(2025-08-18) Default Friend Not Right Not left, Just Online

Default Friend: Not Right, Not-Left, Just Online. The story I can’t get out of my head today is the one every other newsletter is talking about: the launch of The Argument, former Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas’s new media project that promises not just to “diagnose problems” but “persuade people of solutions.”

Which is funny because I feel like it’s been a long, long time since we’ve been in a more descriptive mode of journalism. In fact, I’m not entirely sure “journalism” as truth-seeking operation really exists as such anymore (with a handful of exceptions, of course). (Fiat Journalism)

A lot has been said about this launch, but there’s one angle I haven’t seen explored: the left is trying, desperately, to catch up with “right-coded” alt-media. Demsas is either four years too late or right on time.

Here’s a story most of you already know. COVID-19 was a great time to try your hand at Internet celebrity. Institutional trust—CNN, Fox, the New York Times, Fauci, the WHO—collapsed for millions of people who suddenly needed new ways to make sense of the world.

And what filled that vacuum? The so-called “right-wing” alt media. What nobody wants to say about these creators, except for maybe the creators themselves, is that they—and indeed, the whole ecosystem they belong to—are not strictly right-wing. They are “not-left” but they aren’t on the right.

Being “not-left” during COVID was simple. All you had to do was disagree with lockdowns and mandates. That low bar brought in a huge tent of people

These creators shared one message: “The mainstream media is lying to you. We’re telling the truth.” In many cases, they were right. This “not-left” group was absorbed into the Online Right, a sprawling ecosystem that includes everyone from the Dissident Right to anti-woke crypto hucksters to Nick Fuentes’ groypers to Intellectual Dark Web figures to mainstream conservative podcasters to dozens of smaller micro-subcultures and ideologies.

I’m skeptical that the left doesn’t have the same media power

But it could be that they just don’t have the same political influence

Donald Trump’s 2024 win exposed the fault lines in what everyone assumed was a unified “right-wing” movement. For some people, being anti-establishment got complicated when your side controlled the establishment. A lot of people who’d been lumped in with the right realized (or had always known) they didn’t like Trump or his politics—it was just that there was nowhere to go. Some people simply changed their mind.

Whatever the reasons, this fracturing created a massive opportunity. All these people with huge, engaged audiences who’d been accidentally sorted into the “right-wing” category were suddenly politically homeless again.

Now we’re seeing different types of these creators and audiences sorting themselves out:

The Post-Right: People who burnt out on the online right-wing ecosystem entirely. Think Richard Hanania.

Sometimes they’re Democrats who took “the scenic route.” Sometimes these people are opportunists. Sometimes they’ve evolved.

The Post-Anti-Woke: Contrarians and other anti-woke voices who don’t like the state of the Right or “anti-woke” media. They built audiences criticizing progressive excess. Some may have even voted for Trump. Too anti-progressive for the present-day left, too anti-Trump for the right.

Centrists Drifting Right: People responding to audience incentives and cultural energy.

The Older Liberal Center: Similar to the post-anti-woke but coming from a different starting point. These are traditional liberals who never went full-bore woke nor did they pivot to anti-woke. Here, I’m thinking of somebody like Ezra Klein or Gavin Newsom’s new stance.

The Grift Doubling-Down: Online right figures who’ve discovered that rage-bait pay the bills better than nuanced takes.

The New Old Left: I see more and more of these people every day. They’re leftists—and use that word—but they’re trying to improve their theory of mind of the right. They focus more on class than other dimensions of identity.

And now, Demsas’s project. She’s clearly aiming for that sweet spot between “liberal and not sanctimonious” and “critical and not contrarian.”

We’re in a moment where audiences are getting tired of one-person media projects. Subscription fatigue is real.

fatigue doesn’t mean new projects can’t succeed. It just means that we need to prep for more losers. I mean, hell, I might be one such loser. Who knows. Either way, this is a moment for left-wing media. The question is whether they’ll seize it.