How we got here, and what do we do about it? [View all]
The Russians waged information war on the US election, and had considerable success. However, I don't think they would have succeeded as much as they did unless a segment of society was susceptible to the messages they used. Here are some thoughts on why they were so vulnerable to the Russian/Trump message.
To be as fair as possible (?) to Trump's voters, they have been subjected to relentless brainwashing through AM radio and other media for a generation and a half now. The brainwashing is a form of the technique called "psychic driving" developed by Dr. Ewan Cameron for the MK Ultra program in the 1950s and 60s. It 's a very simple technique that involves relentless exposure to a single repeated message or theme. Success depends on there being no counterbalancing information available to the subject.
There is an arc that runs from the Powell Memo of 1971, through the co-opting of public discourse by business interests, the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, media consolidation, the rise of monolithic right-wing AM radio networks, and finally to the Citizens United ruling. That set of interlocking events created the necessary information bubble, and plowed and fertilized the social soil in which the malignant seed of Trumpism germinated and flourished.
I think the social damage can be undone, but it will require a wholesale reset of laws governing business, the media and politics. If that can be accomplished - which is a tall order on its own - and a deprogramming effort instituted, then a generation and a half later some semblance of sanity may return.
Once the immediate problem of Trump has been resolved, we are still left with a society in which a large number of people appear to have deeply flawed perceptions of reality. Where do we start to fix the broken pieces of our society?
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