The Inception levels of “Fake News” Propaganda
Originally published on my fb page on April 20th 2019. Nothing has changed.
We have to understand that the reason #45 is able to say "Fake News" and be believed by so many people is that for decades we HAVE had fake news.
We all know it.
There are very few reliable journalists in this country because even if they try to be reliable, the system they work in is utterly corrupt.
The same is true all over the world. The media all over the world is owned by #RichColonizers and #Capitalists. They spread misinformation and do so happily because sensationalizing stories and disaster, even if those stories are grossly distorted, sells. It also continues the colonization of the people by colonizing their minds.
For years the people have believed fake news, only to be slapped in the face by reality, and yet they have no analysis to understand that reality in its true context.
Now, when a fascist misogynist like the current president screams #FakeNews, it's not that people believe him. It's that they believe their own experience.
The problem is that if their own experience is based on their privileges of whiteness and patriarchy and colonial mentality, they will only believe news that supports their whiteness and patriarchy and colonial mentality.
But the marginalized people - Black and brown, women, queer and trans communities, Indigenous peoples - they also have been fed fake news. They also have had to swallow misinformation. They also have been slapped in the face with reality (much worse than those with whiteness and male privilege) and had no access to analysis of reality in its true context. As a result, many of them are also upholding whiteness and patriarchy because that's the only way they know to survive.
You can't decolonize minds by jumping to defend the media. We all know the media is corrupt.
We have to decolonize minds by telling the truth, the WHOLE truth, leaving nothing out. We must tell our own stories. We must share the full truth. That can't be done behind closed doors. That can't be done with "call ins".
This is why I don't believe in call ins. I don't believe in protecting the feelings of perpetrators in the name of restorative justice. I don't believe in hiding scandals in the name of protecting the movement.
I want transformative justice. I want transparency. I want accountability.
We can only decolonize with the Truth.
Remember how the New York Times lied us into a war in Iraq? How about when they did it again with a war in Syria? How about when the Intercept sold out its’ whistleblowers who have since been targeted, arrested, and sentenced to years in prison? How about when the Guardian expelled all it’s true anti-imperialist journalists from its newsroom? Over and over and over again, they have done this because the media is the propaganda arm of the empire. We don’t need “state sponsored” when the privately funded media is so willing to comply with CIA talking points. WAKE UP.