In today’s world, politics are everywhere, but unlike the 1900s, political campaigns aren’t just handing out flyers and making speeches to crowds. Political campaigns are involved in social media. Many political figures use social media platforms to promote their ideas and persuade people to vote for them. But political campaigns aren’t always as pretty as they seem. Many politicians use manipulation and persuasion to get people to vote for them. Everywhere in our lives is influenced by politics, whether we like it or not, and it’s concerning today that our politicians, the people who represent us as a whole, aren’t the greatest choices made by the general population.
Social media has only grown since the first launch of the platform, SixDegrees, in 1997. Since that year, social media has only become bigger and faster. It is a way that we receive our news. Many kids my age learn about big news events from TikTok or Instagram.
Politicians use social media platforms to influence and promote their campaign and ideas, but they don’t tell the truth. Along with social media came filters and scams. Politicians can now use filters to improve their image. They use special effects to grab your attention and pull you down the trap they set for you to vote for them.
Getting people to see your side of the story is an essential skill politicians acquire, since their most important goal is to be voted into office. To be put into office, they have to convince people to vote for them. This calls for persuasion and manipulation.
Persuasion is the art of making someone see your point of view and having them agree with it. Manipulation, on the other hand, is the control or influence of a person without them noticing. These two arts work hand in hand in politics.
Politics isn’t new. They have been around for thousands of years. An example is the ancient Greek city of Athens. Athens is known for being one of the first cities to have a democratic government.
The US government is based mainly on Athenian democracy. Athens had three branches of government, as does the US. The Legislative branch that writes the laws we use every day is based on the Ekklesia, an assembly that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy. The Executive branch is based on the Boule, a council of representatives from the 10 tribes. Lastly, the Judicial branch is based on the Dikasteria, the popular courts where citizens argued cases before a group of jurors selected by the lottery.
There are some differences between the US government and the Athenian democracy. The US is a representative democracy, where the citizens vote for others, a.k.a. politicians, to represent them. Athenian democracy is a direct democracy, where everyone gets a vote; they don’t have representation.
Politicians don’t always change how life is when they are put into power. Most of the time, when power shifts to another person, life doesn’t change. Sometimes it does in very big ways. Take Germany in the early 1930s-40s. Adolf Hitler was a politician who used manipulation and persuasion to appeal to German citizens in order to create a dictatorship.
In Animal Farm by George Orwell, animals revolted against their owner, the farmer Mr. Jones. The animals hope for a better lifestyle, and at first, it seems they will get the better future they wished for, but as time wears on, they realize that their world hasn’t changed. The only thing that changed was who was in charge and who held all the power.
Very much like our world today, we hope and wish for a better future just as those animals did, but the only thing that changes is who is in power. Now, there have been changes that have done great things for the world. For example, the abolishment of slavery and giving women the right to vote, but these things took time. Many people went through being president before anything changed, and still today, we face situations that align with what we thought were resolved conflicts.
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote and to have the same rights as men. Today, there are issues involving women’s rights and equality. As studies have shown, men earn more than women. A study by the Pew Research Center showed that in early 2003, women earned an average of 81% as much as men, and in 2024, about two decades later, women earned an average of 85% as much as men. The wages the workers earn are also influenced by politics.
Democrats have viewed the gender pay gap as the way the employer treats women differently than other employees, whereas Republicans view the gender pay gap as the woman’s choice between her family and work life, which is affecting how much her paycheck is.
The same for the abolition of slavery. The abolishment of slavery came with consequences that our ancestors didn’t dream would happen. For example, some people today are still racist. This has nothing to do with the person’s character or personality traits. It only goes with the color of their skin. Politics can be greatly affected by the way a party is viewed and whether they’re seen as a diverse group of people or not.
Political campaigns have evolved from when they first came into play way back in history. They have developed in our everyday lives. Politicians use social media to influence and make their points known, gathering followers for the upcoming elections. Politicians also use many forms of persuasion and manipulation. Politics affects our lives whether we like it or not. We can’t choose to ignore it, but we can choose to see what they are. Not a pretty picture like they are painted to be, but a messy assortment of colors that need to be washed away and repainted.
