Coming on the heels of the Grand Jury indictment of Paul Manafort last week, Michael Flynn’s guilty plea has changed the entire complexion of the Trump-Russia controversy. We are no longer dealing with hypotheticals; it is now established that there was contact between the Trump campaign and Russia. The only question remaining is the nature and extent of the cooperation.
Let’s make one thing very clear here: any hyperbole about Russia sabotaging our democracy is utter garbage. We have already achieved that feat through political lobbies and super PACs. Corporate America influences national policy and the outcome of elections far more than the citizens of America.
Having said that, this is a very serious matter, one of national integrity and security. If there was collaboration between Russia and the Trump campaign including Russian help to influence the democratic process it is tantamount to a betrayal of the people and state. It borders, in fact, on treason.
It is also important to focus right now on the disturbing phenomenon of unevidenced skepticism about Russian interference in the elections and collaboration between the Putin government and the Trump campaign. Important because public skepticism is something Donald Trump and his cabal of crooks could use to sabotage this Grand Jury and evade justice-in the event that they have committed a crime of course.
The widespread skepticism about the CIA and Obama Administration claims of Russian interference in and its impact on the Presidential elections can be looked at in more ways than one. One could view it as a nation jaded by a history of non-existent WMDs, Iran-Contra, Watergate and McCarthyism. A public antagonized by the extensive, gradually unfolding history of intrigue and subversion throughout the developing world.
Alas! If only it were true that the public is wising up to propaganda. Considering the number of people who believe in “Pizza Gate”, who believe that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the Presidential election, who believe in “Creeping Shariah” and “civilizational Jihad” and who believe Donald Trump is an anti-establishment candidate it is impossible to give that possibility serious consideration.
What is more likely is that instead of one dominant narrative there are now two equally prevalent and equally relentless propaganda campaigns competing in the media. One is the familiar frantic, flag-waving, fear-mongering exceptionalism that has passed for patriotic nationalism and which is as old as the country itself. The other, newer one is a melange of many different sources.
To be clear, there are some incredible journalists and intellectuals who have long done their best to bring some objectivity to the Western world view. These include people like Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky and Bill Moyers. Unfortunately, they have been drowned out by the career propagandists.
These include the out-and-out conspiracy theorists best exemplified by the utterly unhinged yet utterly indomitable Alex Jones and technology editor at Steven Bannon’s Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos. Then, there are RT and Press TV- the unofficial Russian and iranian mouthpieces. The former has become a popular news source on cable TV and the latter despite removal from cable transmission is increasingly popular on social media.
Finally, over the past decade a large number of social media news blogs have mushroomed which now account for most of the articles shared on social media. Most notable among these are “Mintpress” and “21st century Wire”. Both of these have a pronounced pro-Russian slant and have played a crucial role in swaying opinion during the Aleppo siege by disseminating the Russian agitprop of painting the Syrian opposition as terrorists instigated and supported by the American administration.
Where do we find ourselves in the midst of all of this? Let us stop deluding ourselves that by upending the information monopoly of mainstream media we have rid ourselves of the clutches of propaganda. The manifest reality is that by bringing the same barnyard mentality to these so-called independent news sources we have dug ourselves an even deeper hole of disinformation and feverishly steered ourselves even further away from objectivity.
In fact the public touchstone for veracity appears to have moved into territory that is alarmingly close to an outright departure from reality. The collective psychosis on display among those who subscribe to bizarre alt-right propaganda about Muslims or believe that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta are operating an international pedophile ring out of a pizza shop in the middle of the District is a reality we can no longer ignore. Nor can we continue to pretend that this susceptibility to the most outlandish garbage is a fringe phenomenon. Look at your news-feeds, your twitter feeds. Listen to what people around you are saying.
Everyone is following their own brick road. Everyone is creating their own Oz. We are not just being manipulated by propaganda we are being buried beneath the unhallowed falsehoods.
Divided and misinformed; is this the America that will take on the unprecedented challenges of our times?