Tag: manipulation

Still Counting….

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

It’s close. As I write these words we’re talking 224 for Biden and 213 for Trump with 270 the victory target. It’s very close. Trump has won Florida which is a big moment as well as Ohio which has a habit of picking the Presidents. While California became a Democrat stronghold as the Latino vote in the state increased, Florida is the opposite. With so many Cuban and Venezuelans fleeing their Socialist governments the accusation that Democrats are somehow socialist has pushed them into the hands of the Republicans these last two elections. The concept of socialism is so utterly manipulated and corrupted in America. Ohio being a big rustbelt state is suffering from the effects of neoliberalism as industry is shut down and moved to Asia. Trump played on ideas of nationalism and American jobs here once more. I’m sure these people would be just as happy, if not more so working in the renewable energy sector than down a coal mine.

But as I said it’s close and it’s likely going to depend on the outcome in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Both Biden and Trump have declared themselves victors, with Trump a little more vociferous in doing do. He has already sounded the fraud alarm and been heavily criticised for doing so by both sides. With the election being this close it is inevitably going to be contested by the losing side. We are potentially left with the situation that if Trump loses and contests, the conservative leaning and Trump filled Supreme Court could play a big part. Imagine for a second they found grounds to overturn it and award the election to Trump. Either way this isn’t going to be resolved anytime soon, expect potentially weeks of uncertainty and inevitable unrest.

What we must remember and this is perhaps even more concerning than discussing the actions of a corrupt court, or childish gangster-like President, is that in the previous election over sixty million people voted for him and the figure is likely going to be similar this time around. The fact that despite these last four years the result is going to be close is in itself scary but he may just be elected once more. Over sixty million people believe he has done well these last four years and is a person worth following. That’s one hell of a cult.

If one accusation of Trump is that he’s divisive, and it’s used as a criticism, that means the other side, the accusers, believe they aren’t. Everyone likes to believe they’re better than the other side, you have to otherwise you wouldn’t believe in what you do, but we’re going to have to put that aside. It’s not just the Americans it’s all of us. It takes both sides of course, and that can be the hard part but all we can really do is lead by example, prove we are the bigger people. Until the moment we give up the idea of being morally superior and that the inferior should come to us, or that we can convince them by berating them, this polarised divide will only increase. Some people like Trump and his hardcore following are untouchable, you can put Brexiteer loonies in that group too, but it’s the average person out there who is suffering and scared after forty years of economic devastation. We forget this because they distract us from the truth, but we’re all in this fight together. It is time to come together. This election is proof of that at the very least.

Mainstream Medipulation

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Apparently according to the spell check I’ve just invented a new word. Whether that’s true or not is impossible to know but I’ll enjoy the moment non-the-less. I stumbled upon the most remarkable story of mainstream media skullduggery today. It was a story about Fox News adding two photoshopped images to a article about the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle (CHAZ). The CHAZ is an autonomous zone taken by protesters in the city which has drawn the ire and threats of Donald Trump to which the local Mayor has suggested they’re doing nothing wrong. Apparently they’re “ugly Anarchists”, he’s a bizarre man. The article then was attempting to discredit the autonomous zone with Fox News uploading these heavily edited images.

It is hard to believe that someone in a highly paid and responsible position in the Fox News studio looked at that image and thought it would acceptably pass scrutiny. It looks like I have attempted to edit it and I can’t edit. They’ve just clumsily stuck the gunman right on top of an image of the zone. It’s like they’ve not even tried.

This second image was from riots in the city at the end of May which had nothing to do with and was before the CHAZ existed. It is also incredibly lazy, they haven’t even got the proportions right. They attached images of burning vehicles too as you can see at the top of this article. For the sake of accuracy it’s just unfortunate that this particular image was from a riot in Minnesota.

It’s probably not worth getting into one about how full of shit the media are. That’s established. What makes this event worthwhile is how little effort they feel they need to put in. This isn’t just lazy, they don’t even need to care about keeping any pretence of accuracy. Yes they deleted it once awareness of it had been raised but they were still willing to put it out in the first place. Is it an indictment of them or does it suggest they haven’t the most discerning of subscribers. It is very hard to change the window you see society and the media through when you come across these kinds of images. They speak a thousand words. It all just seems so corrupt to the core. But you don’t need me to say it, just take one look at that attempt at news.

Good Versus Evil

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Yesterdays piece is apparently the one hundredth on this blog which understandably I’m reasonable pleased with. There’s a good chance you’ll struggle to find many things I’ve stuck to for three months, especially as, or maybe it’s because, it has been a daily exercise. It seems only fitting then to go with the suggestion I made yesterday and discuss the concept of good and bad with this being piece 101, fitting indeed if you ask Winston in 1984. I’ll not be discussing rats in cages fixed to your face but more so the fact that although I clearly described something as good and bad yesterday I am generally loathed to do so.

It is an easy thing to do to describe something as either good or bad. It immediately gives the recipient of this information a general understanding of what we mean. If you call someone a bad man it is pretty clear that you are suggesting in someway they are responsible for something or have a character that could be described as negative. We have been conditioned by society through our education, our parents, movies, television, religion to have a general understanding of this notion. Typically in all these examples, in particular movies, although arguable they’re just the outcome of centuries of religious influence, we see the battle of good versus evil, with good usually overcoming some odds stacked against them to be victorious. In films it can be portrayed as the action hero overcoming a larger force of bad guys, usually represented by whoever is the political enemy of the time, think communists to Islamists to probably Chinese very soon. I haven’t read the Bible but have been brought up in a Christian country and therefore am aware of the general attempt to portray this good versus evil battle throughout the whole text. The absolutist necessity to portray Jesus as a righteous saviour over all the evil in the world, but he can only save you if you join him. It all comes back to power and contemporary politics too is riddled with this. Join us, we are the good guys who are fighting those other guys. They’re bad, it’s okay to kill them…and so on.

While all that seems pretty obvious it is still remarkable how successful it can be at manipulating people. We are so triggered by this concept of good versus evil that we fall for it in such an easy way. It is why despite the fact I dislike it I still used it in yesterdays piece as it was an easy way to get my point across. The issue though lies more with what is good and what is evil. People will always use the concept to manipulate people but we seem oblivious in these moments to step back and actually question what is bad and why that is a bad thing. Not only that but clearly one person’s good can be different to another’s, who are we really to say what is right and wrong about someone when it is clearly such a subjective thing. I am aware it would be better to discuss this after spending a few hours reading some essays on morality and ethics but like each piece I just start writing, wing it and see what happens. There may be a lack of depth to my point but ultimately with the knowledge that one thing can be credibly both good and bad to different people, as well as everything in between, how can we legitimately label something so without giving it real thought. It is such a simplified take on the world and that makes it easy to manipulate of course, but for this reason we must be so careful about throwing these two words around. Really who am I to say somethings bad; I’m no god, I barely even understand ethics and like everyone am prone to bouts of hypocrisy. To know ones fallible yet proceed with authority anyway, oh to be human, oh to misunderstand balance.