Trump shows how deep the rabbit hole has become

Trump vs Democrats 

Remain vs Leave

Covid19 vs Anti-vaxers

Liberals vs identity politics

The Fed vs the markets...

The advent of social media has truly de-stabilised the world now. Trump seems to have convinced himself the normal election was stolen from him. The fact that every investigation has come up empty passes him by. 

In the UK, Remainers were full of how our Country would fail literally on the day of Brexit, with no food or medicines coming in. Brexit is not without its downsides, but non of this was ever true and yet still it gets repeated ad nauseam. 

On the vaccine, utterly unsubstantiated tripe about the vaccine is shared widely, putting people off having it. Does no one recall the MMR scandal and how unscientific nonsense was published linking it to autism? So many kids then exposed to diseases that were supposed to be near eradicated. 

But the internet is powerful, it allows groups who previously would have been 2 people in a pub to gather in larger virtual numbers and in the US just now in real numbers to push their crazed agenda. The whole element of Fake News is such a dark element in our society. Anyone can reinforce their beliefs by finding more outlandish information on QAnon or the Canary - whichever side they are on, there is plenty of content to keep them off-track. 

I have a whattsapp with a CEO of a very large company. All he does is send conspiracy nonsense about the virus not being real and the great reset. An intelligent guy, lost in the rabbit hole of the web. 

What Trump shows is this now goes right through society in the West, right to the top where the person literally in charge of the US can claim 'THE MAN' is against him - he is the man for goodness sake. It is an insanity. 

What I have not figured out is how we get out of this conundrum as a society. Social media won't be put back in its box, How do we figure out a way through it? I think perhaps it is time to make Social Media companies register as publishers. They have to be responsible for content like a newspaper or any other offline media. We need to do something or else the craziness in the Capitol will be the nearer the beginning and not the end. 

A cure at last!

It has been hard with Lockdown to get to grips with the virus. It creeps up unseen, an invisible enemy as President Trump says. You don't know who has it, it could be your spouse or close family, your neighbours, even as we have discovered, the Prime Minister.

It is a nasty virus to if you catch it. Some people do seem to be able to wear it lightly and get by, but for other the symptoms get worse and worse. Fever seems to be one of the maing signs, and the lying around lethargic with the odd peak of howling rage.

I am of course talking about social media addiciton virus, which is a curse of our age. All of our political and media class suffer hugely from this debilitating disease. With it, they lose most sense of reason and all sense of proportion. The current ridiculous and confected issue with Dominic Cummings is the latest example.

It proved for me though a release, having watch some loopy lady on Sky insist that he was patient zero for the North East and could be prosecuted for murder, enough was enough. Already I had been recovering (a nice email from a regular reader here helped too), but slowly I was looking less at Twitter, ignoring the daily briefings and generally getting on with a bust job and life. Now was the time for the big switch off.

I feel a lot freer for it, to limit the interaction with 24 hour news is good for the soul. One or two bouts a day for 10-15 minutes will keep you in the know but not consumed by it. The nature of the Corona virus impact and how much it changed our lives nescessarily made following the news a key element in all our lives. But now, as lockdown ends, perhaps the height of super tension will reduce too. Sadly, I fear for the media it is far too late, in their desperate search to keep up with free news, they have reduced themselves to the same level as those whom they used to criticise for sensationalism,

Reading Assignment. Spoiler Alert - Not Festive

Time for a bit of theory to temper some of the heated comments that are flying around BTL recently here at C@W.  Ordinarily these things are for the Weekend Reading slot - but not this time, Scrooge, not this weekend.

Rather sobering, this review of an edifying and salutary thesis that links social media with some of the fundamental dynamics of society: inward-directed violence and how it is subliminated; sacrificial victims, scapegoating, monarchical regimes, monopolies, Trump, Twitter ...

Told you it wasn't for the weekend!

ND

Social media - pitchforks and torches.

Emily Thornberry parks outside her Islington home

Labour's Emily Thornberry has resigned from the Labour front bench over a tweet she sent during the Rochester and Strood by-election campaign. She tweeted a picture of a white van parked outside a terrace house that was flying England flags.

And that was it. No terrible comments. No questionable views. Just the subtext. Which was

'Look at this UKIP paradise of a place -White vans,the Sun newspaper and Footie flags.How ghastly."

But she never said that. She just tweeted the picture.


