Think
about this for a minute.
"A
psychopathic media magnate or politician can have a damaging impact on the
minds and lives of hundreds of millions of people. They may in the long run be
more dangerous & destructive to society than low-achieving violent
psychopaths." ~ Gao and Raine
Quote
from Will Blacks superb book Psychopathic Cultures and Toxic Empires. If you
haven't read it, I can recommend it. It opened my eyes.
So what
happens when you mix the two? Like Trump & the odious exBreitbart CEO and
now Trump chief advisor and bizarrely Security Council Member, Steve Bannon? I
believe we have cause for concern. This is why.
Think
about the practice of branding any major news site that publishes personal or
performance valuations about a leader as fake. Even facts are branded fake if
they are unflattering. Yes, fake news is out there. I don't deny that. A lot of
fake news comes from independent sites, many only recently launched. Don’t kid
yourself only the so called left do it. All groups do. But how dangerous
and I dare say naive to label every column that is critical (or unkind) as
fake? That’s idiocy. But, if you play the fake card often enough, it sticks. We
witness that today. Even when the story is true, the cries of FAKE from the
adoring throng resound.
In recent
days fake news has been labelled alternative news. There is no such thing as
alternative news. There is truth, untruth and opinions. I felt compelled to
challenge someone last week over a claim of fake news. A research company
looked into click words and hashtags posted on Twitter. The key tags and click
words being bigot, racist, dishonesty etc. What they found overwhelmingly
was, that Donald Trump attracted more bigot, racist hashtag responses than anyone.
Clinton scored the highest on dishonesty. This was published in the Australian.
Out came the fake news chanters. Everyone conveniently ignored the Clinton
dishonest tag. So I assume from that, it was only the Trump data that was fake, in the minds of some. No one mentioned Clinton. As I pointed out in my comments to the column, it’s research data.
Given the chatter that Trump evokes it’s easy to conceive he rates highly on
bigot and, racist tags. Because Trump supporters wouldn't accept the output
that labelled their man a bigot and racist they tried to delegitimise the story
as fake. It's ludicrous behaviour.
People on
mass have now lost trust in the media. In certain circumstances there is some
justification. What we are seeing from Trump and co is different. They
are running a deliberate strategy to totally undermine the press. Why do people
do that? It's to make sure they are not closely scrutinised. When
media trust is destroyed, readers don't believe anything. Truth will
simply be labelled rubbish. Fake. There is enough evidence in our history to
prove this works.
Along
with the fake news strategy people are told there is only person to be trusted. The one those awful media people are trying to hold to account. We are
constantly bombarded with messages telling us the media just lies, lies, lies.
They are so mean. But, don’t worry we have a saviour. He’ll take care of us. It
will be beautiful. He promises. He never lies.
Someone
actually said to me yesterday. “Donald Trump is the most honest politician I
know. He never lies.” The person who said it, I've always considered intelligent
and discerning. When I presented him with a string of examples he rubbished the
source as dishonest, fake. It was a facts site with links. So, I presented him with a similar set of examples where
the same source highlighted Obamas lies. Of course that was ignored. This is
how things work now.
It
doesn’t end there. The calls to close down the free MSM press grow by the day. I
see this on social media. The comments section of MSM is full of these demands.
A
journalist from the BBC asked Trump an uncomfortable (for him) question during
his press conference with British PM May last week. It was a relevant and
important question. The question was respectfully asked. Trump squirmed. Dozens
and dozens of people then hit a British News Service calling for the White
House to ban the BBC. People demanded the reporter be fired. They demanded the
BBC be closed. I find that seriously scary behaviour as I value freedom of
speech and a free press. These are some of the values our forebears fought for. They fought for us to have
that right. Some even sacrificed their lives in battle. It appears it was for nothing. As we are so willing to give it away. Please don't come back with the BS that's what Trump is fighting for. No he isn't. If he was, he wouldn't be trying to close down anyone who disagrees with him.
If you
were reading the above, without being appraised of the circumstances it reads
like the outline for a cheap political novel based in the third world. But sadly, it isn't. This is happening now.
In the free world.
Even
Hitler said. “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it
will be believed.” He was right.
I understand there is a
ground swell demanding revolution. Thankfully there is also a groundswell
saying, not like this. As I'm not a fool, I also accept something needs to
change. But, there are some very sinister tactics at play. I just hope people
wise up soon. Because what we end up with, might just result in us being
much worse of. I fear this will be the case. I am not prone to alarmism.
But, I readily admit my alarm metre has hit the red zone.
As a conservative I will
always stand up for truth, our rights and our freedom. Our right to question
and critique those in power is a fundamental right. Steve Bannon, sits
at the right-hand of the so called leader of the free world Bannon told the media to keep their mouth shut. Spoken like a true 'Alt-Right
Psychopath'. He even labelled them the opposition party. The only countries I see trying to silence the press are
Turkey, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China and now the US. That bothers me.
Regardless of who people support politically, it should bother everyone.
We should be reminded of
the words of Theodore Roosevelt when he said.
“To
announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to
stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
To my
mind, anyone advocating for change and who seeks to do so at the cost of our
liberty and our freedom to question, to judge and to criticise them, is not
seeking change for us. Instead they are seeking to relegate us to the level
servitude.
“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a
dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in
order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution.
The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin
to understand me.” ~ George Orwell, 1984
We live
in troubling times. For the first time in my life, I am very, very worried for our
collective future. What true centralist conservative can stand by in silence and watch this happen. I for one can't.
