It’s no longer news that Ron DeSantis’ campaign is in free-fall. He just let go 40% of his staff. He’s trailing Donald Trump by more than 33 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregation of polling. And most recently, his campaign fired an aide named Nate Hochman, who was responsible for sharing a clip online featuring Nazi imagery.
Interestingly, the reason critics of DeSantis’ campaign are floating as a potential explanation for these firings is that the campaign as a whole has become “too online.” And in one sense, that’s accurate; you’d have to be fluent in 4chan memes to fully appreciate the content that emerges from the DeSantis campaign.
Let’s spare ourselves the euphemisms. This isn’t an issue of being too online; this is an issue of using fascist content to push a political agenda.
But as far as being “too online” is concerned, here’s the thing — I am too online. Chances are that if you’re reading this, you could afford a little less screen time. So please, let’s spare ourselves the euphemisms. This isn’t an issue of being too online; this is an issue of using fascist content to push a political agenda. That’s the real problem here.
Think about it this way: Somehow, despite the inordinate amount of time I spend on the internet, I’ve managed to do so without co-opting Nazi imagery. The idea that the DeSantis campaign is a victim of some nebulous effect of being “too online” is nothing more than a desperate effort to evade responsibility. Because too online or not, people have agency. They are responsible for the content they produce, irrespective of how many hours they do or don’t spend online. Ron DeSantis and his campaign aren’t “too online”; they’re too fascist.








