Why do Biden supporters seem to lack an online presence going into 2024?

[ProgressiveModerate]

I've noticed across social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and X. On basically any political post/tweet/video, Trump supporters are always winning the "comment war" in terms of sheer volume.

A good example would be looking at Joe Biden vs Donald Trump Instagram. On Joe Biden's Instagram posts, even less political ones. the top comments are almost all exclusively negative, with people attacking him from both the right and the far-left "stop the genocide" types. Seriously, it's so hard to find a single positive comment. Go over to Trump's Instagram and the comments tend to be all affirmative. This trends largely holds across other platforms and also outside Trump and Biden's accounts; really just any political media.

This is interesting because generally Democrats are the ones who you'd demographically expect to use social media more because they're younger. Also not that it matters a ton but more people voted for Biden in 2020 than Trump.

What's going on here? Is it indicative of a large scale shift of the population towards Trump? Are algorithms more likely to favor right wing posts over left-wing posts? Are Biden supporters less likely to comment?

[Mr. Third-Wayist]

I've noticed across social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and X. On basically any political post/tweet/video, Trump supporters are always winning the "comment war" in terms of sheer volume.

A good example would be looking at Joe Biden vs Donald Trump Instagram. On Joe Biden's Instagram posts, even less political ones. the top comments are almost all exclusively negative, with people attacking him from both the right and the far-left "stop the genocide" types. Seriously, it's so hard to find a single positive comment. Go over to Trump's Instagram and the comments tend to be all affirmative. This trends largely holds across other platforms and also outside Trump and Biden's accounts; really just any political media.

This is interesting because generally Democrats are the ones who you'd demographically expect to use social media more because they're younger. Also not that it matters a ton but more people voted for Biden in 2020 than Trump.

What's going on here? Is it indicative of a large scale shift of the population towards Trump? Are algorithms more likely to favor right wing posts over left-wing posts? Are Biden supporters less likely to comment?

Certain areas of twitter as well as sites like Reddit have strong Biden support. Dean Phillips routinely gets ratioed on twitter by Biden supporters. Also he didn’t have much more online support in 2020, especially during the dem primaries and he still managed to win. Internet support means nothing

[Beet]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

[South Dakota Democrat]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

This isn't detached from reality or anything.

[Mr.Bakari-Sellers]

Trump has a vulnerability heading into 24 and Act blue is still getting lots of donations lower than 2016/20 due to Pandemic of course but the J6 argument can come in votes not polls that's why OH, NC, TX are wave insuranxe

[7,052,770]

All of these sites use algorithms to control which comments and replies you see, which may not match what others see, so I wouldn't read too much into what the "top comments" are.

Twitter in particular is exclusively promoting Trumpist/alt-Right content. Every single promoted Tweet I see is one of those, even though I often click "I don't like this Tweet."

[ProgressiveModerate]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

Except real election results don't suggest this to be the case. In the NH primary for instance, some of Biden's best areas were college precincts/college-towns where "Ceasefire" won a negligible share of the vote. Sure maybe NH's colleges aren't representative of the Country and those votes could've come from staff and stuff, but i think we'll see the same thing on college campuses around the country.

[Beet]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

Except real election results don't suggest this to be the case. In the NH primary for instance, some of Biden's best areas were college precincts/college-towns where "Ceasefire" won a negligible share of the vote. Sure maybe NH's colleges aren't representative of the Country and those votes could've come from staff and stuff, but i think we'll see the same thing on college campuses around the country.

The only New Hampshire people who would actually turn out to vote in a Democratic primary for "cease fire" are people like me who still care enough that we'd want to send Biden a message in the hopes that he changes his policy so he can shore up whats left of his base to stop Trump. The vast majority of the people who would be the base of a liberal anti-Trump party have already checked out.

[AGA]

Trump supports have more enthusiasm for Trump. There are a lot of casual Biden supporters who will vote for him but don't care to defend him on social media.

[heatcharger]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

[South Dakota Democrat]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

Except real election results don't suggest this to be the case. In the NH primary for instance, some of Biden's best areas were college precincts/college-towns where "Ceasefire" won a negligible share of the vote. Sure maybe NH's colleges aren't representative of the Country and those votes could've come from staff and stuff, but i think we'll see the same thing on college campuses around the country.

