The midterms proved once and for all that X is not real life

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The midterms proved once and for all that X is not real life.

中期选举彻底证明了 X（原推特）并非现实生活。

A week before the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance hosted a town hall in Texas with Fox News host Jesse Watters. It was a friendly event with a friendly audience in what should have been a friendly state, and maybe that’s why Vance couldn’t help himself. When a college student earnestly asked how the right expected young people like her to settle down and have kids, given the ever-growing cost of living, Vance replied with a quip about Jon Husted’s ass.

在中期选举前一周，副总统 JD·万斯与福克斯新闻主持人杰西·沃特斯在德克萨斯州举办了一场市政厅会议。那本应是一场在友好州面对友好观众的轻松活动，或许正因如此，万斯没能克制住自己。当一名女大学生诚恳地询问，面对日益增长的生活成本，右翼如何期望像她这样的年轻人成家立业时，万斯却用一句关于乔恩·赫斯特德屁股的俏皮话作为回应。

The student, Kate White, introduced herself as the vice president of the Texas Christian University chapter of Turning Point USA, the conservative group started by Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk. She was offering Vance an opportunity to explain how MAGA could work for young people, and he turned it into a joke. Vance did eventually answer the question, saying Republicans don’t pay enough attention to the issue of affordability and blaming rising housing costs on institutional investors and the “20 million illegal aliens” supposedly living in the United States. But the order of operations revealed the fatal flaw of Republicans’ 2026 strategy: Everything is a gag to them, and they’re way too online.

这名学生凯特·怀特介绍自己是德克萨斯基督教大学“美国转折点”分会的副主席，该保守派组织由唐纳德·特朗普的盟友查理·柯克创立。她本想给万斯一个机会，让他解释“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动如何造福年轻人，但他却将其变成了一个笑话。万斯最终确实回答了问题，称共和党人对负担能力问题关注不够，并将住房成本上涨归咎于机构投资者和据称居住在美国的“2000万非法移民”。但这种处理顺序暴露了共和党2026年战略的致命缺陷：对他们来说，一切都是恶作剧，而且他们过度沉迷于网络。

For the past decade, Republicans have adhered to Steve Bannon’s maxim that politics is downstream from culture. This fixation with liberals’ alleged capture of elite institutions has animated the right’s war against Big Tech and in particular social media platforms — which the right claims actively silenced conservative voices — and its crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion. With his purchase of X, Elon Musk finally succeeded in building a conservative platform where right-wing voices not only had real influence but also a direct line to those in power. More recently, some people have claimed that Musk’s X is the only social media that really represents the people, unlike platforms like Bluesky, which have more left-leaning user bases.

在过去十年里，共和党人一直奉行史蒂夫·班农的格言，即政治是文化的下游。这种对自由派所谓“占领精英机构”的执念，激发了右翼针对大型科技公司，特别是社交媒体平台的战争——右翼声称这些平台积极压制保守派声音——以及针对多元化、公平和包容性（DEI）的讨伐。随着对 X 的收购，埃隆·马斯克终于成功建立了一个保守派平台，右翼声音不仅在此拥有了真正的影响力，还能直接传达给当权者。最近，一些人声称马斯克的 X 是唯一真正代表人民的社交媒体，而不像 Bluesky 那样拥有更多左倾的用户群体。

Cocooned in their online echo chamber, MAGA figureheads convinced themselves the public was on their side, even when polling suggested otherwise. They ignored their base’s valid concerns about affordability and served them nonsensical memes instead. And they failed spectacularly in the realm where it actually mattered: politics. X, we can now declare once and for all, is not real life. Republicans not only lost historically red states like Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina, but barely managed to win Florida. The Senate race in Mississippi, of all places, is still too close to call.

MAGA 的领袖们沉浸在自己的网络回声室中，即便民调显示情况并非如此，他们仍坚信公众站在自己这一边。他们无视选民对生活负担能力的合理担忧，转而提供毫无意义的表情包。最终，他们在真正重要的领域——政治——遭遇了惨败。我们现在可以彻底断言：X 并非现实生活。共和党人不仅输掉了德克萨斯州、堪萨斯州和南卡罗来纳州等传统红州，在佛罗里达州也只是勉强获胜。甚至在密西西比州的参议院竞选中，选情依然胶着，难分胜负。

Vance, especially, is a creature of X, where his following list includes such illustrious accounts as Raw Egg Nationalist, Bronze Age Pervert, Howling Mutant, and Captive Dreamer. But White House aides, department employees, and Hill staffers are stewing in the same ecosystem. Writer John Ganz has termed this phenomenon “groyperfication,” after followers of influencer Nick Fuentes, who call themselves groypers. This is a useful shorthand, though Fuentes’ fans are mostly too NEET-pilled to land jobs on the Hill. American Moment, a boot camp for young conservative up-and-comers, reportedly screens out groypers. There’s a real need for such protective measures. Kingsley Wilson, the hard-right press secretary for the Department of War (or per its legal name, Defense), has posted antisemitic conspiracy theories about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched in Georgia 1915 for allegedly raping a teenage girl. (Historians largely believe Frank was innocent.) The Department of Homeland Security regularly posts fascist fancams and wink-wink references to white supremacist memes.

