150,000 votes could've flipped 2024
Klein estimates roughly 150,000 correctly apportioned votes across a handful of states could have swung the 2024 presidential election.
Snapshot · Modern Wisdom
The Collapse of American Politics - Ezra Klein - #1114
Explore episode
Jun 22, 2026
Where this was said
Could a Liberal Joe Rogan Have Changed the Election?
At 18:29 · chapter starts 18:20
With approximately 150,000 votes separating the candidates in key battleground states, Klein argues the Rogan question is misframed: the issue is not whether one liberal podcaster could have swung it, but whether Harris and Walz were capable of showing up authentically in diverse media environments. More interestingly, Klein describes his research into masculinist online philosophies — Bronze Age Pervert, Rog Nationalist — and identifies what was most conspicuously absent: any concept of self-mastery. These movements treat self-discipline as evidence of modernity's emasculating grip, celebrating instead a primitive, dominance-oriented masculinity. Trump and Miller embody this rejection of political self-discipline as a performance of unconstrained power. Klein predicts this will produce a counter-swing: figures like Tallarico — who raised more money than any Senate candidate in the country by speaking through progressive Christianity in a language of virtue — represent where the pendulum is heading. Mamdani's omnipresent smile is contrasted with Trump's official scowling portrait as leading indicators of the coming aesthetic shift.
Zohran Mamdani's Smile as Political Rhetoric
Trump has a scowl even in his official presidential portrait. Mamdani's default mode is a smile. Klein argues this is not superficial — it is the leading indicator of the next political swing. Everything creates its opposite, and the gleeful rage of algorithmic politics is about to produce a hunger for a politics that actually feels good.
Similar snapshots
Media: 90% negative coverage 10 years ago
Kalanick estimates that a decade ago, 90% of media coverage of tech business was negative, treating companies like political targets.
Largest crime drop since 1937
2024–2025 marked the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937.
Violent crime down 9% in 2024–25
From 2024 to 2025, violent crime decreased 9%, property crime decreased 12.4%, and motor vehicle theft decreased 23%.
Ebony Alert went into effect January 1, 2024
California's Ebony Alert Program, designed for the swift recovery of missing Black youth and women, officially went into effect on January 1, 2024.
UK tourist ETA costs $20 to apply
Andrew Santino discovered that American tourists now need to pay $20 to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to visit the UK, starting January 2025.
Kay Classman, 28, posed as a 16-year-old student
Kay Classman, a 28-year-old woman, was arrested for repeatedly enrolling in a Bronx high school posing as a 16-year-old student across multiple school districts.
16% of Americans: 9/11 inside job
A poll around 2011 found that 16% of Americans believed 9/11 was an inside job, illustrating how viral misinformation had already embedded itself in public opinion before social media peaked.
$300K debate offer to Candace Owens
Andrew Wilson offered Candace Owens $300,000 to debate her Charlie Kirk conspiracy theory, but she refused.
Only 11 killed by Israeli pager bombs
According to the podcast, only 11 people were killed by the coordinated Israeli pager attack on Hezbollah operatives, despite widespread detonations.
