Peasants for Plutocracy

Chomsky: It has always been understood…that when the voice of the people is heard, you’re in trouble because they are always going to make the wrong decisions. The stupid and ignorant masses, as they are called, are going to make the wrong decisions. So therefore what we have to have, what Walter Lippman called back in 1920 or so, is the manufacture of consent. We have to insure that actual decision-making, actual power, is in the hands of what he called the specialized class, us smart guys, you know, who are going to make the right decisions. And we’ve got to keep the general population marginalized because they are always going to make mistakes.

Moyers: Marginalizing meaning…?

Chomsky: Reduce them to apathy and obedience. Allow them to participate in the political system, but as consumers, not as true participants. That is…allow them a method for ratifying decisions made by others, but eliminate the methods by which they might first inform themselves, second to organize, and third…act.

And that is exactly where we are. The DNC is a perfect example of this… “Here…you have a choice: ratify Clinton, and then we will see you in a couple of years.”

Eliminate the methods by which they might first inform themselves.

This is why net neutrality is such a big issue. Mainstream media is already owned completely by the plutocrats, and mostly serves as the circus aspect of “bread and circuses,” and what “information” it presents is carefully selected and packaged to keep everybody concerned with trivia, and if not apathetic about politics, operating completely within the frames of debate they establish. And they will never give up on trying to take over the net.

second to organize

They have been actively undermining unions since Reagan, and now are pushing “right to work.”

and third…act

Any actions are ridiculed relentlessly. Black Lives Matters. Trump supporters. Anti-Trump rallies. Occupy Wall Street. Ignored if possible, ridiculed if not possible. Turn people against each other along partisan lines.

Yeah, in the John Oliver piece I posted, the CNN guy (Zucker?) was saying that the problem was that they gave a bit too much attention to Trump, letting his entire speeches run start to finish, covering all his rallies – you know – the free publicity angle.

And I’m thinking…that’s your angle? You gave him too much coverage? You exposed him so much that the rabble voted for him, so the lesson you learned is don’t give the rabble so much red meat? THAT’S THE LESSON YOU LEARNED?!?!?

Fer shitssake.

How about you do your fucking job and run stories on the issues. The causes and consequences of policies, and where the candidates stand. How about THAT lesson?

Nope.

Next time a populist runs for office, against against an inside-the-beltway sanctioned asshole, we will just freeze him out. That is CNN’s response. CNN. The one the right thinks of as the Communist News Network.

Zooey wrote:

Yeah, in the John Oliver piece I posted, the CNN guy (Zucker?) was saying that the problem was that they gave a bit too much attention to Trump, letting his entire speeches run start to finish, covering all his rallies – you know – the free publicity angle.

And I’m thinking…that’s your angle? You gave him too much coverage? You exposed him so much that the rabble voted for him, so the lesson you learned is don’t give the rabble so much red meat? THAT’S THE LESSON YOU LEARNED?!?!?

Fer shitssake.

How about you do your fucking job and run stories on the issues. The causes and consequences of policies, and where the candidates stand. How about THAT lesson?

Nope.

Next time a populist runs for office, against against an inside-the-beltway sanctioned asshole, we will just freeze him out. That is CNN’s response. CNN. The one the right thinks of as the Communist News Network.

And also the Clinton News Network. I’d say the unabashed anti-Trump MSM coverage is what gave Trump credibility with most of his voters. The MSM didn’t hide their bias against him. You could see he was drawing in the tens of thousands at his events while the MSM tried every close-in shot of Clinton as they could to not inform the people of how small an audience she had. Then theres the videotape twatgate vs. email treason that the MSM blew all out of proportion expecting the great unwashed to be distracted by “sex”. Once twatgate (timed perfectly for the debates) played out Trump was free to get his message out confident she had no gotchas left and hammered her for her record and where they differed on policy.