‘We Have No Shared Reality’: Two Political Influencers on the Future of Politics Online

A voter going to the polls Tuesday night was more likely than not to use information from their favorite influencer than traditional news when casting their vote. According to a recent YouGov survey, nearly 65 percent of 2,000 adults surveyed say they receive their political information from digital creators.

周二晚上前往投票站的选民，在投票时使用来自他们最喜欢的网红的信息的可能性，要大于使用传统新闻。根据 YouGov 最近的一项调查，在受访的 2000 名成年人中，近 65% 的人表示他们从数字创作者那里获取政治信息。

Given that that statistic jumps to 77 percent when you isolate Gen Z, it’s unlikely to change anytime soon. On the heels of a historic Democratic wave capturing the House and Senate Tuesday, Kat Abughazaleh, who ran for an Illinois House seat earlier this year as a Democrat, and Republican strategist CJ Pearson talked about the future of influencers and algorithms at the WIRED World Fair in Miami on Wednesday.

考虑到如果将 Z 世代单独列出，这一比例会跃升至 77%，这种情况在短期内不太可能改变。在周二民主党历史性地赢得众议院和参议院多数席位之后，今年早些时候以民主党人身份竞选伊利诺伊州众议院席位的 Kat Abughazaleh 和共和党战略家 CJ Pearson 于周三在迈阿密举行的 WIRED 世界博览会上，讨论了网红和算法的未来。

The Trump administration has been particularly aggressive in welcoming right-wing creators into the White House. Former press secretary Karoline Leavitt opened formal press briefings to digital creators last year and hosted influencer-specific briefings during her tenure. (Leavitt’s move garnered hefty criticism for favoring softball questions, especially as the administration cracked down on the presence of more traditional media in press briefings.)

特朗普政府在欢迎右翼创作者进入白宫方面表现得尤为积极。前新闻秘书 Karoline Leavitt 去年向数字创作者开放了正式新闻发布会，并在任职期间主持了针对网红的简报会。（Leavitt 的这一举动因偏向软性提问而招致了严厉批评，尤其是在政府限制传统媒体出席新闻发布会的情况下。）

Pearson, who previously served on the RNC’s Youth Advisory Council, has been directly involved in these efforts, and points out that multiple federal agencies are now copying the White House’s playbook. He said that it’s simply the cost of getting people’s attention in the digital age.

曾任共和党全国委员会青年咨询委员会成员的 Pearson 直接参与了这些工作，并指出多个联邦机构现在正在效仿白宫的做法。他表示，这仅仅是在数字时代获取人们关注所必须付出的代价。

“It’s a very chronically online administration,” he said. “With how short people’s attention spans are, you have to make [things] interesting.” Not all of the White House’s efforts have been received smoothly on the right: Pearson believes the administration’s decision to distribute portions of the Epstein files to 15 right-wing creators last year was “a misstep.”

“这是一个非常沉迷于网络的政府，”他说。“考虑到人们的注意力持续时间有多短，你必须让（事情）变得有趣。”并非白宫所有的努力都在右翼阵营中受到顺利接纳：Pearson 认为，政府去年决定将爱泼斯坦文件的部分内容分发给 15 位右翼创作者是一个“失误”。

For Abughazaleh, a former Media Matters reporter, the administration’s embrace of the internet signals something far more nefarious. Abughazaleh brought up the Department of Education’s recent use of the “Malfoid” meme—a gender-bent Harry Potter fascist figurehead—which, she said, was being promoted for a too-online audience of “incels.” And the White House’s embrace of “AI slop and brutality,” seen in ads about ICE actions, was turning “cruelty into content” rather than informing people, she says. “They’re trying to ruin your attention span,” she said.

对于前《媒体事务》记者 Abughazaleh 来说，政府对互联网的拥抱预示着更邪恶的事情。Abughazaleh 提到了教育部最近使用的“Malfoid”模因——一个性别转换后的哈利·波特式法西斯傀儡——她说，这是为了迎合过度沉迷网络的“非自愿独身者”（incels）群体而推广的。她还表示，白宫对“人工智能垃圾内容和残暴行为”的拥抱（体现在关于移民及海关执法局行动的广告中），是将“残忍变成了内容”，而不是在向人们提供信息。“他们试图摧毁你的注意力，”她说。

Abughazaleh and Pearson are pretty far apart on the political spectrum. The WIRED forum included some testy exchanges, including whether or not ICE facilities can be called “concentration camps”—a term Abughazaleh, who was arrested for protesting outside an ICE facility last year, used consistently. (The charges were dropped after allegations of misconduct by prosecutors before a grand jury.) They also skirmished over Pearson’s claim that Elon Musk had turned X into a “bastion of free speech.”

Abughazaleh 和 Pearson 在政治光谱上相距甚远。WIRED 论坛包含了一些激烈的交流，包括移民及海关执法局（ICE）的设施是否可以被称为“集中营”——去年因在 ICE 设施外抗议而被捕的 Abughazaleh 一直使用这个词。（在检察官被指控在大陪审团面前存在不当行为后，相关指控已被撤销。）他们还就 Pearson 声称埃隆·马斯克已将 X 变成“言论自由堡垒”的说法进行了争论。

But both agreed that reliance on algorithms is increasingly creating echo chambers with young Americans of both parties. “Algorithms show us what you want to see,” Pearson said, mentioning that his friends on the left will sometimes send him articles on political topics he simply hasn’t seen before. “The deeper question is, is that good for society or for democracy?”

但两人都同意，对算法的依赖正日益在两党的美国年轻人中制造回声室效应。“算法向我们展示了你想看的东西，”Pearson 说，并提到他左翼的朋友有时会发给他一些他从未见过的政治话题文章。“更深层的问题是，这对社会或民主有好处吗？”

On this, Abughazaleh agrees. “We have no shared reality,” she added.

对此，Abughazaleh 表示赞同。“我们没有共同的现实，”她补充道。