Caught 30 mins of a CNN special on the “misinformation” crisis. A very telling piece of media to understand present regime psychology. Premise is CNN bugman reporter (looks like a bug) goes around the heartland doing pseudo-anthropology on “Trump’s America.” 
On its face it’s the usual sop to a lib audience who need constant affirmation of their moral and intellectual superiority. Fear porn about white rural rage, plus Q-mania, plus “Christian Nationalism,” with special emphasis on J6.
The underlying motive, however (un)intentional, is to refocus Dem-voter attention away from the various internal rifts within their coalition and onto the personhood of the vulgar, unreconstructed Amerikaner as the country’s central threat.
The doc includes footage of Marjorie Taylor Green, Fuentes, Alex Jones, Trump rallies and the carnival of various subaltern weirdos occupying the populist right, who in comparison to the smug, erudite reporter are meant to be pitied (if not exactly reviled).
None of this is new. It harkens back to Daily Show style interviews of unsuspecting red-coded rubes getting mocked by Jon Oliver or whoever. Same shtick. Though without any of the humor, and now from the position of unambiguous mainstream officialdom.
The new twist is that the unreconstructed Amerikaner is the way he is, not because of some moral defect, but because of MISINFORMATION!
You see, they have false consciousness. They have been fooled, tricked, duped, manipulated by evil algorithms, and conspiracy theory peddlers!
You see, they have false consciousness. They have been fooled, tricked, duped, manipulated by evil algorithms, and conspiracy theory peddlers!
This gives the whole project a kind of missionary zeal. Like bringing Western Liberal Democracy to the beleaguered peoples of the Middle East, CNN and is going to bring Truth™ to the heartland through “fact checks” and “experts.”
This also includes a kind of information Patriot Act to combat the information terrorists blowing up the discourse space with their Words of Mass Destruction. Policies, laws, seizing control of the algos, “nudging,” more fact checks! We will eliminate crimethink once and for all!
It’s all pretty stupid and hysterical and disappointing if unsurprising—the idea that Trump voters are enthralled to some kind of cultist trance is a shopworn idea by now—but also indicative that stoking racial hostilities has been sidelined for this new angle of attack.
My hunch we will be seeing/hearing a lot more about this over the next 6 months. This will be the focal point of Biden’s media narrative: Christian nationalist/Q/charlottesville populist insurgency, the enemy from below, that must be met with speech suppression and censorship.
Addendum: the most remarkable segment was when the reporter journeys to Nowheresville, Iowa to interview a literal grandma on the eve of her 7 year sentence to Federal prison for J6. He tries to get her to admit she was duped into election denial but she courageously refuses...
He keeps badgering her, doing torture style "good cop" routine explaining that J6 was a violent coup attempt and if you just admit you were wrong, you will be, if not legally, at least morally absolved of your transgressions.
It's despicable on a number of levels, but you have to ask, Who is more deranged really? The most Q-brained boomer on the planet, or the self-serious CNN hack who earnestly believes that some random Iowa grandma was attempting to stage a violent overthrow of the US government?
I'll leave that for the reader
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