The Internet Is Obsessed With Hillary Clinton's Goodbye Note to The Toast

On this, the final day for feminist publication The Toast, the site did not go gently into the holiday weekend, thanks in part to a note on the site authored by Hillary Clinton. A lot of people are talking about it: THE *LAST* AUTHOR ACCOUNT I SET UP FOR @THETOAST WAS FOR HILLARY CLINTON I HAD TO GO TO BED SO EARLY JUST SO I WOULDN'T TELL ~EVERYONE~ — Nicole Chung (@nicole_soojung) July 1, 2016 Oh, just @HillaryClinton writing for @TheToast https://t.co/yfDYCXixNx — roxane gay (@rgay) July 1, 2016 Hillary's goodbye to @TheToast probably the best thing to happen in the 2016 campaign so far https://t.co/5L9AQ6xZMf — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 1, 2016 I'm old enough to remember when no one took words written by young people on the internet seriously: https://t.co/XxZ8giMYL0 — Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 1, 2016 A note on The Toast https://t.co/SFRiKBl1F7 (by @HillaryClinton on @TheToast on its last day)(which is amazing)(and perfectly 2016) — Rachel Sklar (@rachelsklar) July 1, 2016 Best comment on this @HillaryClinton post on the Toast: "I HAVE NEVER BEEN PANDERED TO SO EFFECTIVELY BEFORE" https://t.co/PHkVjytFaC — Tamara Keith (@tamarakeithNPR) July 1, 2016 And a lot of people are writing about it. It hits a sweet spot at the nexus of a much-loved niche publication saying goodbye; a presidential candidate using contemporary, zeitgeist-y campaign tactics; and, of course, your ever-present generalized political obsessiveness. Adrienne LaFrance captures it perfectly in The Atlantic: Just the way the internet has made the micro-targeting of niche audiences possible in every other way—tracking ads that follow you with images of the products you’ve googled, for example—political campaigning in the 21st century has followed suit. Clinton’s byline on The Toast is an extension of “delete your account.” It takes personalized campaign emails to the next level. ... It’s essentially this: Hillary Clinton doesn’t just (hire people who) know the inside jokes to use on Twitter, she knows the inside jokes on Weird Twitter. And this is an attitude that reflects her campaign’s larger strategy; a bet that the so-called “national conversation” isn’t the thing that will carry Clinton to victory in the general election, as Emily Schultheis put it last year. Instead, her campaign is betting on making more intimate connections with small groups of voters, “the persona she builds in key areas, and the buzz she generates with local activists.” For anyone who has seen Clinton engage with a small crowd—and how warm and funny she can be, contrary to popular opinion—this approach will make sense. Clinton’s campaign has emphasized the importance of “meeting people where they are,” and it turns out that some of those people are online reading The Toast. You can read the note for yourself here.

Fishbowl

The Internet Is Obsessed With Hillary Clinton's Goodbye Note to The Toast

"I have never been pandered to so effectively before."

Corinne Grinapol

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Corinne Grinapol