Read on Twitter
Just realizing something. I'd seen this in a lot of social movements I studied. One of the distorting impacts of social media is people confusing high-follower count with actual influence and/or status in broader world. For sure, it matters, but.. by no means is it a direct link.
There are a lot of people #onhere with large followings who do not necessarily have a lot of influence over how things unfold except they do, of course, influence how we think about things which is real influence, but just one type.
I see this sometimes people getting excessively mad at someone for some policy they support or oppose, when, in reality, they aren't really connected to the mechanisms that create/continue/change said policy. Sure, disagree, but important to keep the "anger" in proportion here.
I don't mean to say ideas and "narrative power" doesn't matter. Of course it does! But that really, really doesn't translate directly either into proportional influence or representing influence or sometimes even the main/powerful ideas within a field. For better or worse.
No, that's not what I'm talking about (though bots exist). There are people on here who may have huge followings but little direct influence beyond that voice (and people get mad at them as if they rule the world). And vice versa. https://twitter.com/Neferast/status/1360989038614876167
