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With fascists like Trump and Tom Cotton calling for blood in the streets, we HAVE to talk about Right Wing media, reality feedback loops, and how the Right was prepped for authoritarianism.
Here's what I learned writing AMERICAN RULE.
1/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/american-rule-by-jared-yates-sexton/
With fascists like Trump and Tom Cotton calling for blood in the streets, we HAVE to talk about Right Wing media, reality feedback loops, and how the Right was prepped for authoritarianism.
Here's what I learned writing AMERICAN RULE.
1/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/american-rule-by-jared-yates-sexton/
I wrote about this today in The Muckrake, about how Fox News has created a monster that has grown beyond its control and is currently threatening to plunge us into a fascistic, authoritarian nightmare.
If we're going to beat it we must understand it.
2/ https://www.themuckrake.com/main/monsters
If we're going to beat it we must understand it.
2/ https://www.themuckrake.com/main/monsters
There was a moment last night on Hannity where Sean was asking Tom Cotton about the possibility of protesters being murdered and it's a really good opportunity to understand the forces that have led us to this moment.
We have to talk about the alternate reality FNC created.
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We have to talk about the alternate reality FNC created.
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We have to look at figures like Sean Hannity and Donald Trump, two showbiz hucksters who have become incredibly powerful at a volatile moment in our history and are causing more havoc every single day.
How did we get here?
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How did we get here?
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Hannity is just a radio show host with a head of hair, selected because he looked good on TV.
He has no ideology. He can't even begin to UNDERSTAND ideology.
He's a reactionary and a TV character. And now, staring at an actual fascist, he seems terrified.
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He has no ideology. He can't even begin to UNDERSTAND ideology.
He's a reactionary and a TV character. And now, staring at an actual fascist, he seems terrified.
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Trump, of course, is a reality TV star who has a hole inside him that can never be filled. He desperately needs attention and worship and has become an authoritarian president fighting an invisible war against "conspirators" and "traitors."
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What we need to talk about is what I call reality feedback loops, or the idea that Fox and associated media have created a dangerous cycle in America that has constructed an alternate reality that continually and relentlessly marches toward deadly fascism.
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Fox News is, of course, the brainchild of Roger Ailes, who founded the network explicitly as a propaganda organ to help the Republican Party win elections and consolidate power.
This was the plan from the very beginning, but I doubt he understood the massive ramifications.
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This was the plan from the very beginning, but I doubt he understood the massive ramifications.
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Ailes cut his teeth helping Richard Nixon win his presidency. They conspired to create TV-ready shows that might tilt public opinion and soften Nixon's perception.
What Ailes did with his propaganda was bend reality in totality and capture viewers in another reality.
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What Ailes did with his propaganda was bend reality in totality and capture viewers in another reality.
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Fox News isn't just a cable news channel. It's an intentional reality warping device. It captures its audience, plays to their fears, and tells them their racist paranoia is real.
We have to stop treating it like news or anything news-like. It's a weapon.
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We have to stop treating it like news or anything news-like. It's a weapon.
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Since the very beginning, Fox News has existed to be an aggressive alternative to actually unbiased news as a means to drag its viewers right.
This has promoted torture, the loss of human rights and liberties, and unrepentant racism and white supremacist paranoia.
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This has promoted torture, the loss of human rights and liberties, and unrepentant racism and white supremacist paranoia.
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To try and tilt elections, Fox News has done anything it could to vilify the Left, including framing Barack Obama as a secret Muslim or a sleeper agent for "radical Islam."
This wasn't just political - it changed the reality the viewers were living in.
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This wasn't just political - it changed the reality the viewers were living in.
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For someone like Trump, an addicted FNC viewer, talking about "Birtherism" got him tons of attention, got him invited onto every show there was.
He embraced it not only because he was racist and paranoid, but because it served his personal interests.
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He embraced it not only because he was racist and paranoid, but because it served his personal interests.
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This is where a different Reality Feedback Loop began. Someone like Trump, a paranoid white supremacist with an economic interest in being provocative, was formed.
Trump not only believed Fox, he started TALKING to Fox.
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Trump not only believed Fox, he started TALKING to Fox.
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In the past, the GOP relied on its paranoid, white supremacist base, but kept them mostly on the outskirts of public attention.
Because there wasn't a Fox News, they didn't have to play to them, but the country at large. It gave the GOP a veneer of respectability.
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Because there wasn't a Fox News, they didn't have to play to them, but the country at large. It gave the GOP a veneer of respectability.
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What happened with Obama was that a generation soaked in Fox paranoia began BELIEVING the paranoia and reacting to it.
They believed there was an existential threat, a conspiracy against them, and so they got in the streets and actually pushed the network further right.
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They believed there was an existential threat, a conspiracy against them, and so they got in the streets and actually pushed the network further right.
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In this case, viewers of Fox, believing Fox, then acted on their paranoia, causing Fox to move further right with them.
The paranoia and the altered reality became a two-way street that affected both the viewer and the programming.
It gained momentum.
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The paranoia and the altered reality became a two-way street that affected both the viewer and the programming.
It gained momentum.
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Fox News started covering a "movement" they had inspired.
The story became "here are the people who believe what we've been telling them, now we'll focus on them."
It was a spiral into a dystopian, postmodern nightmare.
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The story became "here are the people who believe what we've been telling them, now we'll focus on them."
It was a spiral into a dystopian, postmodern nightmare.
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The Tea Party, funded and focused by Right Wing billionaires like the Koch Brothers, grew so large and influential that the GOP had no choice but to embrace them and move right with them or else risk being replaced altogether.
