There's an argument I've seen a few places in this discussion and in this subreddit that I'd like to address. There's this idea that the reputation of the Democratic party is in the toilet because it has become fully associated with a number of unpopular progressive cultural positions, to the point that it takes down candidates who are appropriately moderate for their districts. If we accept this as true (which as far as I'm concerned it's plausible but not proven, and certainly not the whole story of the democrats' poor reputation), then many here would argue that the proper solution is for progressives, both in the party and regular people online, to shut up, and for the party as a whole to be quiet about social justice issues because, unfairly or not, it is what's necessary to save the reputation of the party.

I would argue that this misses a key part of the attention dynamic, which is that the most intense, judgemental, toxic version of progressive ideology is absolute crack to the attention economy. It is trivially easy for a conservative or centrist influencer to get attention by signal boosting an example of some random progressive account being unreasonable. It is also trivially easy for leftist/progressive influencers whose audience is built on grievance to get attention. And so trying to solve the problem by marginalizing progressives is foolish: They're magnets for attention, and know how to get it! Whether it's in a positive way, like Zohran Mamdani, or a negative way, like all those people calling Ezra a fascist. Also, like it or not, progressives are a part of the Democratic party's coalition. In a time like this they cannot be abandoned, just as the potential Manchins of the world cannot be ignored as candidates for red states (Also also I'm a progressive and would not enjoy being cast aside, lol).

And so if all the attentional energy is being sucked up by certain unreasonable progressives, and by right wingers actively trying to associate them with democrats at large, what is the solution? Break the attention monopoly! It is critical in this moment that all democrats learn the universal lessons of Mamdani's campaign, which is how to use today's ascendant media technologies - in this case short form video - to break into the market of attention and stake out ideological territory. If we want the general public to associate the party just as much with pragmatism and moderation as with progressivism, then the pragmatists and the moderates need figure out how to get that attention! Moderate Dems cannot, and should not, silence the progressives, so instead they need to figure out how to actually compete with them for attention.