Kat Rosenfield

You know, George W. Bush seemed like a catastrophe at the time, you know, to me and the people in my cohort.

I have since mellowed on that question somewhat, just having seen what came after.

But what's different now is

We are all online all the time.

Social media is a thing in a way that it wasn't back in 2003.

And I think that we have entered this era where people basically substitute political engagement for having a personality, and they also treat it like it's a religion and a spectator sport in which you can participate yourself.

So what we've got now is what I call fandom politics.

And the really unfortunate thing about this is that we now live in an era where the main thing is not just, like, what kind of world do you envision?

What kind of a world do you want to build?

What kind of a society do you want to live in?

And who are the politicians that you support because you think they support or share your vision for what the future in the country should be?

It's really this performative kind of rooting against somebody who you've cast as the villain in the national morality play.

And an enormous amount of what's happening, you know, rhetorically, online, in the media, basically anywhere you go, is about that.

It's this sort of negative polarization.

It's defining ourselves and other people based on

what we perceive them to be against or who we perceive to be against them.

It's wrestling.

It's wrestling.

I don't know.

I am very curious to see what comes after Donald Trump on the political right because I think he is irreplaceable for better or for worse.