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While Fox News might have had some wind taken out of its sails, the toxic propaganda machine is still out there doing the work of America’s worst adversaries.
It’s not that the Murdoch empire pushes any sort of ideology, to them it’s only about money and power. If you happen destroy a country along the way, well dang, that is just the price of doing business. Imagine building up a business model that is only sustained by spreading lies and conspiracies in order to prosper. Like the current strategy of attacking minorities is hardly visionary, but it’s perfect burley for that captive audience when you are running on empty. This is one thing conservatives all around the world are exceptionally good at, creating diversions and they avoid facing reality for another day. This current war on woke, is a classic example of one such diversion. They label it as a leftist idea but it’s nothing to do with leftist ideology it’s just another minority voice looking to be heard just like them. Woke is just as annoying to the Left as it is to the Right. There is a difference with annoyances though, with the right it’s about keeping minorities in check, with the left it’s more about overreach which can be more harmful to a broader cause.   Because none of this requires any innovative policies, just incite anger with your fellow man and create phantom enemies. Liberals on the other hand are exceptionally poor at making counter arguments when faced with this sort of crazy day after day. However, if you follow current conservative ideology, this is about as dangerous as you can get because it is not based on any reality or truth. It can lead to wars based on lies or the answer to gun violence is more guns, or ignore intellectuals (the so called elites) because it’s the idiots with all the wisdom. Combine that with the other false narrative that the country’s institutions are corrupt except when they rule in their favour. Like the Fox News defamation case, it won’t make the slightest difference to their locked in audience who just choose to live in this make-believe information silo no matter what. None of these people can be turned around now, but perhaps finally Truth is coming for all of them and they will be forced to face it, like it or not.  It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world has to suffer along with those who continually ignored the facts.  It can come in the form of weather events or it might be another mass shooting without any action on gun control only a double down in some conservative states by making it easier for it to happen. A mindset which on one hand goes all out to protect the unborn only so they can be shot later as children. This is what a minority cult looks like, planning ways to maintain control by stacking the legal system or curtailing votes in a desperate bid to hold onto power. Never making the connection how one flawed ideology passes through to another. They have no interest in the welfare of their own country, fully prepared to destroy it both economically and socially. and then try to deflect the blame onto the other guy as the cause. These people are not the voice of America, they are a dangerous cult voice of some other much darker place.  “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” – Liz Cheney

In the age of political correctness gone crazy, the influence with social media from a few high profile personalities tends to shape new standards in society behaviour regardless of whether this opinion is shared by the wider community or not. A feel good exercise with a few keystrokes berating someone else or highlighting an injustice without actually doing anything can be a worry. Especially if those actions provokes anger in other fringe groups. Then there is the media, plus a lot of corporate identities who jump on this bandwagon influencing advertising, TV series, opinion panels, or even reality TV. Along with Hollywood, who will go to great lengths to write minority characters into movie scripts as though they are ticking all the boxes in order to be politically correct. This in my view is just tokenism which can be far more offensive than being ignored, if the story line involves a minority then well and good. There is nothing wrong with highlighting minority causes, the downside of having it go too far attempting to brand mainstream as the outlier is not the way to highlight your cause nor is disinformation trying to advance a political cause. A growing concern in some European countries now, along with the would be autocrats who feed off this invoked anger to promote tribalism. This is how misinformation gets started, trying to incite anger with conspiracies or lies. Whether its around crime rates, gender identity or anything else you can be guaranteed none of it is based on fact. Technology also plays its part allowing these groups to gain a higher profile by connecting with each other and being able to live in a sham information bubble. So if I believe the earth is flat, then when I engage the internet for articles on that concept I am very unlikely to be presented with a counter argument or if I only watch a certain news service its the same deal. The bubble information scenario has also played a major part with inaction on climate change. In the 80’s both conservative and liberals were unified in purpose to what was a global problem that needed addressing. What happened between then & now was an avalanche of fabricated propaganda passed off as real science that only helped to create a political divide. Allowing almost four decades to slip by without any decisive action combined with a massive global increase in emissions that came at a price. The extreme weather events we now deal with continue to play out almost on a weekly basis somewhere around the globe is testament to what real science tried to warn us. Also likely to have catastrophic long term consequences, not only with infrastructure but with the whole global economy, along with mass population shifts and conflicts, taking some countries to the brink of bankruptcy. In the USA alone they have had yearly $157 billion dollar hits with weather events for the past five years. This is just one example of a minority opinion getting the loudest voice, as climate change