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One thing I do routinely to see what spin on events is gaining traction with the media is check all the major TV and print news websites.
Republicans have been out hammering hard at arguing that division is due to "both sides" and that Democrats are making it worse by...
Republicans have been out hammering hard at arguing that division is due to "both sides" and that Democrats are making it worse by...
...demanding those responsible be punished and Republicans are the real victims due to social media crackdowns on violent language. On top of that, they continue to promote the lie that the election was stolen and downplay Trump's role in the insurrection.
It's DARVO, and it's part of how Republicans have successfully pivoted the narrative for years. I worry that under the constant onslaught, the press will eventually start giving more and more air to Republicans turning themselves into victims. https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1347931444748935171
Republicans winning this narrative war would be disastrous for our country. It would mean insurrection would go unpunished. Trump & Republicans who aided him would go from aggressors and instigators to victims while Democrats would again be villainized.
Social media platforms and other businesses would, in sympathy or to be "fair", would re-platform dangerous, violent rhetoric.
It would escalate the possibility for violence by making clear violence will not be punished and creating legitimate spaces for it to be plotted.
It would escalate the possibility for violence by making clear violence will not be punished and creating legitimate spaces for it to be plotted.
One of the benefits the GOP has is a massive partisan media ecosphere, which does not bother with the appearance of neutrality and which consolidates behind a small number of shared narratives driven by the GOP.
This creates a tsunami of hyper-partisan "news," which eventually even non-conservative outlets can't ignore or block out. They cede more and more air time or printed space to these GOP-driven narratives from the right-wing ecosphere, until the views go mainstream.
This is why we saw polling on whether the election was stolen go from relatively few people believing it was true to a large number of people believing it was true, rapidly spreading out from merely the right who live in the right-wing echo chamber, increasingly to moderates.
Republicans mobilizing on every social platform and every network they can get in front of to hammer the messages 1) Democrats are driving division, 2) Democrats are taking our free speech, and 3) Trump is innocent, is with the intention of swinging public opinion.
The last 20 years has shown that when Republicans use the full force of their party's PR machine and the right-wing media ecosphere to pressure neutral media outlets on narratives, the right ultimately wins.
They *can't* this time. The danger to our country is too grave.
They *can't* this time. The danger to our country is too grave.
Joe Biden referenced "the Big Lie," which was a Nazi propaganda technique of telling a lie so outrageous, people couldn't believe it was false, to refer to Trump's absurd claims the election being stolen.
It got me to thinking about the other fascist propaganda techniques...
It got me to thinking about the other fascist propaganda techniques...
...you can see in the Republican party.
Gleichschaltung was a process by which Hitler and others essentially brought all of Germany under complete Nazi control. It applies to far more than just propaganda, but propaganda is where you can visibly see how daily life became...
Gleichschaltung was a process by which Hitler and others essentially brought all of Germany under complete Nazi control. It applies to far more than just propaganda, but propaganda is where you can visibly see how daily life became...
...saturated by a pro-Nazi worldview, which allowed people to excuse what to (almost) anyone outside that ecosphere seemed inexcusable.
You see this in the right-wing media ecosphere, and the way it has saturated those on the right with ideas and beliefs that are completely...
You see this in the right-wing media ecosphere, and the way it has saturated those on the right with ideas and beliefs that are completely...
...detached from everyone else. The Nazis infiltrated media, both serious political media and entertainment, religious institutions, education, work and leisure.
The contemporary US right does not rely solely on news programs to consolidate its subscribers under a single view.
The contemporary US right does not rely solely on news programs to consolidate its subscribers under a single view.
They also do this through churches, and a growing homeschool and private religious education movement, and through these churches also to an extent control leisure.
The rapid proliferation of right-wing media outlets--official, unofficial, and in a variety of mediums--is...
The rapid proliferation of right-wing media outlets--official, unofficial, and in a variety of mediums--is...
...only one means of coordinating messaging and then saturating its audience with a single view, until all else is excluded.
This is how we get to a point where 1000s of people think the violent overthrow of the government is patriotic. Coordination and saturation of messaging.
This is how we get to a point where 1000s of people think the violent overthrow of the government is patriotic. Coordination and saturation of messaging.
It's just one more reason why the entire rest of the media needs to resist falling into the trap of, "Everyone on the right is engaging with this narrative, we have to acknowledge it too and give it SOME air, or we're not being neutral."
Unless that conversation comes with a heaping acknowledgment that these narratives are a lie, a subversion of reality, and an attempt to escape scrutiny or punishment via DARVO, the neutral media becomes a legitimate mouthpiece for the right-wing propaganda machine.
The media has thus far largely ignored the calls to be more critical of news stories and narratives--propaganda--that are pushed from the right-wing media ecosphere. It has not been self-reflective enough or critical enough of its own acceptance of that propaganda as valid.
We are here because the unthinkable has become acceptable, even encouraged in the right-wing media ecosphere and been legitimized as a reasonable counterpoint to the left (and reality) by routine spotlights from legitimate news sources.
