In the age of social media, we are in constant battles to be more ‘edgy’ or extreme compared to others in our movement. That’s how you get Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, Laura Loomer, Milo Yinnapolous, and so many more insane social media icons. Now, these people I’ve mentioned, and many others in the social media/social movement world are popular for a reason, their antics. That’s not to say they haven’t grown because of where they started: as very talented and (somtimes) smart individuals. Milo, for instance, was the Editor-at-Large for Breitbart, and his piece on Brexit as it happened is fantastic, as well as much else he has spoke on and wrote. Despite Laura Loomer’s antics and public ‘protests,’ she’s also done some fantastic journalism. But these talented people can’t survive on talent alone. Articles and a speaking engagement for the College Republican Club at some medium-sized university might not even pay the bills, let alone grow your brand. So to get attention to yourself, you have to one-up those in your bubble. While new Tiktok challenges pop-up that have kids racing to stick metal utensils in electrical outlets and fracture their skulls, we see the social movement/political equivalent of that taking place online.

Stepping away from politics, an apolitical group I am quite fond of is Fight The New Drug (FTNG). They got some pretty cool t-shirts, I totally bought one. They are an anti-pornography group, seeking cultural change, not legislative change. They are also not a religious group. A few times they will respond to a tweet asking them if they want to ban porn, saying they make it clear that is not their goal. And the replies will tell them they are too weak, they should be cheering when India bans porn, not condemning or staying silent on it. They are stuck in a precarious position: they are a niche, they need to make some bold statements in order to appeal to their base and gain more relevancy, but they need to stay somewhat watered down to appeal to the masses.

That’s the position all of these groups are in, they’ll say something pretty ridiculous, but safe. It’s hard to describe, so I’ll let Charlie Kirk’s tweets speak for themselves.

Facts: Under socialized medicine, wait times in Canada increased 377% With the first known “community spread” case of the Coronavirus happening in the United States, socialized medicine would be a disaster People would die waiting. Yet nearly every Democrat supports it? 🤔 — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 27, 2020

I was the Vice President of a College Republican group and we were closely partnered with TPUSA. They sent us a ton of free posters. Besides a few “Socialism Sucks” posters in Bernie’s campaign style, we literally had to throw them out, even cringey college conservatives wouldn’t take them.

So just by looking at retweets, sales, money-raised, these groups are “successful” in a sense. Individuals like Milo and Laura Loomer had their 15 seconds of fame (Loomer is running for Congress as we speak). But in terms of actual influence? They have none, zero, zilch. By playing it safe while loudly saying what their base wants to hear, they stay in one place. They don’t move up. Kassy Dillon’s Lone Conservative ( conservative opinion site for college-aged individuals) is in absolute shambles in terms of clicks, TPUSA gets some decent donor funding but college campuses continue to grow more liberal. Fight The New Drug has very little conviction, pushing shoddy research with catchy headlines.

One could argue these groups are the gate: they raise awareness. You start by reading an article on Fight The New Drug, buy a t-shirt, and eventually discover through your anti-pornography views that religious objection to porn is something you identify with and eventually find yourself religious and more staunchly anti-porn. Maybe some mediocre writer in college pens a piece for Lone Conservative and gets super red-pilled as they do their research. Maybe that cool poster or tshirt from Red Light Rebellion inspires you to take classes at your local women’s shelter and become a Victim Advocate.

While these groups might serve a purpose of introducing individuals to movements, they aren’t worth getting invested in. These groups will never grow. They are one actual or manufactured scandal away from irrelevancy.