What makes Red Bull, Elon Musk and the Republican Party the same? All are decadent. Excellent read.
The unifying principle that binds Red Bull and Elon Musk is attention economics: The idea that in a world moving toward post-scarcity, the attention of human beings becomes increasingly valuable.
Which brings us to Matthew Louis Gaetz II.
A lot of people have goofed on Matt Gaetz for this statement: “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”
But he’s right. Or at least, right in his conclusion that Republican party politics now behave according to attention economics.
This “scandal” has leveled up Matt Gaetz and made him a contender for any office he so desires (so long as he doesn’t actually go to jail) because the attention he has from Republican voters is incredibly valuable—and can be leveraged into power. No part of the Republican voting coalition will consider any of this as a mark against him.
You think I’m kidding?
On Tuesday, it was announced that Gaetz will be speaking at an event hosted by Women for America First at Trump National Doral.
mediaite.com April 7th 2021
Democrats do not seem to understand this new development in Republican politics, perhaps because they do not live in a post-scarcity political world. There are still a great many legislative outcomes that Democrats want from government. So they think that the governing matters more than getting attention.
This is post-scarcity politics. Republican voters—a group distinct from Conservatism Inc.—no longer have any concrete outcomes that they want from government.
What they have, instead, is a lifestyle brand.
If a political party making and selling policy widgets can’t beat a party that ignores policy except as it is useful to memeing and producing #content for its various media channels . . .
Well, post-scarcity is just another way of saying decadence.
https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/red-bull-elon-musk-and-matt-gaetz
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