Influencer is a word I’ve come to notice and dislike instantly. When you hear the term social media influencer, doesn’t it sound Orwellian? As if someone is openly admitting they are there to shape how you think.
As Americans, we should be bothered by that. Hell, it should piss us off.
There are influencers across the political spectrum, but for this piece, let’s focus on the so-called conservative influencers.
What I’m about to say may irritate some people, but many conservatives became vulnerable to influencers because we spent years being vilified by the media and mainstream culture. We were labeled racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes simply for holding views that, not long ago, were considered normal American opinions.
As a result, conservatives became eager to rally around anyone who sounded like they were finally articulating what we were thinking. The moment someone appeared intelligent, confident, and willing to fight back, we granted them credibility almost automatically. We quoted their podcasts, shared their clips, and repeated their talking points in conversations as if they were gospel.
Over time, I realized that many of these figures were not truly leading a movement. They were managing an audience.
Some of these influencers say just enough to keep people emotionally invested while steering them away from meaningful action. They keep the audience angry, engaged, and constantly consuming content, but rarely move beyond that. It’s like slowly releasing steam from a pressure cooker just to make sure it never explodes.
People start believing they are fighting for the country after spending hours listening to podcasts, watching clips, reposting commentary, and arguing online. But consuming political content is not the same as political action. At some point, outrage becomes entertainment.
In recent months, many people began noticing cracks in the façade as several prominent conservative figures started turning against President Trump and attempting to fracture MAGA support. You know the names: Candace Owens, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Ben Shapiro, and others.
Carlson especially stands out to me.
I remember telling friends around 2020 that something about Tucker didn’t sit right with me. This was in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when millions of Americans were questioning the integrity of the vote. Whether or not people agreed with those concerns, I felt Carlson seemed unusually eager to move on from the subject and redirect attention elsewhere.
At the time, I even submitted a piece to a mainstream conservative website questioning Tucker’s loyalty. Apparently, the article struck a nerve, and the site’s head published a counterpiece alongside mine.
Not going to lie, I started second-guessing myself afterward. I wondered whether I had unfairly criticized the guy or misread the situation entirely.
Then Fox News fired Tucker, and for a while I thought maybe I had been wrong. Some of his independent work was genuinely solid. I even wrote publicly that I might have misjudged him.
But his recent attempts to divide MAGA only reinforced my original instinct.
And that’s the main point of this article.
If your gut tells you something about a public figure feels off, don’t ignore it just because that person is popular, polished, or constantly praised online. You do not owe blind loyalty to influencers, commentators, or political celebrities.
The word influencer itself should make Americans uncomfortable.
We are descendants of people who rebelled against kings, crossed oceans, fought wars, built businesses, raised families, and carved a nation from the wilderness because they refused to be controlled. Americans were never meant to sit around waiting for internet personalities to tell them what to think.
Despite all the propaganda meant to convince us otherwise, we are not helpless, weak, or stupid.
Trust your instincts. Think for yourself. And take everything influencers tell you with a grain of salt.