万斯尤其是一个“X 产物”，他的关注列表包括“生蛋民族主义者”、“青铜时代变态”、“咆哮变种人”和“囚徒梦想家”等知名账号。然而，白宫助手、部门雇员和国会山的工作人员也都深陷于同样的生态系统中。作家约翰·甘兹将这种现象称为“格罗伊珀化”（groyperfication），源于网红尼克·富恩特斯的追随者，他们自称为“格罗伊珀”（groypers）。这是一个有用的简写，尽管富恩特斯的粉丝大多因“家里蹲”心态而无法在国会山找到工作。据报道，为年轻保守派后起之秀设立的训练营“美国时刻”会筛选掉格罗伊珀。这种保护措施确实有必要。战争部（按法律名称为国防部）的极右翼新闻秘书金斯利·威尔逊曾发布关于利奥·弗兰克的反犹太阴谋论，弗兰克是一名犹太男子，1915年在佐治亚州因被指控强奸一名少女而遭私刑处死。（历史学家大多认为弗兰克是无辜的。）国土安全部也经常发布法西斯主义的粉丝视频，并隐晦地引用白人至上主义的表情包。

Republicans saw their 2024 victory as a mandate. Having clawed the White House and Congress back from Democrats, they assumed the public was on their side, even when polling suggested otherwise. They ignored their base’s valid concerns about affordability and served them nonsensical memes instead. And they failed spectacularly in the realm where it actually mattered: politics. X, we can now declare once and for all, is not real life.

共和党人将 2024 年的胜利视为一种授权。在从民主党手中夺回白宫和国会后，他们认为公众站在自己这一边，尽管民调显示情况并非如此。他们无视选民对生活负担能力的合理担忧，转而提供毫无意义的表情包。最终，他们在真正重要的领域——政治——遭遇了惨败。我们现在可以彻底断言：X 并非现实生活。

In the run-up to the midterms, the Department of Education was posting about “Malfoid” — a gender-swapped version of Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter that far-right influencers claimed would save Western literature from the scourge of wokeness. The Department of Homeland Security was bragging about record lows in legal immigration, which outside white nationalist circles is typically not considered a negative thing. Pseudonymous shitposters like Howling Mutant were posting memes comparing themselves to noted child murderer Anakin Skywalker, the new avatar for the online right. Musk, a Republican megadonor, got in on the fun, as did Katie Miller, wife of ultranationalist White House adviser Stephen Miller, who dressed up as Anakin’s wife Padmé Amidala for Halloween. (Katie Miller’s last government role was advising Elon Musk’s failed Department of Government Efficiency; now she devotes her time to throwing lavish parties and hosting a podcast no one listens to.)

在中期选举前夕，教育部发布了关于“马尔福德”（Malfoid）的内容——这是《哈利·波特》中德拉科·马尔福的性别转换版本，极右翼网红声称它能将西方文学从“觉醒文化”的祸害中拯救出来。国土安全部则吹嘘合法移民人数创下历史新低，这在白人民族主义圈子之外通常并不被视为一件负面事情。像“咆哮变种人”这样的匿名喷子发布表情包，将自己比作臭名昭著的杀童犯安纳金·天行者，将其作为网络右翼的新化身。共和党大金主马斯克也参与其中，白宫超民族主义顾问斯蒂芬·米勒的妻子凯蒂·米勒也是如此，她在万圣节打扮成了安纳金的妻子帕德梅·阿米达拉。（凯蒂·米勒上一个政府职务是为埃隆·马斯克失败的“政府效率部”提供咨询；现在她将时间花在举办奢华派对和主持一个没人听的播客上。）

Most of the American public isn’t on X, but the conversations conservatives have there do bleed out into the mainstream — often with disastrous results. Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas railroad commissioner, lost his election by a huge margin after posting anti-Indian memes on X. (Asian American voters, including Indian Americans, moved to the left in Texas elections down the ballot.) Musk did his part to drive turnout, spending nearly half a billion dollars on Republican candidates and PACs. But even Musk’s money failed to make up for…

大多数美国公众并不使用 X，但保守派在上面的言论确实会渗透到主流社会——往往带来灾难性的后果。德克萨斯州铁路专员的共和党候选人博·弗伦奇在 X 上发布反印度人的表情包后，以巨大劣势输掉了选举。（包括印度裔美国人在内的亚裔选民在德克萨斯州的选举中转向了左翼。）马斯克为推动投票率尽了自己的一份力，在共和党候选人和政治行动委员会（PAC）上花费了近五亿美元。但即使是马斯克的钱也无法弥补……