Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Rightists have spent the last couple of days freaking out and invoking Orwell’s 1984 in response to something their political enemies are doing in Ameri…
I wish the article writer would stop freaking out. The government and 'private' media have always had incredibly close ties. The government is just getting worse at hiding it because, well, people care less. I mean even the 'misinformation song' has less than 3000 likes on Twitter, and maybe abit more engagement on TikTok, but that shit is small potatoes compared to the sheer overwhelming weight of lack of interest in politics.
The government and ‘private’ media have always had incredibly close ties.
The relationship changes from generation to generation, and the mechanisms by which the manipulation occurs shift alongside it.
We had something of a renaissance of "independent" media in the early '00s, even if the independence mostly meant Ron Paul dweebs and Daily Kos nerds posting rants on YouTube about how the government was lying to you. Now we're seeing a reversal of the trend and a re-consolidation of the internet media space in such a way that's causing those same dweebs and nerds to freak out.
I mean even the ‘misinformation song’ has less than 3000 likes on Twitter, and maybe abit more engagement on TikTok, but that shit is small potatoes compared to the sheer overwhelming weight of lack of interest in politics.
I don't know about "lack of interest". People seem as politically observant as ever. Infotainment is industrially produced and ravenously consumed. But with the repeat failures of the last few mass movements - everything from BLM to Jan 6th culminated in... Joe Biden running the country - there's a definite sense of helplessness and futility. We're all just caught behind glass, watching politics happen without any way to impact it.
Add to the frustration how everybody is in on the "Fake News" gambit, such that a warmed over Jon Stewart bit about government lies set to musical accompaniment just seems trite at this point. Ok, they're lying? So now what?
That's fine, but their reaction is incredibly indicative of their lack of historical knowledge.
The way I see it, it's about say, 20% of the population that engages with politics daily, electoral or otherwise. Sure there is enough to make a market out of the whole thing, but like random cat videos on the internet still get a 100 times more daily traffic than even the most popular political commentators. Again, it is small potatoes.
Maybe it is more than it used to be, it certainly doesn't feel like it. Almost all of my friends and family on any side of the spectrum have disengaged with politics to focus entirely on their careers, which is fine, as I have more or less done the same outside of my compulsion to be a nerd about this stuff. It certainly comes off as a lack of interest to me. The only other guy I know who cares about this stuff is an insufferably online liberal who is currently drowning himself Ukrainian propaganda.
The way I see it, it’s about say, 20% of the population that engages with politics daily, electoral or otherwise.
I don't know how you reached that number. Politics is like the weather. Every time it changes, you can find people talking about it. But also like the weather, people don't see much that they can do about it save taking personal precautions.
Almost all of my friends and family on any side of the spectrum have disengaged with politics to focus entirely on their careers, which is fine, as I have more or less done the same outside of my compulsion to be a nerd about this stuff.
I mean, I spent about a decade trying to engage with the Texas political system. I found it incredibly difficult to penetrate, with a very niche group of people mostly interested in taking your money and sending you on your way. But I never found a shortage of people trying to organize against, engage with, or challenge those in power at one time or another.
As to focusing on one's career, I don't think there's a clear distinction. My wife has made a career out of her political convictions, working for a non-profit legal aid clinic in an effort to help tenants fight eviction. I know a few friends who changed jobs - industries even - to pursue some social or moral conviction. In Texas, in particular, watching people drop out of the O&G industry to pursue something more fulfilling isn't unusual.
I am basing that off of general aggregate numbers of views of political content on the internet. Now, I'm being generous when I talk about 'daily political engagement', along with being generous when I say 20%. I'd say, on average either side, videos with any mainstream clout get about 300K views in a given day. Now, that being said, I guesstimate that that is probably a good tenth of actual political engagement. It likely is less. And I am counting culture war engagement as 'politics' which I probably shouldn't. If we stick strictly to labor, the percentages drop sharply.
Idk. I think things are slightly different in Wisconsin than Texas if you are not within the Madison, Janesville, and Milwaukee areas. It's good to hear, as that area is one huge political battle ground, but since the unions got fucked in the 00's, politics is focused almost entirely in the great lakes area, and everybody else is just trying to survive and suck as much money from large corporations and the state as possible. Not alot of non-profit jobs around here outside of the universities and hospitals. Maybe if I was more in that crowd I would have a different opinion, but I work with and am friends with mostly apolitical people (many of whom were engaged in either right wing or progressive campaigns).
That could change in the future, though you are right.
This is most definitely a decline, and a further attack on our collective mindset and liberty. I don't know about "freaking out" and no, it's not an attack that is out-of-line with other attacks we've experienced (e.g. the Patriot Act), but it is absolutely worth resisting.
