It’s increasingly necessary to not just stand against the status quo but also against the fraudulent political factions pretending to oppose it.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 16. (Office of Speaker Mike Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
I saw a rant from Mehdi Hasan the other day complaining that the way Elon Musk constantly says the media are corrupt and dishonest “has a massive effect not just on trust and polarization in society, but on election outcomes and political messaging.”
Hasan said that Musk, Trump and their ilk “have cynically created an unpenetrable [sic] bubble around their followers, primed them against a reality-based universe, [and] pre-emptively undermined any negative stories about themselves.”
Hasan is of course correct that the people who listen to Trump and Musk have largely been herded into fact-resistant echo chambers of cult-like loyalty, but it’s worth pointing out that Musk’s claims about the media are absolutely correct as well. The media are corrupt and untrustworthy, and do indeed promote lies and propaganda all the time. Just because Elon Musk says it doesn’t mean it’s false.
One great challenge of our time is that while it’s becoming common knowledge that Western media is propaganda and Western politics is a corrupt sham, fake solutions to these problems are being marketed to the mainstream by the same powers responsible for them.
Gaza solidarity protest in Washington on Nov. 4. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Donald Trump himself will tell you that the media are lying and the political establishment is run by swamp monsters, and then say that the solution is to support Republicans and trust right-wing media.
Elon Musk will go on Joe Rogan and say the same thing. In 2028 U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will probably run for president campaigning on the Democratic Party version of the same faux-populist message, just as Bernie Sanders did.
This dynamic poses a major obstacle to those who yearn for real revolutionary change. It’s becoming increasingly necessary to not just stand against the status quo but against the fraudulent political factions which pretend to oppose it. It’s no longer enough to reject establishment politics and media, we also need to reject the fake anti-establishment politics and media which seek to herd a discontented populace away from meaningful revolutionary movements.
There are probably people reading this right now who’ve fallen into this very trap, who started reading my stuff because they see me opposing wars and criticizing the media and assume I support the same things they support, even as they throw their support behind a fraudulent political movement that’s ultimately designed to keep the wars going and make the mass media propaganda more effective.
Last time Trump was president I’d always get his fuzzbrained empire simps trying to convince me their guy was ending the wars and fighting against the deep state, twisting themselves into all kinds of cognitive pretzels when I’d present them with hard evidence to the contrary.
It’s a challenge to push back against this new iteration of mass deception, but recognizing where it’s happening for yourself is fairly simple: just look at what they wind up telling you to support. If at the end of the day they wind up telling you to support Republicans or Democrats, or to support the “good kind” of Republicans or Democrats, or to support any other mainstream Western political party, then they’re engaged in the exact sort of manipulation I’m describing here.
They’re trying to corral you away from a real revolutionary political movement and back into the mainstream flock. Into one of the mainstream political parties which are explicitly designed to undermine all the revolutionary changes you seek.
As capitalism continues to decay and inequalities and injustices become more and more pronounced, public discontent with the status quo is naturally going to rise. Because they can’t end the political and economic systems the empire is built upon without collapsing it, the empire managers have instead devised ways to funnel that discontent back into support for status quo politics. They don’t just control the opposition, they control the opposition to the controlled opposition.
The empire managers are always a few moves ahead of the masses. There is simply too much power riding on the continuation of the Western empire for those in control to allow an authentic revolutionary movement to emerge which could rock the boat. So they give them fake, decoy revolutions to play with while the empire rolls on.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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I guess being filthy rich excuses kissing asses to get even richer.
True, the media is corrupt, but Trump and Musk will use all the media attention they can get. They are all about publicity, money, and power. The government is a publicity stunt for them. They don’t care about governing and serving public interests. They use talking points without any substance to get publicity. They don’t care about social issues like education, health, and childcare issues. They are narcissists and psychopaths and are in it for the fun.
To cite Mehdi Hasan, Bulldog Protector of the Elite, in any meaningful way cuts into Caitlin Johnstone’s credibility. Hasan ambushed Matt Taibbi (great investigative journalist, poor speaker) to denigrate Tabbi’s and Shellenberger’s thankless work to dive into the Federal Government suppression/ censorship of Americans’ Free Speech rights on Twitter. Hasan, whose parents are Shiite Muslims (not from Iran supposedly) found himself shuffled aside by his betters after October 7th. Yes, the Twitter reporting RIGHTFULLY cut into the credibility of State (manipulated) Media (the coopted late MSM), as well as the credibility of social media who were forced to become federal lap dogs. Hasan has never done anything but ambitious jockeying and harassing in his NON-investigative journalism career. Taibbi is one of the few investigative journalists left: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” used to be the standard, the exact opposite of Hasan, Protector of Corrupt Institutions.
