How do you radicalize a substantial portion of the US population into believe 14-karat bulls***t?
It’s easy — you just feed them “tasty” bovine droppings 24/7, seasoned to appeal to their innate prejudices and hatreds, reinforced from every direction: Fox/OAN/Newsmax, national & local hate jocks, right-wing websites, etc. Hey, if everyone’s saying it, it must be true, right?
Here’s something I read a little while ago on HuffPost, from an interview with David Neiwert, an authority on right-wing movements:
Fox News plays this really powerful role in the whole right-wing media ecosystem in the way that it normalizes and mainstreams a lot of these extremist beliefs and this extremist agenda…
I don’t see removing Fox News from the air, but I think that the organization itself really needs a come-to-Jesus moment to recognize that it’s inflicted tremendous harm on the country and really work to repair that damage…
I wouldn’t advise people to hold their breath waiting for that to happen. Instead, it’s up to us: we need to expose not just Fox “News,” but the entire rightwing media echo chamber — from the top down, from Fox to the littlest local Limbaugh on some 5-watt AM station somewhere out in the boonies.
Some of this stuff is being done here ‘n there, but I’m talking about systematically monitoring every one of these hatemongers day in and day out, cataloging their lies and appeals to the worst in people — then countering lies with facts and publicizing it to the world via the internet and in the local media. And just for good measure, letting everyone know which companies own those outlets — and who owns those companies, along with their addresses, phone numbers and websites (including FCC.gov!) so people can call them out on the damage they’re causing the US.
It might take a while, but just as the right has spent decades building an edifice of falsehoods, an unrelenting stream of reality checks will reach more and more people, and eventually weaken these demagogues’ hold on their audiences.
Here’s one I’d personally like to get in front of peoples’ eyes for starters:
Do you really think Fox News is paying
Sean Hannity $36 million a year
to tell you the truth?
There’s only one problem with all of this: someone is going to have to actually listen to or watch these bozos every day to keep track of their calumnies; I personally wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy (not that I have any enemies, last I looked) but those brave folks will be doing our country a great service!