Our politicians are too online

Fetterman, Santos, and the double-edged sword that is internet literacy in Congress.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Please don’t meme war, thanks! — Kate

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It’s been another hard few months online. As always, I grapple with what my responsibility is when it comes to consuming bad news. I know from the early Covid years that relentlessly subjecting myself to horrific headlines and stats inspires nothing but emotional paralysis, even if looking away from the crisis in Gaza feels like an abhorrent misuse of my privilege. 

Lately, it’s more than just the grim headlines and graphic images that are making me chafe at my own timeline. It’s the boomerific rise of memes being used to score internet points in a political crisis. 

Politicians like John Fetterman have been applauded in recent years for their (or their team’s) savvy use of internet language and trends to dunk on opponents. This works when other politicians are the targets, and the punches are being thrown up or across. But to snark about war is to, at best, oversimplify a very complex situation, and at worst, callously disrespect your constituents and the victims of violence. 

I’m thinking of one post in particular.