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Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature | George Monbiot
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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politics
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This is the lesson that the political left needs to learn. Relying on our "better nature" is not an effective strategy. People remain vulnerable, now more than ever, to the tactics of propaganda. If we want to create a better future, we need to accept that we need to wield those tactics better than our enemies.
If we want a fair and just society, the idea needs to be sold to the populace. Collectively, we cannot be trusted to independently choose a better future for ourselves.
Beating our enemies by lying better to the public? No thanks.
I'd rather beat my enemies by being better then them and showing it, and simply breaking the ability of my enemies to lie.
Fox news, for example, should never have been allowed to be what it is today. A judge literally ruled that they don't have to be factual. That right there was when things started going sideways. For the longest time, people laughed at Fox for being the bunch of mentally challenged idiots that they are and all the ridiculous lies they were spouting all day every day, but nobosy though of the influence it had. Nobody realized that there was a huge amount of people listening to these lies, all day, every day.
Fox news should be outlawed, and it's pundits should literally be strung up in the streets for the harm they've caused. I don't say that lightly, I would never say that about any journalist, or person, really, but these guys and gals are the cream of the crop, the Himmler of the 2000's, they are the reason why millions of useful idiot sheep voted for trump.
Nobody, and then I mean NOBODY would have voted trump had they had access to actual factual news. Nobody would have walked in a pizza place with an assault rifle, demanding to see the non existent basement with the non existent children being not sacrificed. Some of it is conspiracy theories from Facebook (yet another player that should have been fined into a shallow grave) but a lot of this trash has been, and continues.to be spouted by fox news, oan, etc .
These are propaganda systems that should have been prohibited 30 years ago. Now its too late but better too late then never, i guess? Prohibit Fox news, prohibit news that is proven false, prohibit news made by political parties. We need journalists, we need good journalism, but it must be independent from political bias and influence.
We should get independent news organizations that are funded and monitored by independent foundations which get their money from the government. Each of these foundations should be monitored by yet another layer of independent foundations. They must, by law, report facts with ad little bias as possible.
Use the tools that will work in the world we have. Not the world we wish we had.
Propaganda is just marketing for political ideology. Most people are unprincipled homunculi and need to have these ideas sold to them.