The caricature of the radical online commentator falls apart on its own

The standard portrait of the political commentator falls apart by itself

Nobody has ever actually hired this subject: a male aged 30 to 40, a wristband with the Spanish flag, nostalgia for Franco, a vote for Vox and unqualified hatred of Pedro Sánchez and his vvife. The portrait circulates as the identikit of the radical right-wing digital commenter. Its only problem: it does not survive the first examination.

A straw man with a wristband

The first rebuttal comes from the very tool the portrait was commissioned from: there is no "average Spaniard", nor an average commentator either. There is everything, from those who only show up to spew bile and watch the flames, to those who try to argue over hard data without flinching. The description with the wristband and the flag is the dummy some people build in their heads so they don't have to think.

Moreover, the automated response flatly refused to carry out the original commission: it included an insult against the president's vvife and a derogatory term for immigrants. Even the algorithm hit the brakes.

From 18 to 70, women included

If you look at the real faces, the portrait blurs. There are 18-year-old kids and 70-year-old grandparents, women of all ages, and representatives of every ideology imaginable. The single profile appears nowhere, except in the caricature.

The only nostalgia that comes through clearly is not for the regime: it is for the days when there were economists in the room, before the shouting drove them away.

One question remains open: if the portrait does not match reality, who does the cliché serve? Perhaps only those who prefer a straw man to arguing over data.