Lina Khan Talks Monopoly with Gamers
Former FTC Head Joins Tech Business and Gaming Podcast to take on Big Tech
Lina Khan remains one of the most popular Democrats with a wide swath of the American electorate, especially with a demographic Democrats saw turning away from them in the last election: young people. Her popularity reaches beyond the progressive left. Many on the MAGA right also see her as a champion for working people, and the broader electorate is fed up with politicians who more readily serve corporate leaders than their own.
Khan is widely disliked by some in Silicon Valley, who see her as a threat to the acquisition and merger culture and standing in the way of the tech industry’s expanding dominance in American’s daily lives. Mainstream Democrats, likely due to fear of blowback from the powerful industry, have not harnessed her star power to its fullest potential. We at Win the Fight want to change that.
In order to start winning over voters, and building a coalition that can credibly push back against the rising tide of authoritarian rule in America, the left needs to start having our best messengers communicate directly with the online communities where more and more voters spend their time. We can’t do this in rehearsed and recorded sound bites, but in live, genuine conversations that allow audiences to draw a connection with the influencers and leaders on their screens.
Win the FIght partnered with The Lemonade Stand, a podcast whose talent joined our original livestream event, to do a longform interview with former FTC Chair Lina Khan on their YouTube channel. The audience for the Podcast is overwhelmingly male (over 75%), and skews younger (89% of their audience is 18-30 years old), and the reaction, from an audience that skews towards younger tech bros, was ecstatic. In fact, it’s their best performing episode out of the gate, to date.
Engagement with online communities is not some 18-sided Rubik's cube that we need to figure out. Messaging needs to resonate with people’s lived experience, not developed in a lab and repeated ad-naseum at people until their brains melt.
What if, instead of deciding what voters needed to know in order to get them to vote for us, we understood what they desired and delivered content they want to engage with?
The Republicans have figured this out. Delivering a 24/7, toxic blend of racist and xenophobic messaging that preys on the fears and insecurities of their voters.
Thankfully, Democrats are not Republicans. We do not need to rage-bait voters. But we do need to deliver authentic messengers and conversations, on platforms where they spend time, to have a chance.
Former Chair Khan delivers in this episode. She highlights the risks to our country from unfettered growth in the tech industry. From companies scraping personal emails to charge you a higher ticket price after a loved one passes, or the insanity of an economy where 90% of companies are working to get purchased by a bigger tech conglomerate, rather than deliver value to the everyday consumer.
Take a look, the episode is live here, and let us know what you think.