action has always been the majority choice globally in every decade. Dealing with it now, just makes the pain worse as a gradual transition would have been far easier. Then if we include other things like the overturn of Roe v Wade or action on gun control, not to mention an attempt to overthrow a government based on a lie. These are all part of a long list of where minorities scream the loudest while the truth with the majority is a whisper in the wind. Just look at the vote on Brexit with Britain, another disastrous move that points to great economic hardship ahead for them mainly due to false information. People tend to vote on an easy answer to a complex problem without looking too much into the details. When misinformation is so readily available in the internet age, it puts the whole of society at risk because a lie can be weighted higher than the actual truth. It also shows up in the quality of candidates in the current political spectrum. Instead of the smartest & brightest stars rising to the top, misinformation also hampers those individuals as well. It’s as though in the internet age despite having access to all of human history’s knowledge library the larger fake library is right there alongside it. So instead of this making us smarter, it’s actually dumbing us down. Then if you translate those same blue-sky expectations across the full social spectrum, marriages keep dropping each decade along with birth rates in most countries. There are more single people now in ratio to population than any time in world history. There may be all sorts of answers to the reasons why, however there is not much future planning in what this means long term in economic modelling. Life has always presented a lot of uncomfortable moments throughout history, learning to deal with them with smart solutions rather than deny they exist is also part of evolution. Now I’m sure the trolls will point out this is hypocritical and not politically correct highlighting the misjudgement of others. Well this is the whole point of this post, the moment you let minorities rule then you are on that road to the cliff edge. Take the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the Religious extremists in Iran or even a dictator in Russia. This is what happens when your political philosophy doesn’t match up to facts or a belief that is proven. If you run on a lie, then the laws of probability means that lie has a limited life span, yet truth is forever. Just ask Alex Jones, Putin, Trump, Fox News,  the GOP  ( and now that a speaker has been finally chosen in the US congress expect constant chaos from the same small minority within the GOP to make sure gov doesn’t function. )  The same with Wall St profiteering on myths, the final outcome will always be the same and it will also be the exact opposite of the picture they painted.

The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia attempting to rebuild an Empire or making Russia great again just highlights the dangers of any country electing or putting faith in would be autocrats. As they all come to power citing some beef with minorities as the fix it for all problems. Along with inciting hate rather than promoting well thought out political solutions. Putin’s war on Ukraine or as he likes to call it “Special Operations” is supposed to be getting rid of the Nazi’s yet he is killing women and children. This is how propaganda works, Hitler also used the same method only with today’s technology they can control the messaging for an entire country. So the general population of Russia will be totally oblivious to the reality of what their leader is doing and herein lies the power of the media in the hands of an autocrat. You only have to look at the many people talking to their relatives in Russia who try to explain they are being bombed out of existence and they just don’t believe them. Even a father doesn’t believe his own daughter. Trump people are no different, they choose to remain in this BS bubble that puts everyone else at risk by wanting to take the USA down the same political path as Russia.  All countries have a certain percentage of their population gullible to these types of political figures including Australia. However America seems to have a higher percentage than most due to it’s past history aligned in faith and those same sections of the population intolerant of minorities & opposing views. Trump came to power singing this song, wrapping himself in the flag with one hand on an upside down Bible. Not with a unifying message, but one that incites division.  This was exactly how Putin tried to boost Trump with his powerful propaganda effort only it worked beyond his wildest dreams. As Trump become full on doing Putin’s bidding trying his best to divide a global western alliance for the sake of me first. This is the perfect recipe for a country to fail and their real enemies to prosper. Unfortunately the cult like followers of this individual never take stock when faced with the realities of their choice. A criminal grifter, corrupt to the core yet when exposed they keep giving him a pass. Even characterising Trump as a Rambo like figure despite him dodging the draft. Compare that to the leader of Ukraine at the moment despite his perilous position, no bone spurs for him. Another trend with this cult was to promote more and more crazies rather than sensible rational thinking people as their elected representative. Not only is this delusional it puts their own country and the entire free world at risk.  It was just fortunate that enough Americans woke up the second time round instead believing the untrue or being wilfully blind. Because this is what reality looks like outside that comfort bubble of only listening to what you want to hear and see. Right now there is no choice of remaining in that bubble, unless of course you tune into Russian TV. The Truth may be confronting and ugly but it shows the danger of blind faith that discards facts and common sense that is dismissed as fake news. This war being raged in Ukraine is not only a battle for democracy, it’s a war on truth. The same battle that has been going on in America for the past decade. A war on truth designed to kill a democracy just like in Ukraine that large elements of the American  conservative movement are playing a part in.