Clout functions as a values-free currency equally available to left and right

Evidence

Clout is the values-free currency of the always-online age—both a substitute for hard cash as well as a conduit to it. Clout is a calculus not of what you do, but of how much bulk you-ness there is in the world. You get clout by playing the victim. You get clout by victimizing others. This is something that is understood by the left and the right. If influence sways, clout squats, taking up space for its own sake. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 337

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines clout as a values-free currency — the key concept explaining why the mirror world finds its crossover stars regardless of ideology.
• APHORISMS: ‘If influence sways, clout squats’ reads as a genuinely useful, memorable framing for understanding online status.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s goal of assessing the diagonalism thesis — clout is the mechanism by which the diagonal bends.