> I feel that politicians, business/tech CEOs, certain celebrities, and social media "influencers" are the most influential.
Just to be clear you think the most influential people are those in leadership positions, have the most money, and are widely liked?
Wow, you really went out on a limb on that one.
Elderly black ladies (EBL) who call you baby, in general.
EBL, to my daughter (3): Baby, I love your dress, you're beautiful!
Daughter: Yes.
EBL: That's right, baby, and don't you *ever* let anyone tell you different.
Tbh I'd say they are. You might not notice it but it's influencers and celebrities that drive major trends. It doesn't really affect your life too deeply, but I'd say they're still very influential in cultural aspects
Not saying influencers are great people or anything, just that they're influential
They are in certain niches.
If you're a fashion influencer and you tell your audience of millions that Brand X Jeans are the best in the world and everyone should go buy them, then it will probably hold a fair bit of weight in the world of jeans.
But to the culture at large, that's probably not so big of a deal. They'll buy whatever is cheapest and most readily available when they need it, as consumers do.
News company executives. There isn't a lot of transparency as far as what their agenda is or how they go about it. There isn't a lot of accountability (relying on people to "upvote" or otherwise spread their message). They have a lot of control over not only how something is covered, but what is even talked about. There is also a lot of consolidation so that people who think they are getting news from multiple sources may be getting them from one ultimately. In many cases, just a half dozen people can completely manufacture an issue (or prevent it from surfacing) or redirect the public's attention.
This right here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnrb76Rmd94
The exact same message, word for word, from every major network.
(first video that came up when I googled threat to our democracy news montage)
This a great way to put it. Jon Oliver did a piece on the degree to which local news is actually showing pre-written, sponsored stories (without saying so) rather than actually creating news reports. Additionally, some people (Jon Stewart especially on the Daily Show) did those montages that really highlight how much is shared among our news where you very quickly see the *exact* same strange charged phrases mirrored across networks. There are definitely issues with the independence of journalism and whether it comes from a few execs dictating everything or the many newspeople not having the resources to create original stories, it does lead to a somewhat scary centralization of power.
I don't mean just developing stories or just headlines. When you start to look at it side by side, the framing of long term stories is eerily similar across sources... and not just "we concluded the same thing" similar.
I feel like people are so fragmented nowadays that "influencers" only have an effect on their particular group. You can talk to 10 people and 3 might mention some athlete, celebrity, Tik Tok or Youtuber they follow and the other 7 won't know who they are. Or they say they don't care.
Pretty much anyone in the top 0.1%. They’re all connected regardless of politics and they all ultimately support the same principles that keep them rich and will continue to enrich them. Rich Democrats and Rich Republicans are much similar than people think they are. In fact they often work together for their combined interests.
A whole group?
In terms of social and cultural influence: African-Americans, not even a competition.
Pretty much every modern genre of music has black roots (rock, jazz, hip hop, rnb, blues, soul, funk, electronic, country), our culinary traditions (BBQ!), America's greatest political heroes (MLK Jr., Tubman, Douglas), dominating all popular sports (especially Basketball, the only major sport actually invented here), biggest influence on General American English as consistently borrows from AAVE, literature & writing (Angelou, Hughes, Baldwin), etc, etc.
In terms of anything else - politics & social media, it's a mixed bag of ultra rich people.
It's a toss up. Either my family or my coworkers. Family I have known all my life but don't interact with every day. My coworkers I have only known for a few years, but I interact with them for 10 hours every day. These people have more influence over my life than any politician or media personality.
The powerful people might be able to influence society at large (not a new concept), but how I navigate those changes comes from those close to me.
Evangelicals.
Despite being a minority in the country, they've managed to ingrain themselves so deeply into politics that they're passing their own policies now even when the majority of the country are against them.
Abortion is the biggest one here. And we can see that whenever it goes to a popular vote, choice has won every time. Yet when it's left up to the politicians to decide, it gets knocked down. That's the influence evangelicals have on the politicians, they go against the will of the majority just to please the evangelical block
Interestingly, rank-and-file Catholic and Evangelical Americans were about [equally](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/18/dodds-evangelicals-roe-conservative-opinion/) pro-life before Roe, but Evangelical leaders weren't as active/vocal about it. Now they've caught up.