The only New Hampshire people who would actually turn out to vote in a Democratic primary for "cease fire" are people like me who still care enough that we'd want to send Biden a message in the hopes that he changes his policy so he can shore up whats left of his base to stop Trump. The vast majority of the people who would be the base of a liberal anti-Trump party have already checked out.

They didn't do that though.

[Beet]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

Yeah that's true. This isn't the only issue, it's just the most obvious and blatant one so it's easiest to talk about. During Trump's entire first term, there was huge opposition energy on the left starting from Day 1 with the womens' March, through the 2020 primary season and the George Floyd protests. Biden essentially inherited all that energy and passion and it put him over the top. But ever since he won, that progressive energy seems to have steadily dissipated. The recent threads about the DSA's financial woes are indicative. In fact I would say, for almost my entire time on the Forum, starting with the Dean "democratic wing of the democratic party" speech in 2003, there had always been strong liberal energy in US politics no matter if an R or D was president... until now. Not sure what happened but it seems as deader on this side than it's been since around 2002.

At the same time I can't help but imagine it has something to do with the Dems embrace of authoritarianism, the police, the establishment and the neocons since Trump came to power.

[MT Treasurer]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

I wouldn’t want to answer for all the blood on my hands if I were Joe Biden (although he was like this during his time in the Senate as well, of course), and there’s almost no point in discussing the political ramifications of this just because of the unspeakable moral crime that Biden has and still is committing.

However, an underrated consequence of this is that Biden looks really impotent next to Netanyahu — the fact that the leader of another country is able to play him like a fiddle and humiliate him on the world stage (getting Carter hostage vibes) just underscores his unwillingness to once again stand up for anything or anybody. He is just seen as really, really weak, be it on Israel, the border or any other major issue, to the point where it must be getting embarrassing for some to admit supporting/having supported him.

[Rhode Islander First, American Second]

Comment sections always skew conservative unless you're on Reddit. It's just the way it is. Right-wingers are more likely to comment on politics in useless forums like Twitter replies or YouTube videos. (The fact that these comments sections are so uniformly a pro-Trump echo chamber also helps warp MAGA peoples' perceptions that they are the majority and there's no way Biden won / could win again).

Enthusiasm is definitely a factor as well.

The leftists posting about "Genocide Joe" and "ceasefire now" and "from the river to the sea" are the same types of people that think not buying a coffee from Starbucks, standing in a highway or throwing soup on a painting is a meaningful form of activism, so it's not surprising that they think posting online will do something. Also most of them are teenagers who spend all day online anyways.

[South Dakota Democrat]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

Yeah that's true. This isn't the only issue, it's just the most obvious and blatant one so it's easiest to talk about. During Trump's entire first term, there was huge opposition energy on the left starting from Day 1 with the womens' March, through the 2020 primary season and the George Floyd protests. Biden essentially inherited all that energy and passion and it put him over the top. But ever since he won, that progressive energy seems to have steadily dissipated. The recent threads about the DSA's financial woes are indicative. In fact I would say, for almost my entire time on the Forum, starting with the Dean "democratic wing of the democratic party" speech in 2003, there had always been strong liberal energy in US politics no matter if an R or D was president... until now. Not sure what happened but it seems as deader on this side than it's been since around 2002.

At the same time I can't help but imagine it has something to do with the Dems embrace of authoritarianism, the police, the establishment and the neocons since Trump came to power.

Sure Jan.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

OK, so multiple things:


1. A lot of social media comment sections are full of bots.

2. Most Trump supporters are much more enthusiastic and rabid than the average Biden supporter. So leaving supportive messages for Biden isn't really something that many Biden supporters are interested in doing.

3. Same thing applies to far-lefties, so see #2 and replace "Trump supporters" with "leftists".

4. Many social media algorithms favor right-wing politics (especially Twitter, and this was proven even before Elon took over).

5. There is Biden support on social media, you just have to find the right circles.

[heatcharger]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

At the same time I can't help but imagine it has something to do with the Dems embrace of authoritarianism, the police, the establishment and the neocons since Trump came to power.

Great point. But to use a phrase you've used, the Democrats began trading their low SES base for a higher SES base as far back as the Clinton administration. It accelerated under TRUMP -- naturally Democrats targeted college-educated districts in 2018. Now the base is 55+, suburban and mostly women.

