The secret about the massive takeovers that the corporatocracy has recently made is that they’re all a reaction to the threats the establishment is now under. It’s telling that the deep state’s Russia fearmongering campaign, which has been used to stigmatize and censor dissenting voices, began in mid 2016-right after the popular opposition to establishment politics had proven itself through events like the success of the Sanders campaign.
The ultimate goal of the Russia campaign is to keep enough people from venturing out of the establishment propaganda echo chambers, and from accessing the information they’ll need for revolt. Despotism, especially the faux-democracy that America’s oligarchy represents, depends on the population being kept in intellectual poverty. When people can’t recognize when the media is lying to them into wars, don’t know enough about their preferred politicians and parties to hold them accountable, and have a dim understanding about the history and workings of their government, they can’t fight tyranny even if they know they’re being oppressed. This is the dynamic that’s started to disappear with the rise of online alternative media, and that the ruling elite are trying to recapture.
The war on dissent has worked in some ways. Since late 2016, when the Washington Post published an unsubstantiated list from PropOrNot which accused the top twenty leftwing alternative news sites of being “Russian propaganda,” many Americans have been quickly dismissing any non-mainstream articles as Russian “fake news.” RT, in particular, is now seen as utterly unreliable among followers of corporate media.
This Fahrenheit 451 shift in thinking has brought what Chris Hedges calls the “Iron Wall,” a barrier that’s being built against ideas that challenge the ruling oligarchy. Its emergence has been frightening, as Hedges illustrates: mainly at the direction of “liberal” leaders, an Orwellian dictatorship has been taking shape, with the steps towards it being too small for most to become aware of the takeover in time. This despotic system may have the military resources and technology to snuff out dissent like has never been done before. But if we continue the actions that drove the system to fortify itself in this way, the system will soon have to give in.
If we keep supporting candidates that go against establishment politics-and if we work to expose the future electoral fraud those candidates will be attacked with, which can be done by shedding light on the coming rigging of the 2020 Democratic primary-the establishment will keep being under siege by the voters. Especially, as Caitlin Johnstone advocates, if we do all we can to sabotage the campaign of the 2020 Democratic candidate if that candidate doesn’t represent our interests. And this is all aside from the mass protest movements we’ll need to start outside of electoral politics.
If we keep spreading information which counters the lies of the establishment, the old propaganda systems won’t be able to hold sway. Neoliberalism and globalization are discredited in the minds of an impoverished population. The corporate media and the government it serves are distrusted and hated. Too many cracks are appearing in the system for pro-establishment narratives to be effective, so the power centers are frantically making up media distractions. If we keep speaking truth to power, especially through the blacklisted online alternative media outlets, we’ll be able to keep an informed public alive.
If we keep working to topple the corporate state, it will be toppled. The history of revolutions has shown it; when unrest comes, for a time the establishment will try to stifle it, but the power dynamic ultimately shifts around if the revolutionaries can sustain their action.
We need to act now though; the system, in its reaction to our showings of dissent, is turning more repressive every day. Hopefully we’ll be able to dismantle it in time.
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