Not Right, Not-Left, Just Online

thought digest, 08.18.2025

Good afternoon, Deeists.

I’m having one of those days where I feel like I haven’t really woken yet and it’s a little after 4:00 as I sit down to write this. This is the kind of thing that usually a strong cup of coffee fixes for me, but not today for some reason. Ever feel like that? Like your shirt doesn’t fit right or something, but there’s an emotional dimension to it?

The story I can’t get out of my head today is the one every other newsletter is talking about: the launch of The Argument, former Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas’s new media project that promises not just to “diagnose problems” but “persuade people of solutions.”

Which is funny because I feel like it’s been a long, long time since we’ve been in a more descriptive mode of journalism. In fact, I’m not entirely sure “journalism” as truth-seeking operation really exists as such anymore (with a handful of exceptions, of course).

A lot has been said about this launch, but there’s one angle I haven’t seen explored: the left is trying, desperately, to catch up with “right-coded” alt-media. Demsas is either four years too late or right on time.

THE ALT-MEDIA ECOSYSTEM

Here’s a story most of you already know. COVID was a great time to try your hand at Internet celebrity. Institutional trust—CNN, Fox, the New York Times, Fauci, the WHO—collapsed for millions of people who suddenly needed new ways to make sense of the world.

And what filled that vacuum? The so-called “right-wing” alt media. What nobody wants to say about these creators, except for maybe the creators themselves, is that they—and indeed, the whole ecosystem they belong to—are not strictly right-wing. They are “not-left” but they aren’t on the right.

Being “not-left” during COVID was simple. All you had to do was disagree with lockdowns and mandates. That low bar brought in a huge tent of people. The tent, of course, had already been built by the excesses of wokeness, #MeToo, etc. COVID filled it out.

These creators shared one message: “The mainstream media is lying to you. We’re telling the truth.” In many cases, they were right. This “not-left” group was absorbed into the Online Right, a sprawling ecosystem that includes everyone from the Dissident Right to anti-woke crypto hucksters to Nick Fuentes’ groypers to Intellectual Dark Web figures to mainstream conservative podcasters to dozens of smaller micro-subcultures and ideologies.

I’m skeptical that the left doesn’t have the same media power—last time I checked, there are more liberal podcasts, magazines, TV shows, etc. than any one person could count. But it could be that they just don’t have the same political influence. Whatever the case, the specter of the Online Right and Alt-Media Ecosystem emerged, full-force, during the podcast election.

MAGA CHANGES EVERYTHING

Trump’s 2024 win exposed the fault lines in what everyone assumed was a unified “right-wing” movement. For some people, being anti-establishment got complicated when your side controlled the establishment. A lot of people who’d been lumped in with the right realized (or had always known) they didn’t like Trump or his politics—it was just that there was nowhere to go. Some people simply changed their mind.

Whatever the reasons, this fracturing created a massive opportunity. All these people with huge, engaged audiences who’d been accidentally sorted into the “right-wing” category were suddenly politically homeless again. They didn’t want to be MAGA cheerleaders, but they also couldn’t go back to a left that had already expelled them for “thought crimes.”

THE GREAT REALIGNMENT

Now we’re seeing different types of these creators and audiences sorting themselves out:

• The Post-Right: People who burnt out on the online right-wing ecosystem entirely. Think Richard Hanania, Nick Fuentes¹, or even Richard Spencer. They’re not leftists, they’re not people who were mislabeled during COVID, #MeToo, or “peak woke,” but they do reject the current-state of the Right. Sometimes they’re Democrats who took “the scenic route.” Sometimes these people are opportunists. Sometimes they’ve evolved.
  

• The Post-Anti-Woke: Contrarians and other anti-woke voices who don’t like the state of the Right or “anti-woke” media. They built audiences criticizing progressive excess. Some may have even voted for Trump. Too anti-progressive for the present-day left, too anti-Trump for the right.
  

• Centrists Drifting Right: People responding to audience incentives and cultural energy. They’re following where the engagement is (which has been rightward) or discovering they’re more right-wing than they thought.
  

• The Older Liberal Center: Similar to the post-anti-woke but coming from a different starting point. These are traditional liberals who never went full-bore woke nor did they pivot to anti-woke. Here, I’m thinking of somebody like Ezra Klein or Gavin Newsom’s new stance.
  

• The Grift Doubling-Down: Online right figures who’ve discovered that rage-bait pay the bills better than nuanced takes. They’re trapped in an increasingly extreme content cycle to maintain their audiences.
  

• The New Old Left: I see more and more of these people every day. They’re leftists—and use that word—but they’re trying to improve their theory of mind of the right. They focus more on class than other dimensions of identity.

And now, Demsas’s project. She’s clearly aiming for that sweet spot between “liberal and not sanctimonious” and “critical and not contrarian.” The Argument seems like the left’s attempt to build their own alt-media ecosystem and win back some of these audiences.

WILL THEY SUCCEED?

We’re in a moment where audiences are getting tired of one-person media projects. Subscription fatigue is real. People miss gatekeeping; AI and person-created slop is overwhelming every platform. (Read Daisy Alioto’s “The Future of Media is a Bank” for a fresh take on all three of those topics.)

But also, fatigue doesn’t mean new projects can’t succeed. It just means that we need to prep for more losers. I mean, hell, I might be one such loser. Who knows. Either way, this is a moment for left-wing media. The question is whether they’ll seize it.

THE CALL-IN SHOW

This week’s call-in theme is SOMEBODY’S WATCHING ME.

Thursday night, 7:30-9:30 PM, I'll be streaming my call-in show. Call in on your actual phone, no screening calls, just whatever's on your mind about surveillance, being watched, or watching somebody else.

LINKS + THINGS

• I watched this incredible short film about Coast to Coast AM regular Major Ed Dames, the former military intelligence officer who became the face of “remote viewing” after leaving the Army. I won’t say more. Just watch it and let me know what you think in the comments.

• I don’t want to overload you guys on the clips, but check out this clip of economist George Gilder on his book Sexual Suicide. The more things change, the more they stay the same… It’s wild to me that he’s not better known.

• Someone posted on Reddit claiming that retatrutide (the diabetes/weight loss drug) caused them to detransition. They’d been transitioning for four years, were months away from surgery, then took the drug for six weeks and suddenly lost all gender dysphoria…

• Who’s ready for the next movie club? It’s been a while. Leave a comment below.

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Submit missed connections, personals, and advice questions to me directly or on Tellonym. I am also always accepting writing submissions, personal ads ($20 per ad), and regular ads ($50 per ad).

P.S. I have been slow on going through the submissions pile. If you already submitted a piece and haven’t heard back from me, it’s not because I didn’t like it or am not considering it. It’s because I’m behind on my emails!

1. Gavin Newsom accidentally quote-tweeted a groyper.