FLASH
Shkruar nga David Corn
Trump is not facing an election right now, but he continues to use scare tactics to distort reality...
Ten years ago, Donald Trump boarded an elevator, surrounded by supporters who had been paid to cheer him on, and gave a short speech announcing his candidacy for president.
It was dark. The United States, he cried, had “become a dumping ground for everyone’s problems.” The nation was “weakening.” It was no longer great. Its leaders were “fools,” “losers,” “morally corrupt,” and “selling out this country.”
Mexico was sending "rapists" across the border into the United States. Unemployment was 21 percent (actually, it was 5.3 percent.) The U.S. nuclear arsenal was "not working" (actually, it was working.) He put it bluntly: "We have nothing... We are dying... We are becoming a third world country... Sadly, the American dream is dead."
Since then, Trump has run a disinformation campaign full of gloom and horror, depicting the United States as a catastrophic hellhole—that is, whenever it serves his own perverse political purposes.
In his first inaugural address, he characterized the nation as tormented by “American carnage.” During the 2020 race, he accused Joe Biden of conspiring with radicals, antifa, and communists to destroy America.
His 2024 presidential bid was more of a propaganda operation than a political campaign. He claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs, that criminal Venezuelan immigrants had taken over cities across the Midwest, that schools were performing gender transition surgeries on children without informing their parents, that Biden and Vice President Harris were deliberately importing millions of undocumented people and using a phone app that told cartel bosses where to drop these immigrants. He spread strong and bizarre lies to support an unfounded narrative: America was apocalyptic.
Trump is not facing an election right now, but he is continuing to use scare tactics to distort reality.
This is both madness and method. The purpose of disinformation is to shape perceptions. If Trump could convince voters that they were in danger from hordes of barbaric black people who ate pets and that Biden and Harris were in cahoots with savages and robbers, then they would have no choice but to vote for him. He was selling a fictional scenario to incite fear and hatred, believing that this would provide him with support.
Trump is not facing an election now, but he continues to use scare tactics to distort reality. Since returning to the White House, he has cited bogus emergencies as an abuse of presidential power, falsely claiming that the entry of undocumented people into the United States constitutes an invasion by a foreign power and that trade deficits threaten the nation’s survival.
And in response to protests in Los Angeles against his cruel mass deportation effort, he has taken his disinformation campaign to 11.
Trump says the demonstrations, which have been largely peaceful with some limited violence, are an uprising. He and his aides have claimed that Los Angeles is under siege by a large mob of criminal immigrants. Speaking before troops at Fort Bragg, Trump said California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are "incompetent" and that "they are paying troublemakers, agitators and rioters" to "help the criminal invaders take over our city."
He also said the protests had caused “a lot of deaths.” And that Los Angeles would have been “extinguished” if he hadn’t sent in National Guard troops. His top aides have intervened. Attorney General Pam Bondi cried out: “California is burning.” Stephen Miller, Trump’s minister of malice, tweeted: “Los Angeles is occupied territory.”
According to Trump's narrative, he is the strongman who saves a major American metropolis from extinction. In reality, he is exacerbating the conflict caused by his destructive policies.
None of this is true at all. The instigator was lying to the troops. Yet Trump cult propagandists on Fox and other right-wing media outlets have attempted to bolster Trump’s deception with hysterical coverage of a handful of violent acts that have occurred in a 1-square-mile area of downtown Los Angeles (the city encompasses 502 square miles.) Once again, Trump is cynically fabricating a false and dangerous narrative that demonizes Americans for political advantage. In his narrative, he is the strongman saving a major American metropolis from extinction. In reality, he is exacerbating the conflict caused by his destructive policies.
Countering misinformation is difficult, especially in a time of media fragmentation. Trump supporters and Fox viewers tend to believe everything he says. A photo of three driverless taxis burning down plays well with his supporters.
Fact-checking and reporting by other media outlets don't really matter to them. And it's hard to fight misinformation, one untruth at a time. Filing lawsuits against false claims can get them more attention. When you challenge one misinformation, another or many more come out.
A more effective response to disinformation is to characterize specific sources of bad information as unreliable and not to be trusted. But the media lost this battle with Trump years ago, in the early stages of his political career, when it was largely reluctant to label him a perpetual liar. Since then, it has struggled to keep up with his endless stream of lies and idiots as the stakes get higher. And in this current crisis, when he is spreading lies to justify the use of military force against domestic political opposition.
As Trump turned his last political campaign into a disinformation operation, he has done the same with his second presidency. He seeks to convince Americans that both an invasion and an insurgency are underway, that the nation’s existence is at stake, and that he must respond with militaristic and autocratic tactics.
This was a brazen attack on the constitutional order. It was practically a declaration of civil war against the people of Los Angeles and California.
This is a dangerous moment. It was disturbing to see federal agents on Thursday forcefully remove and assault Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) when he tried to interrupt Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem while she was holding a press conference in Los Angeles. More disturbing was what she said moments before that episode:
We will not leave. We will stay here to free the city from the socialists and the heavy-handed leadership that this governor and this mayor have imposed on this country and what they have tried to instill in the city.
Liberate the city? Engaging in a classic attack on the reds, Noem was declaring that Trump intended to use National Guard troops and federal Marines to overthrow the elected leaders of Los Angeles and California because he opposed their policies and political positions. The federal government does not have the authority to do so. This was a brazen attack on the constitutional order.
It was practically a declaration of civil war against the people of Los Angeles and California. Call it authoritarianism. Call it fascism. It is not American democracy. Ultimately, Trump’s disinformation operation aims to undermine, if not suppress, our diverse and dysfunctional democracy. He seeks to burn cities so that he can seize power to supposedly save them. And the most potent ammunition for his war on America is lies. /Adapted from Pamphlet by Mother Jones/
Lini një Përgjigje