"There will be gatekeeping" - Deep thought of the day
Bongino put out a tweet that was mildly surprising. Actually, his entire feed for the last couple of days resembles Mark Levin's, though I suspect that is a deliberate strategy. It's not the strategy I would adopt, but alas what do I know...
I'll post the tweet in its entirety below, but the first line is obviously the most important.
"Yes, “gatekeeping” is absolutely going to happen.".
Dan is a grown man. He's obviously business savvy, and he will do what he thinks is best for his podcast and for his politics.
But the idea of Gatekeeping got me thinking: Do we now live in an era where gatekeeping is both logistically impossible, and strategically counterproductive.
Spoiler, the answer is Yes to both questions.
The etymology of the word is literal: a man who guards the gate and decides who gets in.
It presupposes one entrances / limited entrances / difficulty bypassing the one or limited entrances.
It therefore applies metaphorically to contextually appropriate comparables.
Entry into a club. Product into a store. Book on a shelf.
You can think in the early days of the printing press, the fear that the masses would democratize information, so you had gatekeepers about what books could be published. Who had access the the presses.
But setting aside the idea of clubs (George Carlin saying "it's a big club and we ain't in it" was a criticism, not a strategic directive. lol), I think we are beyond the point of gatekeeping.
It is an antiquated notion and counterproductive tactic.
Antiquated because you might be able to "gatekeep" attendance into physical locations, but you cannot gatekeep ideas.
And when you guard your gate, you are just shutting yourself off to the rest of the world, not vice versa. The world will bypass you. You will ultimately control nothing.
The other facet is that it is counterproductive because it actually redirects people to that against which you are trying to gatekeep.
Nick Fuentes was "gatekept" into the mainstream. So was Candace.
The attempt to block them, or block traffic to them, actually brought attention to them, and facilitated the bypassing of the gate which actually stood like a lone domino in a stadium, not the only point of entry.
Also, from a branding perspective, who would want to be known as the self-proclaimed "gatekeeper"?
I may be my brother's keeper, but I am not my brother's gatekeeper! lol
It's definitely a weird tact to take in my view, both from a podcast and political perspective.
But alas, what do I know. We will see how it plays out.
And now, the tweet:
Yes, “gatekeeping” is absolutely going to happen. There isn’t a business, sports team, or organization on earth that would do otherwise if they wanted to succeed. You don’t allow cancers into your clubhouse and then plan to win baseball games. You waive them, trade them, or release them.
Libs and enemies of our country understand this. And they have found a path to fracture our movement from the inside, but only if we cower from it. I will always relish the year of my life serving you all in this incredible administration. But I’m back now, and this mission is equally important.
WE built this movement.
It’s OURS.
And now we’re going to take it back.
