Still thinking about the most recent episode of @idsgpod — among other things, @Jack_Graham and @danieleharper returned a couple of times to the idea of the “intellectual dark web” as an identify built around having heterodox opinions.
To be clear, it’s common for someone arguing for X to frame themselves as an outsider to the “status quo,” or a rebel willing to speak dangerous truths. Heck, that’s 50% of my content strategy shitposting, by volume.
But! When one’s personal brand becomes, essentially, “Bob The Heterodox Opinion Haver,” a self-reinforcing cycle becomes inevitable. “Mainstream” ideas must, by definition, be suspect and bad or there’s no reason for you to be.
And your opinions must always push the boundary of accepted thought, or at least be framed as such — because if they don’t, your whole schtick is null and void. This is particularly problematic as the mainstream changes — or as competitors try to one-up you.
That’s the ironic situation FOX News has found itself in; after a generation of shouting that “the mainstream media is untrustworthy, and you can trust us because we say things they won’t!” they have new, more extreme competitors like Newsmax and OAN etc nipping at their heels.
OANN and Newsmax are trying to steal the “You can trust us because we’ll say what ~they~ won’t” spot, positioning FOX as an untrustworthy mainstream voice. FOX has to keep doubling down on extremism, or the conceptual foundation of its claim to trustworthiness dissolves.