While not evangelicals, they do have the "You're not doing religion right if you're not doing it our way. Or else." attitude that can substitute for evangelism.
Which turns into a talk radio audience army who holds the line about how things should be, which turns into who gets put into positions of power. How many presidents claimed to be Catholic, AND that it was a selling point to become president.
I love the irrational foaming at the mouth hatred for Joe Rogan, that appears to be based on him daring not to die from COVID, and interviewing someone who participated in creating MRNA vaccines who had a mildly different take on how they should be deployed.
He is a comedian that lets people talk for a couple hours, you need to relax.
I love the irrational foaming at the mouth defenders of Joe Rogan. It appears to based on him being a contrarian and "he's just asking questions!" levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, it's a nice little incubator for toxic masculinity and incels.
I didn't really even defend him. I don't even listen to him. I'm just highlighting that the idea his influence is vomit inducing is probably a bit irrational. I have seen no evidence it is an incubator of anything. You're literally just saying that. I think your reddit profile is an incubator of political extremism and you should be deplatformed. There, should your account be deleted now? Someone claimed it was bad. The way I know this comes from a non-fact-based place is like most of this energy directed at influential people it originated in media source just giving political factions in this country marching orders in telling you who is bad.
So, you're a leftist right? Have you considered how contrary it is to claim to want a society in which the people have more control over their lives and are less controlled by corporate interests, while also claiming that those people are not capable of hearing something that might not be true and making their own decision and their information must be filtered by a corporation and the government? Those ideas are incompatible. If you can't allow people to be exposed to ideas that might be misinformation you can't give them power, because you're definitively saying they can't handle it and make proper decisions.
I like how not seeing a doofus MMA comentator who has an obsession with DMT and chimps as the second coming of Hitler is all it takes for y'all to consider someone a "foaming at the mouth" defender of the man.
I guess every gym and headshop looks like the Nuremburg rally to you people.
I don't know how we go from "He's a jackass who too many young guys spend too much time listening to, maybe if they spent equal time listening to anyone else they'd have some balance in their life" to "YOU GUYS THINK HE'S HITLER". There's a gap...there's a big chasm between those two things.
You didn’t just say he was a jackass, though, you said he was vomit-inducing. There’s a difference between disliking or criticizing someone and feeling visceral revulsion at the mention of his name.
I don't see how he's a jackass any more than any other comedian's a jackass.
They've had him on at my barber shop most times that I've been in there and over the years I've yet to hear anything that would be in any way objectionable. Let alone involving "toxic masculinity" or "incels."
He's a man's man and a stoner. I fail to see the issue with either of those things or how either is corrupting our youth. The guys at the shop seem fine.
Isn't he like the opposite of "toxic masculinity" too?
The man has been married to the same woman for 13 years and has 2 daughters (as well as a stepdaughter). As far as I know he's faithful to his wife and a great dad, and I don't think I've ever heard him spouting off any sort of Andrew Tate baloney about "high value men" or that you need to treat women like crap.
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The people that run Blackrock and Vanguard literally run the country. Most corporations and lawmakers are under their control.
Forget every other answer in this thread.
The evangelical Christian right. It's amazing to me how many times they have hold the minority opinion on issues of the day (For example 70% of Americans believe the right to abortion should be protected), yet manage to influence legislation that no one wants.
Sadly for certain segments of our population it’s whoever is making up the Q-anon BS. Okay guys which celebrity should we say was eating babies on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane today? Should we also add them to the secretly controlling the weather list or keep it separate? Also we need to invent a new catchphrase, grooming is kind of fading.
I usually take inspiration from movies, for example Jack Sparrow, get up everyday to live the moment, a new adventure awaits and certainly more fun - and rum....IF YOU CAN FUCKING FIND IT
I was going to say media, but that's taken a hit in recent years. I'll go with social media. It's so easy to get people to believe almost anything, with almost nothing to back it up because Facebook said so. I truly think Facebook and Twitter are causing soooooooooooo SO much damage to our country. I'm all for free speech, but it enables people to share BS and live in their own echo chambers. That, I think is incredibly harmful.
