourke, who promised to strip churches opposed to same-sex marriage of their tax-exempt status.
Those things went over great on left-wing Twitter. Voters on the ground didn’t appreciate them, though, and their campaigns failed to catch on.
are you all starting to see the problem now?
a small but insanely agitated and vocal minority dictating entire news cycles? https://t.co/BHp8EvtJxv
— ?’? ? ??????? ???? (@BecketAdams) February 4, 2020
This is largely conjecture, but I’m guessing this doesn’t bode well for Elizabeth Warren. Of all the remaining candidates, Warren has pandered the most to woke Twitter, for instance, with her recent promise to let a transgender child vet her education secretary. Let’s hope less-online primary voters render a less than favorable judgment on this kind of campaigning.