It's also being blatant about it in kind of a new way (at least when considering recent U.S. history). It's not everyday the fuckin' Democrats actually admit they're embracing 1984 dystopian authoritarianism right to everybody's faces. So it's an opportunity as well. Point this shit out. Don't let it quietly settle around us without using it as a point of agitation and education.
I wish the article writer would stop freaking out. The government and 'private' media have always had incredibly close ties. The government is just getting worse at hiding it because, well, people care less. I mean even the 'misinformation song' has less than 3000 likes on Twitter, and maybe abit more engagement on TikTok, but that shit is small potatoes compared to the sheer overwhelming weight of lack of interest in politics.
The relationship changes from generation to generation, and the mechanisms by which the manipulation occurs shift alongside it.
We had something of a renaissance of "independent" media in the early '00s, even if the independence mostly meant Ron Paul dweebs and Daily Kos nerds posting rants on YouTube about how the government was lying to you. Now we're seeing a reversal of the trend and a re-consolidation of the internet media space in such a way that's causing those same dweebs and nerds to freak out.
I don't know about "lack of interest". People seem as politically observant as ever. Infotainment is industrially produced and ravenously consumed. But with the repeat failures of the last few mass movements - everything from BLM to Jan 6th culminated in... Joe Biden running the country - there's a definite sense of helplessness and futility. We're all just caught behind glass, watching politics happen without any way to impact it.
Add to the frustration how everybody is in on the "Fake News" gambit, such that a warmed over Jon Stewart bit about government lies set to musical accompaniment just seems trite at this point. Ok, they're lying? So now what?
That's fine, but their reaction is incredibly indicative of their lack of historical knowledge.
The way I see it, it's about say, 20% of the population that engages with politics daily, electoral or otherwise. Sure there is enough to make a market out of the whole thing, but like random cat videos on the internet still get a 100 times more daily traffic than even the most popular political commentators. Again, it is small potatoes.
Maybe it is more than it used to be, it certainly doesn't feel like it. Almost all of my friends and family on any side of the spectrum have disengaged with politics to focus entirely on their careers, which is fine, as I have more or less done the same outside of my compulsion to be a nerd about this stuff. It certainly comes off as a lack of interest to me. The only other guy I know who cares about this stuff is an insufferably online liberal who is currently drowning himself Ukrainian propaganda.
I don't know how you reached that number. Politics is like the weather. Every time it changes, you can find people talking about it. But also like the weather, people don't see much that they can do about it save taking personal precautions.
I mean, I spent about a decade trying to engage with the Texas political system. I found it incredibly difficult to penetrate, with a very niche group of people mostly interested in taking your money and sending you on your way. But I never found a shortage of people trying to organize against, engage with, or challenge those in power at one time or another.
As to focusing on one's career, I don't think there's a clear distinction. My wife has made a career out of her political convictions, working for a non-profit legal aid clinic in an effort to help tenants fight eviction. I know a few friends who changed jobs - industries even - to pursue some social or moral conviction. In Texas, in particular, watching people drop out of the O&G industry to pursue something more fulfilling isn't unusual.
I am basing that off of general aggregate numbers of views of political content on the internet. Now, I'm being generous when I talk about 'daily political engagement', along with being generous when I say 20%. I'd say, on average either side, videos with any mainstream clout get about 300K views in a given day. Now, that being said, I guesstimate that that is probably a good tenth of actual political engagement. It likely is less. And I am counting culture war engagement as 'politics' which I probably shouldn't. If we stick strictly to labor, the percentages drop sharply.
Idk. I think things are slightly different in Wisconsin than Texas if you are not within the Madison, Janesville, and Milwaukee areas. It's good to hear, as that area is one huge political battle ground, but since the unions got fucked in the 00's, politics is focused almost entirely in the great lakes area, and everybody else is just trying to survive and suck as much money from large corporations and the state as possible. Not alot of non-profit jobs around here outside of the universities and hospitals. Maybe if I was more in that crowd I would have a different opinion, but I work with and am friends with mostly apolitical people (many of whom were engaged in either right wing or progressive campaigns).
That could change in the future, though you are right.
This is most definitely a decline, and a further attack on our collective mindset and liberty. I don't know about "freaking out" and no, it's not an attack that is out-of-line with other attacks we've experienced (e.g. the Patriot Act), but it is absolutely worth resisting.
It's also being blatant about it in kind of a new way (at least when considering recent U.S. history). It's not everyday the fuckin' Democrats actually admit they're embracing 1984 dystopian authoritarianism right to everybody's faces. So it's an opportunity as well. Point this shit out. Don't let it quietly settle around us without using it as a point of agitation and education.