For what it’s worth (as a paid subscriber) I really appreciated this article and think the work you’re doing here is really important

enclose.horse Day 31
🥈 Great 🥈 87% this looks v fun

Maybe “shitpost populism” is a better name for it?

The vast majority of the country DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS MAN.

Even the doodles know.

Folks have to move away from suing as the primary way to address every fucking issue in this country.

We need so much more creativity and focus.

This connective faction framework seems incredibly useful to me, and I look forward to seeing how it applies in my own future work. Highly recommend reading the paper! 8/8

Additionally, Republican MoCs who talked about CRT were mentioned significantly less by mainstream news than those who did not, but are talked about MORE in partisan media, highlighting further the distinction between these factions' roles and access to distinct media environments. 7/

Right-wing news articles mentioning CRT similarly received more engagement. The opposite was true for mainstream news, which received less engagement on articles about CRT. 6/

MoCs using the term CRT were likelier to link to "alt-tech" platforms, both follow and are more followed on Twitter/X than Republican MoCs not posting about CRT, and are more frequently reference partisan media. They also received more engagement on posts mentioning CRT over their baseline. 5/

Their analysis focuses on 2020-2022 usage of the term "CRT" by Republicans, and highlight that MoCs using this term were more ideologically right-leaning, likelier to be opposed to the reelection of McCarthy as speaker, and more likely to be freedom caucus or liberty caucus members. 4/

This is a case study within a larger framework of factional conflict enabled by modern digital media environments, where factions struggle for power both within the party and within broader political contests, including through engaging in coordination outside of party infrastructures. 3/

The authors triangulate across a variety of data including media datasets, congressional newsletters, and members of Congress' voting records to understand different factions of the Republican party's usage of the term "CRT" as illustrative of intra-party conflicts. 2/