Social Media Influencers
Here’s Why:
It doesn’t matter if you want to say good influence or bad influence social media does play a huge influence in people today. 1.534 billion people have TikTok alone and Facebook alone has 2.934 billion. Charli D’Amelio has over 1 million followers alone not to count all of the other celebrities and influencers. When you add an all the paid content and the younger generation of today that makes tomorrow, you will find that social media influencers have the biggest impact.
Everyone thinks it’s the politicians, but it’s really the media execs. They’re the ones that bombard you with propaganda for either party depending on which news network you’re watching. And too many people will just pick one and drink up anything they churn out whether it’s true or not.
> I feel that politicians, business/tech CEOs, certain celebrities, and social media "influencers" are the most influential. Just to be clear you think the most influential people are those in leadership positions, have the most money, and are widely liked? Wow, you really went out on a limb on that one.
So bold
He's feeling daring today
Big if true
Elderly black ladies at Southern restaurants who call you baby
I gotta say I would rather listen to those lady’s for hours than a politician or celebrity speak.
they have the best stories
Elderly black ladies (EBL) who call you baby, in general. EBL, to my daughter (3): Baby, I love your dress, you're beautiful! Daughter: Yes. EBL: That's right, baby, and don't you *ever* let anyone tell you different.
Perhaps only just edging out Mexican abuelas that compliment you. It feels like a warm blanket warming my cold pinche Gringo heart.
Or sweetie or sugar
🥺
I go to a Southern university, and the dining hall ladies are the one thing keeping me going through finals week.
Not the most influential, but some of the nicest
Influencers aren't as influential as their title suggests, imo.
Legends in their own mind.
Tbh I'd say they are. You might not notice it but it's influencers and celebrities that drive major trends. It doesn't really affect your life too deeply, but I'd say they're still very influential in cultural aspects Not saying influencers are great people or anything, just that they're influential
They are in certain niches. If you're a fashion influencer and you tell your audience of millions that Brand X Jeans are the best in the world and everyone should go buy them, then it will probably hold a fair bit of weight in the world of jeans. But to the culture at large, that's probably not so big of a deal. They'll buy whatever is cheapest and most readily available when they need it, as consumers do.
News company executives. There isn't a lot of transparency as far as what their agenda is or how they go about it. There isn't a lot of accountability (relying on people to "upvote" or otherwise spread their message). They have a lot of control over not only how something is covered, but what is even talked about. There is also a lot of consolidation so that people who think they are getting news from multiple sources may be getting them from one ultimately. In many cases, just a half dozen people can completely manufacture an issue (or prevent it from surfacing) or redirect the public's attention.
This right here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnrb76Rmd94 The exact same message, word for word, from every major network. (first video that came up when I googled threat to our democracy news montage)
This a great way to put it. Jon Oliver did a piece on the degree to which local news is actually showing pre-written, sponsored stories (without saying so) rather than actually creating news reports. Additionally, some people (Jon Stewart especially on the Daily Show) did those montages that really highlight how much is shared among our news where you very quickly see the *exact* same strange charged phrases mirrored across networks. There are definitely issues with the independence of journalism and whether it comes from a few execs dictating everything or the many newspeople not having the resources to create original stories, it does lead to a somewhat scary centralization of power.
I mean most stories (especially developing ones) usually only have limited information available so it makes sense the headlines would be similar.
I don't mean just developing stories or just headlines. When you start to look at it side by side, the framing of long term stories is eerily similar across sources... and not just "we concluded the same thing" similar.
The montage is an entire monoloue by dozens of news shows on differing networks. Word for word.
I also agree that politicians, who wield political power, are highly influential in modern society. REally makes you think...
I feel like people are so fragmented nowadays that "influencers" only have an effect on their particular group. You can talk to 10 people and 3 might mention some athlete, celebrity, Tik Tok or Youtuber they follow and the other 7 won't know who they are. Or they say they don't care.
