Digital World Acquisition Fueled by Reverse Grievance Culture
The last time I discussed the controversial special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DWAC), its shares were up 57% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. Since then, DWAC stock had its dips and dives, but it is still up 6o% YTD.
What in the heck gives?
For me, I find the answer alarmingly simple. As a powerful and charismatic figure, former President Donald Trump has found the perfect emotional catalyst to corral intense and unprecedented electoral support. Rather than persuade the conservative base to merely wrestle with so-called grievance culture, he has given them the blueprint to turn the narrative on its head.
Grievance Culture and its Inverse
According to CivilityMatters.org, a “grievance culture exists when significant numbers of people claim victim status and assign the blame to someone or some group they don’t like. Social media and the twenty four hour news cycle have provided the organizational mechanism and public forum for individuals to join together in a public display of outrage.”
Contributor C. John Grom writes, “the content of their grievance is lost in their negative rhetoric toward those who they imagine caused it.” As you might imagine, conservatives tend to react negatively to any claims of victimhood, whether real or perceived. Generally, the response is some form of telling self-identified victims to get over themselves.
However, such a response is a direct reaction to a disseminated grievance. But direct reactions are actually anathema to the underlying business of DWAC stock. Let’s think about this for a second.
Undergirding DWAC stock is the pathway to take Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) public. Of course, TMTG’s flagship product is Truth Social, the censorship-free social media platform.
But what is the crux of Trump supporters’ beef with mainstream social media? For moral, reputational and capitalistic reasons, big technology firms have a vested interest in censoring discriminatory or otherwise vile speech and content.
So, if conservatives took a direct response to big tech, it would mean that Truth Social is a place for discriminatory and vile content. Logically, the folks behind TMTG cannot let that happen because it would sink DWAC stock.
No, what TMTG needs is to flip the narrative. Rather than waging a war directly against grievance culture, you instead promote the idea that conservatives are the true victims. And you can actually see the underpinnings of this role reversal in a recent incident in California.
The Mindset of DWAC Stock
Not too long ago in the Golden State, a husband and wife, employed at the time as a city official and a Christian school teacher, respectively, allegedly verbally abused a couple — in an apparent unprovoked tirade — using discriminatory language.
Assuming the facts of the case as presented by the media are correct, this seems like a cut-and-dry case. A couple, minding their own business, suddenly is subjected to verbal abuse. The natural instinct is to criticize this wanton and unnecessary tirade. However, many internet commentators quickly came to the aid of the verbal harassers.
The reason? Discriminatory words are protected under freedom of speech and therefore, the harassers should escape punishment: the husband is under administrative leave while the wife had her employment terminated.
You see what is going on here? Rather than defend the husband and wife directly by suggesting that their tirade against the innocent couple was justified, the strategy is to promote the idea that the harassers are actually the victims of employers that didn’t respect their right to free speech.
Never mind that the husband and wife caused their own job loss. They are victims in the eyes of this new brand of conservatism. And it is obviously a very attractive catalyst for DWAC stock and the underlying platform.
True Genius, Really
If you think about it, DWAC stock isn’t just an investment in an anti-censorship platform. We’re living in the internet age. Should you desire vile content, you can find it along with a community of like-minded people.
Instead, the real beauty of TMTG and Truth Social is that it epitomizes a universally attractive culture, one that largely skirts personal responsibility and encourages the playing of the victim card. Per TheDailyBeast.com, “Former President Donald Trump has urged congressional Jan. 6 investigators to open up a probe against his former vice president, Mike Pence, over his refusal to help Trump overturn the 2020 election result.”
It is not entirely clear what Pence could have done and the man himself appears equally confused. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” the former vice president said at a Federalist Society event in Florida.
But from top to bottom back to top again, this reverse grievance culture is compelling stuff. Therefore, I’m not particularly worried about the ebb and flow of DWAC stock. This SPAC is clearly operating under a new set of rules — and it is working wonders.
On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.