The feedback loop was picking up steam.
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The feedback loop was picking up steam.
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Meanwhile, other hucksters like Glenn Beck recognized the opportunity and enriched and empowered themselves by going even further right and becoming even more paranoid.
The loop continued to gain speed and the viewers' alternate reality grew stronger and darker.
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The loop continued to gain speed and the viewers' alternate reality grew stronger and darker.
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Unfortunately, that alternate reality inspired violence. Fox viewers who believed the conspiracy theories and paranoia believed they had to preemptively attack the "traitors" and "enemies."
This is the essence of fascism. A conspiracy that inspires preemptive violence.
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This is the essence of fascism. A conspiracy that inspires preemptive violence.
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If you ever watch Hannity, you'll notice him struggling to keep up. The reason is because he doesn't understand. He doesn't get ideology and all he gets is "us" and "them."
But Fox's move toward fascistic paranoia was something he could sell, even if he didn't understand it
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But Fox's move toward fascistic paranoia was something he could sell, even if he didn't understand it
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Hannity is being lapped by Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson who GET IT.
Their shows are pure white supremacist paranoia, uncut and unchained. This is why they're picking up speed and gaining viewers.
They are tapped directly into the feedback loop with radicalized people.
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Their shows are pure white supremacist paranoia, uncut and unchained. This is why they're picking up speed and gaining viewers.
They are tapped directly into the feedback loop with radicalized people.
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These radicalized viewers who believe they are in an "invisible war" for white survival are taking their cues from outlets like Fox News.
They're carrying out mass shootings, slaughters, what they think are "defenses" against people of color and conspiracies.
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They're carrying out mass shootings, slaughters, what they think are "defenses" against people of color and conspiracies.
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These mask protests and conspiracy theories are a result of the paranoia peddled by Fox, a completely unreasonable and dangerous action that is going to cost us thousands and thousands of lives, all because of that feedback loop of paranoia.
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You can see "traditional" Republicans like Mitch McConnell struggling with the base they now have and try to bring them back to the fold and under their control.
The machine that has served them is now...beyond their reach. It's something different.
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The machine that has served them is now...beyond their reach. It's something different.
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Unfortunately, we have to return to Trump, now President of the United States of America, constantly watching Fox News, talking to Fox News, and then watching Fox News respond to him in realtime.
It's a nightmare. It's how we got to this terrible point.
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It's a nightmare. It's how we got to this terrible point.
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Like those radicalized viewers stuck in FNC's alternate reality, Trump truly believes in the conspiracy theories. He truly thinks America is under attack by enemies within.
And by acting against those "enemies" he's engaging in that feedback loop day by day.
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And by acting against those "enemies" he's engaging in that feedback loop day by day.
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And, surprisingly enough, Trump buys that Fox is "fair and balanced" so much that their worship of him isn't enough.
He truly thinks they're "tough" on him, meaning, to Trump, FNC is left on the political spectrum, meaning they must continue coming to the right.
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He truly thinks they're "tough" on him, meaning, to Trump, FNC is left on the political spectrum, meaning they must continue coming to the right.
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The insertion of Trump into the Reality Feedback Loop has driven the America over the cliff and into madness.
It is constantly changing, evolving, degrading and going more and more insane.
The narrative is glitchy, incapable of being followed. But the constant is fascism.
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It is constantly changing, evolving, degrading and going more and more insane.
The narrative is glitchy, incapable of being followed. But the constant is fascism.
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Trump, himself, is an authoritarian fascist by nature. He's too insecure, too weak, too needy, and his black/white thinking is naturally in line with fascism.
But there are people like Tom Cotton who understand this stuff on a deeper level and are taking advantage.
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But there are people like Tom Cotton who understand this stuff on a deeper level and are taking advantage.
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Whereas Trump and Hannity are salesmen who will take advantage of trends and let their inner-instincts guide them to fascism, this country is full of people with plans, designs, and a wicked understanding of how authoritarianism could be implemented.
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The situation in Portland is just an opportunity. Trump is watching it, hearing from authoritarians salivating over fascistic crackdowns, then turning on Fox, which is just telling Trump all over again that his paranoia is real, that he really is under attack.
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Trump's actions are largely symbolic, a show, a rebirth of his reality TV days, right down to the staging and the performance.
But his natural authoritarian tendencies are what's dangerous. He's being played in them by both fascists and the reality machine that is Fox.
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But his natural authoritarian tendencies are what's dangerous. He's being played in them by both fascists and the reality machine that is Fox.
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What we're witnessing is a bizarre moment in our history where the manipulation of reality has created an environment ripe for fascist authoritarianism.
The reality feedback loop has trapped the American Right and so many Americans in an unbelievably dangerous cycle.
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The reality feedback loop has trapped the American Right and so many Americans in an unbelievably dangerous cycle.
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We have to understand the different gradients of this, the ones who have plans, the ones who are just acting, and the ones who realize they've lost all control and are trying to find it again.
They truly live in an alternate reality, some of them completely.
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They truly live in an alternate reality, some of them completely.
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And you can deny it all you want, but this is a uniquely perfect condition for fascism to grow and prosper.
The paranoia Fox News has been peddling for decades has created a movement that believes it has to dispatch of rivals to ever be safe.
That's the spark.
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The paranoia Fox News has been peddling for decades has created a movement that believes it has to dispatch of rivals to ever be safe.
That's the spark.
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To defeat this, we must recognize it. Trump's paranoia and personal authoritarian nature, mixed with fascist individuals and movements, and powered by Fox News as a reality distortion machine for power and profit, has brought us here, and it won't just stop.
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