Abyss of Dead Ends

We are standing on the periphery of an abyss containing an infinity of dead ends.

I was foolish once to think information could save the human race; that social media could cut through, bypass the bullshit and bias of the billionaire-owned media. I know we desperately need electoral reform in the U.K., but electoral reform will not happen without a general, swelling consensus within the simplistic mind of the masses – that morose blob of unthinking and uncaring selfishness. Public consensus will not happen without the backing of the billionaire-owned press.

So we are fucked. No meaningful electoral reform will be backed by the established powers so we are forever caught in a cyclical system that diminishes the rights of the individual and embellishes the might of the corporate.

I have written it before and I will write it again:

Any fleeting glance at psychological studies confirms that. Humans have a tendency to look more fondly upon the familiar; words are often accepted uncritically by the brain; we have confirmation bias. All it takes is for the people to be bombarded with an overwhelmingly biased narrative. As Jonathan cook says “It’s not the Sun wot won it, it’s the entire corporate media industry.” The problem we face is many people trust too easily the corporate media and they accept what they publish uncritically. For many people their understanding of what is normal, what is natural is spoon fed to them by malign, imperialistic, opportunistic established powers.

This election has demonstrated that. If the Tory party cannot increase their votes (they didn't) our corporate rulers will do everything they can to trash the opposition. The left were foolish to believe the system isn't rigged against us. We were stupid to have hope, to hope things could change, could be better. We were foolish to think the established powers wouldn't abandon electoral rules, like they have done in the past, and the media wouldn't abandoned any pretence of impartiality, like the BBC has done many times. This election showed illegal posters placed next to polling stations, an online campaign of lies, as well as the ongoing antisemitism smear campaign against the Labour Party which saw Labour denounced for it's below-than-national-average amount of antisemitism, which took up more screen time and news pages than the plight of millions of people living in poverty in the U.K.

People don't read complex things and as Craig Murray points out right-leaning voters are less educated. Coming from a region north of the A406 I feel I can safely criticise the simpletons from the north of England and the Midland. Nothing epitomises these people to me more than morose individuals the T.V. news channels get to speak on their vox pops (albeit many of these vox pops are held all over the UK – yet not one of them offers any political insight).

I know too well the kind of uncritical acceptance many people have for the mainstream narrative, who see people with counter voices as trouble makers or foolish; and with the media narrative steadily shifting right many people too easily unwittingly succumb to its pull. These are people who take their political leanings from the bloke at work who bothers to read rabidly right wing newspapers, or they get their political fill glancing at the newspaper headlines on their way past to pay for their petrol. Perhaps I'm being unfair, but I don't care.

I saw a post from Another Angry Voice suggesting that the left should formulate counter-slogans akin to 'Get Brexit done' then repeat them endlessly so the message cuts through. This was in essence confirmed by a comment in a Novara media video stating that when political talk gets complicated, people tend not to listen; only simple slogan cut through.

But simple slogans won't work either. Many of the people you need to convince put too much trust in newspapers. They are too far raped by the established orthodoxy. They too easily accept newspaper narratives as 'normal' and anything else is propaganda or crazy talk; and with the B.B.C. increasingly dropping its impartiality facade, more and more the right wing narrative is seen as normal.

These are people who might not see counter narratives in social media posts. Not everyone is active online and many of the left leaning posts are caught in algorithmic echo chambers. To reach those people, you need to reach them through the old media: newspapers and T.V., so the only way to reach those people is through the backing of the obscenely wealthy people who own and control those outlets, who will tell those people what to believe and who to vote for.

As this article on propaganda explains there are many techniques at work influencing people's thinking. P.R. companies make millions and millions per year. We live in disinformation age and it is not the quality of argument that counts but the established powers closing ranks to push the disinformation. It is about how much money you can put into it to make it effective. The disinformation warriors are now coming after left leaning publications to silence the counter narrative for good. With each shift to the right, our rights are diminished and the wealthy increase their wealth. With each moment the established powers increase their power over every aspect of our lives.

As much as we might kid ourselves, a counter narrative is useless without the money and power-influences behind it that the right wing narratives have. We can quibble over which technique is the most effective but with a populace perpetually gaslighted what can you do to make them see sense?

My morbid sadism wants to see how bad things will get with our increasingly fascist government; but I do not want to see the suffering that will inevitably come with it. There will be no I-told-you-so moment however. With the corporate media on their side, those who voted for this, who are complicit in this, will never realise they are to blame. Not unless the newspapers tell them they are.

Over and out for now, guys!

xxx