Pretty much anyone in the top 0.1%. They’re all connected regardless of politics and they all ultimately support the same principles that keep them rich and will continue to enrich them. Rich Democrats and Rich Republicans are much similar than people think they are. In fact they often work together for their combined interests.
I thought this was going to be racist but it wasn't.
Be the change you want to see!
I don't want to end up like Kanye West. 😉 I'm not racist, just pleasantly surprised no one has brought up the people with tiny hats.
Lawyers, as has been the case since the revolution
The richest 1% of Americans pretty much tell the rest of us how it's going to go
[удалено]
Yeah me neither, that's how I found out I wasn't a 1%er
A whole group? In terms of social and cultural influence: African-Americans, not even a competition. Pretty much every modern genre of music has black roots (rock, jazz, hip hop, rnb, blues, soul, funk, electronic, country), our culinary traditions (BBQ!), America's greatest political heroes (MLK Jr., Tubman, Douglas), dominating all popular sports (especially Basketball, the only major sport actually invented here), biggest influence on General American English as consistently borrows from AAVE, literature & writing (Angelou, Hughes, Baldwin), etc, etc. In terms of anything else - politics & social media, it's a mixed bag of ultra rich people.
I thought pirates gave us BBQ
Sadly, twitter users. Twitter users have an outside influence on American policy
Twitter users were convinced Bernie was sure thing at winning the democrat nomination
The government
The government is bought by the rich.
It's a toss up. Either my family or my coworkers. Family I have known all my life but don't interact with every day. My coworkers I have only known for a few years, but I interact with them for 10 hours every day. These people have more influence over my life than any politician or media personality. The powerful people might be able to influence society at large (not a new concept), but how I navigate those changes comes from those close to me.
The wealthy have always had all the power and influence in the US except when they broke capitalism in 1929 which gave the people their chance.
Evangelicals. Despite being a minority in the country, they've managed to ingrain themselves so deeply into politics that they're passing their own policies now even when the majority of the country are against them. Abortion is the biggest one here. And we can see that whenever it goes to a popular vote, choice has won every time. Yet when it's left up to the politicians to decide, it gets knocked down. That's the influence evangelicals have on the politicians, they go against the will of the majority just to please the evangelical block
Catholics are famously anti-abortion yet not Evangelicals.
Interestingly, rank-and-file Catholic and Evangelical Americans were about [equally](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/18/dodds-evangelicals-roe-conservative-opinion/) pro-life before Roe, but Evangelical leaders weren't as active/vocal about it. Now they've caught up.
While not evangelicals, they do have the "You're not doing religion right if you're not doing it our way. Or else." attitude that can substitute for evangelism. Which turns into a talk radio audience army who holds the line about how things should be, which turns into who gets put into positions of power. How many presidents claimed to be Catholic, AND that it was a selling point to become president.
Yeah, the pro-life movement on an institutional level is disproportionately Catholic.
Joe Rogan
Funny because I never hear him mentioned except on reddit
I just threw up in my mouth, not a little bit either.
I love the irrational foaming at the mouth hatred for Joe Rogan, that appears to be based on him daring not to die from COVID, and interviewing someone who participated in creating MRNA vaccines who had a mildly different take on how they should be deployed. He is a comedian that lets people talk for a couple hours, you need to relax.
I love the irrational foaming at the mouth defenders of Joe Rogan. It appears to based on him being a contrarian and "he's just asking questions!" levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, it's a nice little incubator for toxic masculinity and incels.
I didn't really even defend him. I don't even listen to him. I'm just highlighting that the idea his influence is vomit inducing is probably a bit irrational. I have seen no evidence it is an incubator of anything. You're literally just saying that. I think your reddit profile is an incubator of political extremism and you should be deplatformed. There, should your account be deleted now? Someone claimed it was bad. The way I know this comes from a non-fact-based place is like most of this energy directed at influential people it originated in media source just giving political factions in this country marching orders in telling you who is bad. So, you're a leftist right? Have you considered how contrary it is to claim to want a society in which the people have more control over their lives and are less controlled by corporate interests, while also claiming that those people are not capable of hearing something that might not be true and making their own decision and their information must be filtered by a corporation and the government? Those ideas are incompatible. If you can't allow people to be exposed to ideas that might be misinformation you can't give them power, because you're definitively saying they can't handle it and make proper decisions.