Covid reporting of dissenting scientific views (completely censored for the first three years) similarly cut into the Official (WRONG!) CDC, NIAID, and FDA Narratives that still hang on in some dark corners of America, including DC. Heaven help us if we have a REAL dangerous epidemic.
She didnt cite him in any positive way if you read it properly
The “media” IS corrupt…
Bailing water in the sinking boat of western empires credibility over 2000 years.of occupations using scapegoats and imaginary gods.
100 percent correct!
How did billionaires get to be billionaires? By paying labor, supporting unions, supplying health care, and pensions for their workers????
Walmart will fight you for a penny…every penny. Banks, credit cards, etc. will never raise your salary or cut their PROFITS w/o pressure. Never voluntarily.
Yes you are right, let’s not support the parties and structures you mention … But what next? In America we have these tiny little third parties that IMO will never have much support with our current system. It appears to me that mass protest is either dead or severely disabled and won’t be coming back for some time, maybe a very long time. Do we just hope and wait for the corrupt thing to collapse?
What I believe is starting to happen is that there’s an “anti-establishment” wing of our elites — Trump, Musk, Tucker, RFK Jr, and others — who see an opening regarding Russia and the dangerous harassment towards it and are speaking out against all of it. Good. And, yes, some of them probably have ulterior motives when it comes to opening up certain investment opportunities in Russia.
However, along with this easing of tensions with Russia from some of the aforementioned folks (as stated, a good thing), there’s virtually no room whatsoever for free expression anywhere in the Western mass media as it comes to the sickening genocide Israel’s committing against the Palestinians. The pro-Israel zealots have almost a total lock on every mainstream outlet. Palestinians are totally forgotten, left to be tortured, starved, imprisoned, and die.
The same powerful officials and popular figures who are voicing their strong concerns over the dangerous proxy war on Russia’s border don’t have nary a word of criticism toward Smotrich, Ben-Givr and that entire sadistic bloodthirsty crew of psychopaths.
Since I have a lot of respect for you, I would like to know what you think of my perception: Donald Trump is a weakling and he is going to be destroyed by his fanatical attachment to Israel. I think there is a goodly percentage of people who voted for him who do not like his passion for that disgusting sinkhole.
“If at the end of the day they wind up telling you to support Republicans or Democrats, or to support the “good kind” of Republicans or Democrats, or to support any other mainstream Western political party, then they’re engaged in the exact sort of manipulation I’m describing here.”
Terrific guideline, I certainly agree. The next step, of building upon that awareness, is even more daunting though. The main power the establishment has to continue their herding is the mainstream media. Plus it provides the planted pretexts for the government to implement polices and actions that the public would otherwise be naturally and wisely against.
“…Last time Trump was president I’d always get his fuzzbrained empire simps trying to convince me their guy was ending the wars and fighting against the deep state, twisting themselves into all kinds of cognitive pretzels when I’d present them with hard evidence to the contrary…”
The DT crowd is just as naive, insouciant, gullible and conditioned as the “hope and change” joyful genocide crowd. It’s all empty PR nonsense, yet millions fall for it time after time.
Elon skuM, the richest oligarch on earth, just lies and spews miasma just like his buddy DT. The oligarchy is busy trying to destroy real journalism.
I recall even here on CN, more than one regular commenter believing the lies and BS of the Adelson/Musk/Kushner/DT crowd, saying that they support “free speech” blah blah. Now that Musk ‘s TwitterX is openly censoring CN and others, will they admit they were dead wrong? Not likely, as politics is not based in facts, it is emotional and psychological. We don’t need “political scientists”, we need political psychologists to analyze why millions fall for the same pack of lies every time.
Even prominent personalities like Judge Napolitano, fell for the BS. I guess when there is no alternative available, and folks are not happy with the status-quo, they will desperately engage in wishful thinking and fantasy. Has Judge Nap admitted he was dead wrong about Elon the Oligarch and his buddy the DT? I doubt it, emotion trumps reason, no pun intended.
What you’re describing is emotional immaturity, and most people suffer from it. When you actually grow up, you no longer look for a savior, you no longer fall for sweet-sounding rhetoric, you face reality — and that’s not an easy thing — see it for what it is, and do your best in your life to counter what you despise in so-called human reality. I thank god I live surrounded by trees and fields and wild animals because it’s a reality that keeps me sane in the madness of “civilization.”
We must be “on the same page” Susan, as I also live in a stunningly beautiful, rural, forested area with wild critters of all kinds. I count myself very fortunate, and it also helps to keep me from “going insane”. Also, what keeps me sane is the realization that similar things have happened before, in past historical cycles. Same stuff, different century/millennium. History sure does rhyme and all that…