How The Attention Economy Is Changing Who Leads And Controls Public Resistance
Many people say that maybe we as Americans are just too content with making any change or starting a true revolution.
But maybe the real power lies in controlling the voices with the largest platforms, not the movements themselves.
Take the recent controversy surrounding Atlanta pastor Jamal Bryant and the Target boycott. Bryant announced he was ending his personal fast against the retailer, which many people interpreted as the end of the broader boycott itself. Shortly after, he clarified that he personally was stepping away and that the original organizers, many of whom were Black women, had not ended their efforts.
A similar pattern has unfolded in the podcast world, especially within ‘manosphere’ ecosystem of podcasts such as Joe Rogan of The Joe Rogan Experience, Theo Von of This Past Weekend, and Andrew Schulz of Flagrant. During the 2024 presidential election, these podcasts became a powerful political force that analysts described the race as a “podcast election,” as millions of voters increasingly relied on podcast conversations instead of traditional news sources.
Yet since Trump’s return to office, several of those same podcast hosts have begun distancing themselves from some actions taken by the administration, with Schulz saying he “voted for none of this,” in an episode of his “Flagrant” podcast.
These two situations involve very different audiences and agendas, but the goal behind them are the same. Not only does this raise questions about the legitimacy of these personalities who shift their stance, but also about the power of the American public itself.
Are we truly too content to spark change, or are we being constantly redirected?
History suggests the instinct to resist injustice is deeply rooted in human nature. Humans have repeatedly organized against systems they believed were unfair.
American history shows this clearly. The labor movement, women’s suffrage, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the broader civil rights movement all demonstrated how sustained resistance could force our government and powerful institutions to change.
Those movements were led not by celebrities or influencers, but by organizers, churches, unions, grassroots leaders, and community networks that remained accountable to the people they represented because because they lived and went home to those communities they represented.
What has changed maybe is not human nature but the environment in which resistance unfolds. Instead of revolutions failing because people are content, maybe their stalling because corporations, political institutions, and media personalities intercept the momentum.
Today’s movements exist inside what scholars call the attention economy. Social media, digital news cycles, and personality driven platforms reward whatever captures public attention in the moment. Outrage spreads faster than ever before, but it also disappears just as quickly when the next controversy takes its place.
Even in recent movements like the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the “No Kings” demonstrations, and the billion dollar impact of the Target boycott, the public’s power is still viable.
However, the effects of the attention economy mean that personalities with independent media platforms such as Bryant and major podcast hosts influential podcasters can be used to redirect the narrative, quickly, shifting public awareness overnight.
So perhaps the real issue is not that Americans have lost the instinct inherent to human nature. The continued mobilization through national protests, boycotts, and demonstrations across the country suggests the opposite.
The real question may be whether corporations are infiltrating the resistance ecosystem itself, inserting personalities who redirect the energy of movements before structural change can take hold. And whether, somewhere between this constant seesaw of voices claiming leadership of political and social issues, Americans will once again lean on organizers who emerge from the communities themselves such as the women truly behind the Target boycott namely, Nekima Levy Armstrong, Tamika Mallory, and Monique Cullars-Doty.
Until then, good night and good luck.
