When the fitness influencer Kate Mackz uploaded her newest running-themed interview video, she had no idea she was about to become the internet’s latest punching bag. But Mackz had stepped into a minefield by doing something that in the ultraprogressive TikTok ecosystem is still unthinkable: humanizing a Trump administration official.
For context, Mackz’s content is all about promoting running, fitness, and healthy lifestyles by meeting up with famous people to jog with them and interview them about their lives. For example, one of her most recent videos before this blowup was one where she met up with tennis star Sloane Stephens to jog and hear about Stephens’ childhood growing up with athlete parents. But now she’s facing backlash for collaborating with an undeniably famous but controversial figure: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The three-minute video featured a walk, rather than a jog, with the press secretary around the White House grounds, plus a chat with Leavitt about the responsibilities of her office and what it’s really like behind the scenes. Notably, there was very little openly partisan or ideological talk in the video, which showed Leavitt’s personality in a less formal and far less contentious setting than the typical press briefing. That’s why, when I first saw it, I thought it was a sweet video, but not of great consequence.
Then all hell broke loose.
First, Mackz faced extreme backlash in the comments section of her own video. One user simply wrote, “Oh Kate, this is disappointing,” in a comment that was liked more than 81,000 times. Another person added, “Can’t wait for the Putin video next!” while someone else wrote, “Can’t wait to see you run with Diddy next!!!”
Then the hate videos started to emerge. Influencer after influencer joined a vicious pile-on targeting Mackz, accusing her of “platforming fascism” and “no longer being a safe space.” One video with more than 1.2 million views even accused her of “both sides-ing” and concluded, “There were not ‘both sides’ in Nazi Germany.”
They also accused Mackz of doing an undisclosed Tesla ad simply because President Donald Trump’s Tesla was mentioned in the video, even though there’s no actual evidence suggesting Mackz was paid by Tesla. Critics also slammed her for “taking a check from the Trump administration,” yet there’s no reason to believe Mackz was paid by Trump to make the video, and that wouldn’t be standard for an influencer invited to the White House.
So, this poor woman is being smeared and attacked across all of TikTok for the “crime” of being friendly to a Republican official and humanizing her. They’re not upset that Mackz made her content political; that would be a more understandable complaint. Of course, the millions of people hating on Mackz had no problem when she did a similar video with failed Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. (Walz’s daughter, Hope, is now joining the public pile-on and bashing Mackz, saying that her father taught her that “running is political.”)
This is all horrible. But there’s more to the story than just the fact that progressive online circles are still wedded to the “no platform,” cancel culture approach that most of America now rejects. It’s a sad reminder of how little space there is in our modern politics for the recognition of our shared humanity.
NEW MEDIA IS STARTING TO LOOK JUST LIKE THE OLD MEDIA
The Trump administration is certainly controversial, and I’ve been critical of many of its legal and political excesses (just as I was with the Biden administration). But we should never lose sight of the fact that even our political opponents are people, and almost no one is all bad as a human being. Mackz’s content helps viewers see a figure such as Leavitt as multidimensional, as a real human being with family and interests. Frankly, we need more of this kind of dialogue in our politics, not less.
The more the political extremes of both sides dehumanize and villainize their opponents, the more we will see support for political violence continue to rise. And that’s a phenomenon that threatens to start a conflict far more severe than any internet pile-on.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
