Protests Don't Work

Stay home.

When you get the clarion call to go to some destination to wield signs and slogans in support of your mission I hope it makes you feel good, because it has no effect on the cause whatsoever.

Mass protests in America are all based on those that took place during the Vietnam era.

But the Vietnam era was different. Not only was there no streaming TV, there was no basic cable, no cable news, CNN didn't arrive until 1980, and there was no Fox, never mind the CW. We only had three television networks and we all watched 'em. Hit TV shows had ratings akin to the Super Bowl, every week. There was not a soul who had not seen "Laugh-In" on Monday night, and you had to tune in Monday night or it was gone forever. Oh, there might be a summer rerun, but there was no On Demand, never mind videotapes or DVDs.

As for the news?

Talk to any boomer. That's what you watched during dinner, especially in times of crisis. Everybody tuned in, everybody was hipped to what was happening. And because of the Fairness Doctrine, there were not endless cries of bias, and where would they get traction anyway?

And if you wanted to know what was going on in your hometown you read the newspaper, it was the only way to be clued-in.

And if you wanted to meet someone, you didn't fire up an app, you had to go out and work it in person.

So if you showed up and marched in the sixties, the footage got on network TV and was on the front page in newspapers, which were read by many more people than today.

I don't know a soul who watches network news anymore. Walter Cronkite? He was as big as Johnny Carson. And believe me, if it weren't for "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" no one would even be paying attention to what happens after 11:30 at night on network. The ratings are anemic, but the media is inured to a dated story. That's right, if you want to know where it's going you don't watch TV, you don't read the newspaper, and you certainly don't listen to someone in D.C., you go online, that's where it's happening.

And there's not one place you can reach everybody online, but you can be in many places at once. You're not limited to posting only on Facebook, you're not limited to only posting in one place on Facebook. If you've got a mission you spam the entire internet. That's how you change hearts and minds.

And the key is not to do it via spam, i.e. worthless drivel, but by making your case in an interesting way. There is no captive audience anymore, no one has to sit through a commercial, people even have ad-blockers in their browsers, I certainly do, to speed up the surfing experience if nothing else. So what you have to do is employ the same tribe that used to go out to the town square to go online and reach people not only where they live, but everywhere! That's what the web delivers. Which is why Bad Bunny is the biggest act in the universe. Impossible before the internet and streaming services. But now you can reach everybody!

Now if enough people take to the streets...

It still doesn't make a difference.

Black Lives Matter? What exactly changed as a result of that? Oh, that's right, Fox and the rest of the blowhards got a talking point, making a false equivalency to 1/6. Yes, disrupting the election process is just like marching in the street. As for a few broken windows and some looting... I'm not endorsing them, but to equate them with trying to overturn the election results, threatening to hang Mike Pence, deaths in the Capitol, stealing the wares of elected officials... That's like saying a stolen base in Little League is equivalent to a stolen base in the MLB. No, it's like saying a blown call in Little League is equivalent to stealing signs in the World Series.

Oh, come off it.

But the truth is the right is winning just by me typing these words.

You see Fox News has horrible ratings. It drew 2.27 million viewers in the prime time hours in May. "The Five" got 3.28 million, "Tucker Carlson Tonight" got 3.2 million.

As for the coveted 25-54 demo? Only 522,000 people watched Tucker Carlson. And only 447,000 "The Five." And those were the top two!

It's even worse at MSNBC. Their prime time average is 1.02 million.

But all we keep hearing about is Fox News and MSNBC. When in truth in a country of 332 million, fewer than ONE PERCENT watch Fox News!

But the mainstream media focuses on what happens on the cable news networks because they can't fathom walking into the wilderness of the internet, trying to decipher what is really going on online.

I'll analogize it to music. Ever try to get a handle on new music? It's absolutely impossible, it's overwhelming.

Let's see, the big hype this week is Angel Olsen. She just put out her sixth album, she's been around since 2012. But you've probably never heard of her. As for her numbers, she's got a few tracks with double-digit million stream counts on Spotify, but that's nowhere close to the hit artists. #50 on the Spotify U.S. Top 50 just got 431,108 streams in a single day! And that's not even a worldwide number!

This week there's also been a ton of ink about Soccer Mommy. Her streaming numbers are close, but not even as good as Angel Olsen's! And I saw Soccer Mommy and she wasn't that great, maybe she's better now, but my point is if you listen to the music of these two acts it's not for everybody, it's niche at best, but the media makes it look like they have huge impact in the marketplace, that many people are listening constantly.

I could name a zillion other hyped acts, with a plethora of reviews, with even worse numbers, but I'll just point out that when you take the number of weekly streams on Spotify in the aggregate... That's a huge number. Spotify itself has 182 million subscribers. It's tough being one act on the service, you want to control a bunch of hits, which is the business of the major labels, especially with their catalog. One act? Reaches so few people it's laughable.

But it didn't used to be this way, because it used to be you could only hear new music on the radio, and there were a limited number of stations and a limited number of records spun. They haven't opened the floodgates, THEY'VE TORN DOWN THE DAM!

So one person tweeting...essentially irrelevant. You've got to have many people on the case, it's the only way you can reach people.

And your goal is to reach those not paying attention. You don't want a circle jerk where everybody involved is already on the same page. Why is it that those on the right post on left wing sites but the left doesn't post on right wing sites? I mean you go where the people are, right?

If you want to protest, you've got to do it online. Everything is virtual these days. As for concerts, you can reach millions of people on Twitch at one time, you could never have that many people at a single concert. And you don't have to worry about weather or transportation either.

Chances are if you're citing Fox and MSNBC, you're a news junkie. How about all those not paying attention? You want to reach them!

Like Alito's theory employed to overturn Roe v. Wade. If you read it in a vacuum, if you read or hear about it in the right wing world, it seems logical. If you're not exposed to analysis from the other side, you don't get it. There are dog whistles in the opinion itself, right wing code that many people are completely oblivious to.

You can read an analysis here:

"Here are key passages from the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe.": https://nyti.ms/3yl5RHB

For far too long Democrats have operated on feel, whereas Republicans study the issues, cite facts and...the Democrats are dumbfounded. It's more complicated than just Roe v. Wade being overturned. Educate yourself on the issues, then you're prepared to fight. Every straw man on the right can be knocked down, assuming you know what you're talking about.

As for yelling online... People ignore it. It's when you're calm that you gain traction, when you approach people logically, appealing to both their heads and their hearts that you win.

I'll tell you how screwed up the leaders of this country are... Music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption, now it's all about streaming, but the charts??? Physical has more weight. Why? And all this hype on vinyl. Enjoy it, but it's a de minimis part of the total. Never mind we've gone to a play paradigm as opposed to a purchase. I mean sure, buy the CD, but if you never listen to it what are the odds you'll want to go to the show, where the act can make a ton more money? Almost nil. We're looking for active listeners.

And we're looking for active posters online.

But all we've got on the left, especially in the "New York Times," is endless denigration of smartphone usage, to the point where Apple blinked and you get a weekly report of the hours you were on your devices. SO WHAT? Have you ever seen that number and said you wanted to surf less? Of course not!

How can you win when your leaders are against the primary communication method used by the majority of the population?

YOU CAN'T!

You spread your message online.

Protesting IRL is like walking instead of driving. Oh, if it's just a few blocks, cool. But if you want to get from New York to Boston, or Kansas City to Denver...plan on spending a few weeks, if not months, on the road.

What did Sam Kinison say about starving people in Africa? Stop sending them food, send suitcases, these people have to move, they've got to go where the food is!

The food in politics is online. Definitively.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25