The upside for Democrats is that these are reliable voters. If you're interested in seeing Democrats win, this is a good trade. If you care about anything else then perhaps not.

[ProgressiveModerate]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

At the same time I can't help but imagine it has something to do with the Dems embrace of authoritarianism, the police, the establishment and the neocons since Trump came to power.

Great point. But to use a phrase you've used, the Democrats began trading their low SES base for a higher SES base as far back as the Clinton administration. It accelerated under TRUMP -- naturally Democrats targeted college-educated districts in 2018. Now the base is 55+, suburban and mostly women.

The upside for Democrats is that these are reliable voters. If you're interested in seeing Democrats win, this is a good trade. If you care about anything else then perhaps not.

Agree except Dems are still the party of the young. While age polarization could narrow, it's unlikely Trump wins Gen Z or Millenials or Biden wins Gen X or Boomers in 2024.

Also suburban is interesting cause these days Dems still tend to win the higher % of the vote in urban areas but sometimes suburbs having higher turnout makes them more effective at actually netting Ds votes.

[heatcharger]

How many times do we have to repeat the same thing? Biden has alienated his base over Israel-Palestine; he's alienated the progressives and young people who would be his enthusiastic supporters and moreover, his supporters here love to crap on them. He and his supporters have decided that handing the country over to Trump is a worthwhile price to pay to continue to support Netanyahu's offensive. You're going to be asking the same question after Biden loses at this point.

The only question left is whether we can get this guy out of the White House before the world is sent into the second great depression because both the strait of hormuz and the red sea are shut down amid his war with Iran.

True. The alienation started well before The Conflict heated up though.

At the same time I can't help but imagine it has something to do with the Dems embrace of authoritarianism, the police, the establishment and the neocons since Trump came to power.

Great point. But to use a phrase you've used, the Democrats began trading their low SES base for a higher SES base as far back as the Clinton administration. It accelerated under TRUMP -- naturally Democrats targeted college-educated districts in 2018. Now the base is 55+, suburban and mostly women.

The upside for Democrats is that these are reliable voters. If you're interested in seeing Democrats win, this is a good trade. If you care about anything else then perhaps not.

Agree except Dems are still the party of the young.

Definitely still the party of Millennials but party of the youth is a lot more questionable. If they were you'd see a lot more favorable content on social media and less literal anti-Biden protests on the streets.

Remember that back in the day Facebook and YouTube were extremely pro-Obama.

[Mr. Smith]

Because he's always been sort of "The Silent Majority" type sort.

He should be playing this to the hilt, not let it go to waste.

[Coconut Decider]

Social Media Algorithms radicalize people to the far-left and far-right. It's the main reason for the polarization we see today. Not good for reasonable people like Biden.

[DrScholl]

Biden supporters are less terminally online and less likely to engage in political arguments and cheer leading. Right-wingers have been terminally online since the internet became commonplace. Bush supporters were nowhere near as crazy as Trump supporters, but they were pretty aggressive and annoying with their support of Bush.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I thought we learned after 2022 that the loudest supporters do not translate into the most supporters.

I imagine that most Biden supporters are pretty quiet. It's in Democrats' nature to not treat our political figures like cult leaders. As much as some may clamor for enthusiasm, I am under the impression (mostly based on the 2022 and 2023 election results) that the pro-Democrat/anti-Trump cohort in the country vote more practically. They might even be mild disapprovers of hos and help keep that polling low for him. But, after 2021, we really haven't had an election under his presidency that appeared like a real negative referendum on him. It's why I remain fairly bullish on Biden's chances in November.

[Podgy the Bear]

Because he's always been sort of "The Silent Majority" type sort.

He should be playing this to the hilt, not let it go to waste.

The "Silent Majority" may no longer be a majority, but it is considerable.  It's largely centrist and has swung between the two political parties in the last 30 years.

This country does tilt center-right.  And the reason for this is that there are more on the far right than the far left.  This means that the Democratic Party (which has generally run in the center) can appeal better to the Silent Majority because of the extreme rightward turn the Republican Party has made by its unabashed love for Donald Trump.

[Duke of York]

Social media is not and never has been representative of anything.  If it meant anything at all Alabama would be a blue state.