Drew Harwell

Facebook was changing their algorithm, shunting traffic in other ways.

And a lot of the political energy they had was also fading.

This pro-Trump, reflexive support was changing.

And meanwhile, they didn't...

They didn't have the political high ground for a lot of their fans anymore.

A lot of their fans were moving to these independent creators who were more likely to say what they wanted to hear.

And it was just kind of a perfect storm for them.

When you go into Ben Shapiro's social media, you don't see a lot of that confident energy that you saw five years ago.

I look on his TikTok and his Instagram, they really, his short videos really give this whiff of desperation.

He's doing all of the stuff that like a TikToker would do, but he doesn't really, he doesn't seem to really enjoy it as much.

You know, it's like the culture war is still happening, but he's kind of flailing to regain that relevance that he had.

And so I just don't think there's enough propulsion there to keep him at the center of these maggot conversations anymore.

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