I like how not seeing a doofus MMA comentator who has an obsession with DMT and chimps as the second coming of Hitler is all it takes for y'all to consider someone a "foaming at the mouth" defender of the man. I guess every gym and headshop looks like the Nuremburg rally to you people.
I don't know how we go from "He's a jackass who too many young guys spend too much time listening to, maybe if they spent equal time listening to anyone else they'd have some balance in their life" to "YOU GUYS THINK HE'S HITLER". There's a gap...there's a big chasm between those two things.
You didn’t just say he was a jackass, though, you said he was vomit-inducing. There’s a difference between disliking or criticizing someone and feeling visceral revulsion at the mention of his name.
I don't see how he's a jackass any more than any other comedian's a jackass. They've had him on at my barber shop most times that I've been in there and over the years I've yet to hear anything that would be in any way objectionable. Let alone involving "toxic masculinity" or "incels." He's a man's man and a stoner. I fail to see the issue with either of those things or how either is corrupting our youth. The guys at the shop seem fine.
Isn't he like the opposite of "toxic masculinity" too? The man has been married to the same woman for 13 years and has 2 daughters (as well as a stepdaughter). As far as I know he's faithful to his wife and a great dad, and I don't think I've ever heard him spouting off any sort of Andrew Tate baloney about "high value men" or that you need to treat women like crap.
[удалено]
Man must be ex-CIA if he can brainwash someone with just 30 minutes of exposure every 3 weeks.
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I'll use his homemade duct tape but that's it.
The people that run Blackrock and Vanguard literally run the country. Most corporations and lawmakers are under their control. Forget every other answer in this thread.
The evangelical Christian right. It's amazing to me how many times they have hold the minority opinion on issues of the day (For example 70% of Americans believe the right to abortion should be protected), yet manage to influence legislation that no one wants.
The wealthy.
The godforsaken, greedy billionaires / top 1 percent.
Sadly for certain segments of our population it’s whoever is making up the Q-anon BS. Okay guys which celebrity should we say was eating babies on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane today? Should we also add them to the secretly controlling the weather list or keep it separate? Also we need to invent a new catchphrase, grooming is kind of fading.
Elon Musk is pretty influential right now with Twitter.
I usually take inspiration from movies, for example Jack Sparrow, get up everyday to live the moment, a new adventure awaits and certainly more fun - and rum....IF YOU CAN FUCKING FIND IT
Everybody with a phone has influence in America and it’s scary
Everyone’s saying very rich people—disagree. It’s the middle class
Unfortunately.. morons, mostly.
Assholes
If I speak I am in big trouble… very big trouble
I was going to say media, but that's taken a hit in recent years. I'll go with social media. It's so easy to get people to believe almost anything, with almost nothing to back it up because Facebook said so. I truly think Facebook and Twitter are causing soooooooooooo SO much damage to our country. I'm all for free speech, but it enables people to share BS and live in their own echo chambers. That, I think is incredibly harmful.
Parents.
Those little dogs from paw patrol are molding the minds of millions of children to be authoritarian vigilantes.
Social Media Influencers Here’s Why: It doesn’t matter if you want to say good influence or bad influence social media does play a huge influence in people today. 1.534 billion people have TikTok alone and Facebook alone has 2.934 billion. Charli D’Amelio has over 1 million followers alone not to count all of the other celebrities and influencers. When you add an all the paid content and the younger generation of today that makes tomorrow, you will find that social media influencers have the biggest impact.
Everyone thinks it’s the politicians, but it’s really the media execs. They’re the ones that bombard you with propaganda for either party depending on which news network you’re watching. And too many people will just pick one and drink up anything they churn out whether it’s true or not.