Fandom gets political; unbound and purloined; superheated rivalry: Newsletter 28 January 2026

Newsletter 133. Even in neutral spaces, ICE is generating outrage. Plus, is Anthropic planning to mutilate and devour your book, the world’s worst Crocs/Lego crossover, three people to follow, three books to read, and a virtual author coach.

Could social media overpower a masked police force

Eighteen years ago, Charlene Li and I published an influential book on social media, Groundswell. It articulated a mostly hopeful vision of how social technologies like blogs, social networks, and YouTube could enable people to get the things they needed from each other, rather than from institutions. Power to the people, you might say.

In the time since Groundswell was published, its description of the potential potency of social media as a positive force has come to seem naïve. We failed to account for was the dominance and power of large algorithm-driven social networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Reddit. Social networks want to maximize traffic and time-on-site to maximize advertising revenues. They’ve discovered the best way to do this is to show people the same kind of thing they already believe in — and in politics, this means exposing people to posts and comments that reflect their own biases.

The well-documented result is the filter bubble phenomenon. MAGA adherents see MAGA content including right-wing news sources. Progressives see left-leaning content featuring left-leaning perspectives. Americans find themselves living in two completely separate realities.

The “institutions” that we had expected social technologies to replace have instead embraced social technologies as their communications channels. The government increasingly promulgates its own biased point of view — and often, its own facts — and uses social networks to spread them. News institutions leverage the same biased algorithms to spread their content. Rather than replacing institutions, companies like Meta (Facebook/Instagram/Threads), Microsoft (LinkedIn), Oracle (TikTok), and X (formerly Twitter) have now become the owners of the most intractable institutions of all: addictive social networks.

At this point, you might ask “Is there anything so outrageous that social networks won’t reinforce it?” Surprisingly, there is.

The killing of Alex Pretti, a nurse serving veterans, by ICE agents in Minneapolis appears to been the event that punched through the partisan boundaries. Pretti was at a protest, filming events and helping another protestor. He had a gun secured at his waist, for which he had a permit. Agents pepper-sprayed him, subdued him, removed the gun, and then shot him multiple times.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “brandished his firearm,” assaulted ICE officers, and attacked federal agents. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said he wanted to “massacre” law enforcement. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called him a domestic terrorist. In fact, he had no criminal record. There is no evidence for any of these accusations, and the video of the scene obviously and directly contradicts them. Notably, Pretti never drew his gun at any time.

In today’s America such events often vanish into the polarized political sphere, with each side maintaining its own talking points about what did or did not happen. But something different has just happened. As the Washington Post documents, commentary about this event has escaped the political discourse and worked its way into parts of social media where politics is normally unwelcome.

In a subreddit dedicated to people who play their cats like bongo drums, the moderator wrote, “If you still support Trump/ICE even slightly, you’re not welcome in this sub. . . . We can no longer tolerate the people who are supporting or making excuses for this.” The post generated 321 people reporting it as inappropriate — and 40,000 upvotes.

As the Post reported, “Posts critical of ICE or Pretti’s killing have gone viral on communities and among influencers devoted to adventure biking, baseball and Lord of the Rings. On Meta’s Threads, the concept has become a meme itself, with creators devoted to travel, sewing and women’s personal finance all posting messages that they could not stay apolitical in the face of violence that posed an existential threat.”

An Instagram whiskey influencer wrote, “This is a bourbon account but I can’t drink bourbon if ICE shoots me in the face” — and generated 150,000 likes. They added, “If you find yourself in a spot where you are saying ‘I didn’t vote for this’ it’s ok. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

The video game influencer Charlie White posted an 18-minute YouTube video on the shooting that that has been viewed more than 3.7 million times. The TikTok fitness influencer Scotty Flynn garnered 14 million views with a profanity-laden screed.

Social networks up to this point have maximized viewing by curating left- and right-wing communities, each of whom imagines that the other side is filled with evil villains and lies — because they never see or hear from their actual neighbors. Keeping politics polarized and segregated from other interest groups has served the big social networks well.

But now it doesn’t matter what community you belong to, whether it’s dedicated to Star Wars, surfing, tequila, or weightlifting. Even for people who try to avoid politics — a group that until now has included most moderators of enthusiast interest groups online — the Pretti killing was too graphic and outrageous to ignore. It has something for everyone to get upset about: an unaccountable masked police force, a victim who was a nurse helping veterans, a protestor carrying a gun that he was licensed to have and acting in exactly the way second-Amendment backers say gun owners should, a man killed after being disarmed by poorly trained federal law-enforcement people, and no one in the crowd threatening anyone with anything other than loud cursing and having their actions documented on video. That, combined with the transparently fabricated and evidence-free lies of the senior government officials in charge of the enforcement operation, is apparently too much to bear.

If you prefer to curl up in a politics-free cocoon surrounded by fellow fans of whatever hobby turns you on, this is a problem. But if you believe, as we did so long ago, that social networks can connect and inform people whose trust in institutions is weakening or gone, this is a good sign. The polarized information bubbles have been invaded by incensed influencers who’d normally avoid taking a stand on anything more controversial than fan fiction. The outrage is inescapable. And even in a world where big tech and media have become compliant tools, people sharing what they have seen with their own eyes is now so powerful that it may create change.

There may just be hope after all. We’re not going to agree on much. But we are beginning to agree that things can’t go on like this.

News for writers and others who think

We all know Anthropic (and likely other AI companies) trained its models on stolen digital copies of the best content available: books. But as the Washington Post discovered (gift link) Anthropic planned to purchase and dismember millions of physical books to scan them for training purposes. That may be more legally defensible, but it’s viscerally upsetting to all of us book lovers.

Uber-publicist Mark Fortier asks, which matters most — being a bestseller or driving big ideas into public discourse?

Copyeditors only: take this survey on how copyeditors use AI.

Lego and Crocs have collaborated on the ugliest, most uncomfortable shoes anyone has ever seen.

I didn’t have gay hockey romance on my list of big trends in 2026, but Heated Rivalry, powered by an HBO adaptation, is white hot. Library downloads surged 529% in New York during the snowstorm after Mayor Mamdani recommended it.

Three people to follow

Bob Leonard , preparing businesses for the impact of climate change

Sally Collings , impressive ghostwriter and book strategist

John Palfrey , president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Three books to read

The Unsure Entrepreneur: Know what you’re getting into BEFORE starting a business by Roger Pierce (Jacalor Press, 2026). A comprehensive guide to getting a company launched.

The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice, and an American Icon by William Bernhardt (Permuted Press, 2026). The true origin story of Superman.

Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences by Neal Allen and Anne Lamott (Avery, 2026). Craft sentences that build excitement and drive home meaning.

The most important tool to get your book off the ground

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