 

On the previous post I mentioned 'lucky Ed' being the first labour leader who would not have the Murdoch press as a serious problem to either hug, as Blair did, or suffer with, as Kinnock.
Ed has social media which is now taking on even TV as the accepted method of receiving news.

But the problem with it, is the positive direct access it gives for engagement is often offset by its angry, raging, mob mentality. Giving people a voice means they want to be heard.

Politicians find themselves in the ancient Forum world. Roman emperors had to constantly offer lavish spectacles and circuses. And show trials with executions.  Heroic Triumphs with chests filled with gold coins being tossed into the crowds. And the grain dole. And the odd senator who had upset the population too much losing his head.

So it is with social media. 8 hours after Thornberry tweets a picture, she has to resign from the shadcab. The now 'Unlucky' Ed Miliband was reported to never have been so furious. He knows this tweet will overshadow the Tory loss and UKIP gain. He knows that he needs to retain all his remaining Labour, working class voters, to win the election. So he quickly had Emily sewn into a sack with a jackal and thrown into the Tiber to appease the plebs.
Apparently she had a council house upbringing herself. So could probably have brazened this out. It would be forgotten by Saturday. But Ed didn't fancy the risk. So .. a thumbs down from him.

And

Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May banned entry for Julien Blanc after the techniques used by controversial 'pick up artist' were deemed "racist and sexist".
He had committed no crime.  Was not coming to the UK to commit any crime. He is just a controversial man who says he can teach other men how to bed women.
This is not acceptable to the Twitter. This is an outrage. The mob could have turned up to his show and made their displeasure known. But its a lot easier to send 140 characters on a tweet hashtag #ANGRYMOB.
Or to tweet a scientist to tears for wearing a shirt that is on general sale in shops without requiring some special permit. Not a banned shirt. Just a sexist shirt. Which is only sexist if you think it is. I don't.

 

I wouldn't wear it myself. But I've seen, and sold, far, far worse.
The old PORNSTAR label springs to mind. 

An attempt to hold a reasonable debate about abortion in Oxford was called off after students threatened to disrupt it. Tim Stanley tried to have a discussion, at a college in Oxford, but the guardians of free speech decided instead to call the whole thing off. The Facebookers were not tolerating 'men' discussing an issue they cannot understand! That's Oxford university giving way to the power of the mob.

So maybe this social media isn't such a good thing for Ed. Maybe having the Murdoch back would be better. At least Ed knows what Murdoch wants.

This FacetweetInstagram  - Its irrational. Its uncontrollable. Its very angry. And it demands sacrifice.

China playing a risky game

Recently it was GSK, highlighted by the Chinese for the corruption in promoting their drug sales in China. Not only was GSK caught, something not really denied, but the Chinese Government has a well focused communications strategy too. Using Social Media, the focus on the corrupt foreigners is quickly whipped into a storm with state owned media also joining in with leader writers in papers piling on the pressure.

Before long GSK was in a very bad place and its future in China very bleak. And for what, doing what everyone was doing in a bent market. Now, this is not to excuse them because in business if you take those kinds of risks, then you can't complain too much if you get your comeuppance.

However, GSK was part of a pattern quickly emerging. Now it is the turn of McDonalds to face the test of Chinese media aggression. A woman was sadly beaten to death by a cultist group in broad daylight and now the Chinese Government is pressing to blame McDonalds for not having security in its restaurant. Clearly the real story is the murderous cultists ability to get away in broad daylight - but as ever with China (and many countries) it is easiest to blame the 'corrupt foreigners.'

A pattern is emerging of trying to undermine Western brands and there are several reasons for this.

1) Strong Chinese nationalism is being promoted by the Government as an alternative and control on any wish for democratic change
2) Corruption is openly rife in China, accusing the rest of the world companies of being behind this serves the Chinese Government well to muddy the subject.
3) Western companies seek market share whilst Chinese companies do too, hurting the Western brands domestically will be seen as helping to promote China own corporate base.

There is little that Western companies can seemingly do about this, particularly McDonalds who surely in business in China to serve food and not provide civil security - but it will be very uncomfortable in the boardrooms of any major Western brand-led company who has China growth as their central strategy, knowing they could be next.

Social media in China too is an interesting issue, perhaps for more depth in another post - it certainly is showing all the signs of being able to be as misused as the printing press and camera were too by repressive regimes.