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Caitlin Johnstone's manufacturing consent - "When The Powerful Control Public Opinion, Elections Aren't Real"

Politics
#1

Hi folks, I think this essay is so compatible with the purposes of this site:

cheers

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#2

Great article with a great take home: there are several grips on power utilized. Tampering with the actual vote, control of candidates via donations, the mirage of the power of the president or leader, and the ownership of the media narratives; all of which easily shape public opinion past the magic ‘democratic’ thresholds.

And worst of all, only the last one is really needed to maintain both power and the public’s state of ignorance.The others are like the extra bolts - a failsafe.

Thanks for posting!

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#3

Thanks CJ. Caitlin’s is one of numerous SubStacks I follow but seldom have time to read. The emphasis on narrative is warranted, and it is the killer tactic in many ways. Repeated regularly these stories suffuse everything, becoming the vernacular of the era. The ideas we think of.

But a concise and powerful meme or image can undercut that very quickly. Shitposters of the world unite and take over :wink:

I think this has proved beyond doubt a key factor in demolishing the pro Israel b.s. Sure, they can mount lengthy and quite well-reasoned arguments for the justice of their case. And they keep on and on doing it. But relatively few of us are paying attention. The instant hit of the hideous images coming from Gaza are far too powerful. And this is why the social media platforms are being pressured to curtail reality.

The latest trick on X is to insert a link about ten posts into any thread they wish to suppress. It says Likely Spam and you have to click past it to see responses that broadly resemble the earlier ones. There are lots of other examples but so far the technical capacity to suppress images and short clips is inferior. Hence the authorities gun for the whole platform, as with TikTok.

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#4

I had meant to type “The ideas we think with”

If a posh boy seeds the meme that chavs wear ill-fitting Kappa tracksuits and say “yeah but no but yeah (etc)” then that soon becomes the shorthand for all discourse about the underclass. For example.

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