got elected in the first place, in large part, because of the gimmick, the novelty, the brand recognition. Sure, the bigotry and the crude barbarism appeal for chuds was there too, but that’s what I’m worried about.
My concern is that description, including basically all of the above, has a lot of overlap with a lot of famous-for-being famous “influencer” grifters.
I can’t help wondering if the red team vs blue team of the electoral future of Burgerland will be some shrieking game streamer chud ® 
versus some cold-eyed rictus smiling “philanthropy” grifter (D) 
I ask if there’s something I’m not thinking of that might push back against what looks like an inevitability, short of Giant Meteor 2024 or sufficient Cool Zone events.
Yeah the “influencer” thing isn’t anything new. It’s just this generation’s version of radio stars and Tupperware parties.
Honestly the term “influencer” gives me the ick. Not because of what they do (again, it’s not anything new), but because I notice it gets directed more towards women and their associated treats. Like okay maybe they can chill out with gooning over treats, but maybe look at our own treat gooning. The Chapo hosts are “influencers.” Hasan is an influencer. Twitch streamers? Influencers (yet for some reason arent called that). Even newscasters and radio DJs are influencers for analog media.
Anywho I’m ranting. Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, that one pornstar who ran for governor of Nevada, that other pornstar who actually got elected as governor or mayor of that one place, Al Franken, Jerry Springer, Shirley Temple, and Gary Kasparov are all celebrities-turned-politician.
fwiw I’ve definitely heard male streamers and youtubers like and including Hasan regularly called influencers in media. Less so with podcasters, cos ‘podcaster’ is usually just what they use, but I’ve definitely heard it regularly as a kind of a sex-and-gender-agnostic general catch-all term for “social media streaming personalities” (especially when the personality is more centered and central than the content). I do hate and wince at the term regardless though. It has an especially Bernaysian tinge to it that’s so dystopian to me. The other examples were people who were well known from specific competing or role performances in other jobs through set channels of specific timeframes in specific mediums, and used the notoriety gained from celebrity to garner influence; rather than their influencing being their whole job from the bottom up; with all the parasociality and associated ails and derangements we see constantly of having personality-made-product directly. Idk in some ways it is a little “changing the name of the thing thinking you’ve changed the thing itself” but the full-commodification of personality with 24 hour streams and daily 8-10hour streams and stuff there’s something particularly “indeed becom[ing] the most wretched of commodities” about it to me.