Rough Idea-

In less than a month, an election is taking place. For some people, that election has already begun, as early polling and mail ins have been opened already in some places and are opening in more very soon. I am not old enough to vote yet, and this time around I am feeling somewhat relieved that it is not my duty to pick the lesser of two evils. However the time will eventually come when I am called upon to fulfill my responsibility as an American citizen and decide what is right for the country, in my own eyes. Therefore I have been examining the issue thoroughly, and one thing that kind of disturbs me is the amount of people on both sides of the spectrum twisting facts, spewing misinformation and identifying themselves too much with a certain party, some to the point of blatant disregard for the rights of the people around them. People blindly follow, and are therefore blindly influenced. Desperate to abide by the status quo of their respective communities, people en masse sacrifice their individuality in order to thoroughly align themselves with certain followings. In these cult-like followings, the leaders wield the influence to dictate popularity in all sectors- fashion, music, other people, even science and politics. Considering the incredulous followings some of these leaders possess, millions of theoretical votes are potentially a single check away. The platforms they use to entertain their cults- twitter, tik tok, instagram- all grant the ability to convey messages at their fingertips. I am really just talking about social media “influencers”, but in all seriousness, it’s pretty scary how much sway over their fans these influencers have. The exigence of the matter is that there is an election coming up, and I believe “influencers” with the power to turn the voting tide in entire states have been knowingly (or unknowingly) weaponizing their followings in order to avoid backlash by the status quo they have created. Whether through miniature expressions of political opinion sprinkled into content followed by pleas to attend the polls (jenner, etc), or straight up vote buying (Mongeau), this is already taking place.

Thesis-  Influencers are able to manipulate and weaponize their millions of followers on command, but there is absolutely no way to stop them from deciding the outcome of elections.

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