No. of Recommendations: 4
"Conservatives now inhabit their own self-created media echo chamber, which functions as a type of lie-filled and toxic closed episteme and sealed-off universe. The creation of such an alternate reality is an important attribute of fascism, in which truth itself must be destroyed and replaced with fantasies and fictions in support of the leader and his movement."
Yes. I think 1984 should be required reading in school.
We see such things in state-controlled media, like DPRK. The former USSR (and, now, to some extent present-day Russia), and some others, also utilized it. I find it fascinating -and a bit scary- that this is happening without a state player. People are doing it to themselves. Murdoch recognized a demand for "news" that favored right-wing ideology, and he provided it. Didn't matter if it was true. It was very cynical of him, but also brilliant in a nihilistic way. And very lucrative. But Murdoch just exploited it. The people were already there, evidently primed to be lied to as long as it was lies they wanted to hear.
Which is somewhat akin to 1920s-1940s Germany...the German people were told what they wanted to hear, and they ate it up. A devastating depression in Germany made worse with reparations from WWI didn't help. This one party told them it wasn't their fault, it was "the other" (mostly Jews). That party never got more than about 32% support in elections, but we all know what happened even with that minority support.
