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There’s no simple fix to a problem [of right-wing propaganda media] generations in the making. As the benefits from Democratic ARPA and infrastructure bills made clear, quality policy (when it actually does materialize) isn’t enough in the post-truth era. Reality desperately needs a better PR department. That begins by recognizing that we’re under a well-funded, well-coordinated information assault.
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“The tricky part is that we need to build our own infrastructure,” Victor Pickard, an American media scholar at the University Of Pennsylvania tells me. “Overly relying on existing corporate and commercial-driven social media platforms has continued to pose major constraints for progressives. But there is no easy fix for that, obviously.”
We can try and detach U.S. journalism from the corrosive nature of advertising engagement. We can take a cue from Finland and shore up our education standards with an eye on media literacy and combating propaganda. We can encourage FCC regulators to restore media consolidation limits and protect diversity in media ownership.
We can embrace public funding for journalism, given data indicates public journalism funding helps protect democracies. Democrats can completely retool their feckless public messaging efforts with an eye on simplicity, redundancy, creativity, and brutal repetition. Activists and consumer groups can do a better job exploiting social media virality to reach young Americans.
We can build decentralized social-media platforms more resilient to the whims of erratic billionaires. We can restore trust in institutions by fighting corruption. We can find, fund, and amplify ethical journalists and influencers of conscience wherever possible. We can embrace antitrust reform and local alternatives to consolidated corporate power.
We can exhibit greater personal discipline when it comes to amplifying outrage engagement bait on social media. We can stop pretending that authoritarians are interested in a good faith debate on policy. We can stop watching cable-TV news empires that threw the public welfare under the bus a quarter century ago. We can realize we’re under attack and act accordingly.
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Which is entirely intentional on the part of the people who actually run this country. Uneducated citizens who don’t or can’t think critically are very easy to spoon-feed bullshit against their best interests. Republicans have been openly attacking public education for decades on behalf of Rupert Murdoch and friends, and at the same time parents have been foisting the rearing of their children off on educators because they work two or more jobs to support the household. The community mentality has entirely eroded as a result - nobody will step up to take care of neglected children because everyone’s too busy working, educators come under attack from both parents and administration for trying to be anything more than state-sanctioned babysitters, leading to mass resignations, reinforcing the idea that education should be privatized and/or run off of a bullshit voucher system.
America failed a long time ago, it’s just a question of who realizes it and who doesn’t. If you want to live through the next couple of decades, start building your communities ASAP. Mutual funds, community gardens, canning and other food preservation. Unionize, coordinate, run for office if you think you can hack it.