Weaponized Propaganda and Lies (Fake News) is the Reason Why Donald Trump is President, Fake News is the Biggest Threat to Our Democracy
Would Donald Trump be president if fake news (lies, misinformation, and propaganda) didn’t infect Facebook like a virus attacking our democracy? Fake news also spread on other platforms like Twitter, etc., but it did the most damage by brainwashing and misinforming people on Facebook. Professional journalists and political strategists and many people that follow politics and are well-informed keep asking themselves one question: how is it that Donald Trump won the presidency? I’ve heard several answers: the working class was tired of not seeing improvements to their quality of life and Donald Trump promised them better jobs and higher wages if he won; or a portion of the population was simply tired of the status quo and wanted to shake things up. There’s no doubt that Donald Trump took advantage of the anguish the working class feels about good paying jobs being rare for the average American, but that doesn’t explain why he actually won. The answer is simple and nobody mainstream seems to be talking about it: fake news (this includes Fox News, Breitbart, Facebook, etc.) has brainwashed a large portion of the population with lies and misinformation. This is how and why Donald Trump won, and it’s how he continues to have unshakeable support from his base.
Most, especially those that are media or technologically proficient, can read an article and ask questions to find out if the reporting or information is likely to be true. And regardless if it’s true or not, one important question to ask ourselves no matter who’s reporting on the news is who benefits if I believe what I’m reading? And what, if anything, should I do about it? Donald Trump’s base doesn’t do this. They’ve been brainwashed to believe anything and everything from their “trusted” sources: Fox News, white supremacist web sites, fake news on Facebook, etc. They believe what they read without asking any questions. Donald Trump tells them what’s real and what’s not. They only believe lies and propaganda, and everything else that’s actually true is false to them. We have a large brainwashed portion of the population getting false information and then voting based on that false information. This is a national security threat that must be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly when Democrats take control of the government again.
The question to ask here is why are liberal organizations not tackling this fake news problem more fiercely than they currently are? It is their biggest obstacle in all facets of politics, and other than a few shots here and there it’s been out of any serious discussions from democrats or liberal journalists or influential personalities. It is not only the Democratic Party’s biggest obstacle to winning in politics, but the biggest obstacle to Democracy itself. Fake news has the power to kill our democracy, and we need to do everything we can to kill fake news at the root. If this means amending our constitution to prevent weaponized speech such as fake news, lies, and propaganda with the intention to hurt our democracy and society, then our next leaders must get to work on exactly that.
I’ve got two examples, from my own life, that demonstrate exactly why fake news — lies, propaganda, and brainwashing — is the main reason why Donald Trump won and continues to have unwavering support from his cult members.
I visit two relatives quite often. He’s sixty-five and his wife is sixty. They are immigrants who came to America from Europe in their 20s. They learned the language and eventually took the citizenship test and passed. Now, they’re citizens who hate immigrants. They hate people that are trying to do exactly what they did. How did this happen? They watch Fox News every night and constantly read and believe all the lies being shared on their Facebook networks. It’s that simple.
They believe in the deep-state, but when asked what the deep-state is all they can say is, “They are the deep state. The liberals and all the people behind the New World Order.” When pressed further they get angry because they can only repeat the same thing over and over. They believe that Michelle Obama is a man that underwent an operation to turn himself into a woman. They believe there’s a restaurant in Los Angeles, California serving babies for dinner while all the famous people have orgies in private rooms. Should I continue?
Where do they get this information from? A combination of Fox News and fake news on Facebook. This combination is threatening our democracy more than anything else ever has. When I try to reason with my relatives almost nothing gets through. Whatever does get through their wall of illusion instantly vaporizes the moment they tune back into Fox News or go on another trip down the fake news rabbit hole that is Facebook.
FAKE NEWS IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY AND NOBODY SEEMS TO BE TAKING IT SERIOUSLY.
Democrats winning this November is only the beginning. Fake News won the first battle of the Information War in 2016, we need to win the second, the third, the fourth, and keep winning until we have the power to eliminate Fake News.
All societies evolve; it’s time for an evolution, not a revolution.
