Republicans learn X is the echo chamber
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
404 Media reported right-wing personalities trusted X and prediction markets, then Democrats swept the midterms.
The piece asks why X's feed is rarely called an echo chamber.
Background
The article, by 404 Media writer Matthew Gault, examines the online right, which the outlet says has dominated American political narratives for a decade through memes and conspiracies. It traces that history to 2016, when 4chan posters spoke of "meme magic" (a pseudo-ironic belief that internet images could change reality), and to Gamergate, which Trump strategist Steve Bannon and others turned into a lasting culture war. The report argues that many right-wing personalities, convinced by their X algorithm and prediction markets that no blue wave would come, expected to win despite a war, economy and polls they had called disastrous.
How it unfolded
- Nov 2, 2026BlazeTV posted a YouTube video titled "Young Right is Reclaiming Culture and Liberals Are Mad About it," with a thumbnail showing the presenter with Anakin Skywalker and a gender-flipped Draco Malfoy called "Malfoid."
- Nov 3, 2026Democrats swept the midterms in a political realignment, and Republicans lost control of all the most powerful state positions in Texas.
- Nov 5, 2026404 Media published its report on Republicans and X as an echo chamber.
Key terms
- midterms
- US general elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term, when all House seats and about a third of Senate seats are contested.
- X
- An American microblogging and social networking service where users share short text posts, images and videos.
- prediction markets
- Open markets where people trade bets on the outcomes of future events, using financial incentives to forecast probabilities.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- Michael Senters, a research assistant at the Anti-Defamation League who studies online and gaming culture, said it seems X has had its high water mark and that reality has finally caught up with the Republican Party.
- Caution
- 404 Media argued the media has spent many thousands of words calling Bluesky an out-of-touch leftist echo chamber while mostly failing to say anything similar about X.
Still unverified
According to legend, Trump strategist Steve Bannon was running a World of Warcraft gold farm when he realized angry gamers could be harnessed into a powerful reactionary political force.