{"id":4429,"date":"2017-03-17T12:35:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T19:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=4429"},"modified":"2017-03-17T12:35:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T19:35:04","slug":"fakenews-media-pretending-trump-not-just-tool-political-establishment-john-laurits-johnlaurits-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/03\/17\/fakenews-media-pretending-trump-not-just-tool-political-establishment-john-laurits-johnlaurits-com\/","title":{"rendered":"“Why is the #FakeNews Media Pretending Trump Is Not Just a Tool of the Political Establishment?” by John Laurits (johnlaurits.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MediaFor much\u00a0of the 81.8% of voting-age citizens<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0who would have liked\u00a0someone other than Trump to be occupying\u00a0the White House for the next 4 years, these last months have been\u00a0a bit rough. On\u00a0one side\u00a0of the despair-spectrum, there was that sign-waving activist\u00a0who called\u00a0for #resistance<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0as soon as King Tiny-Hands was crowned president-elect\u00a0and, at\u00a0the opposite\u00a0end, that person on CNN saying we\u00a0should\u00a0all just\u00a0give the poor guy\u00a0a chance. Then, in between\u00a0& all around those two, there were a lot of folks\u00a0being shouted\u00a0at\u00a0from both sides, shell-shocked democrats, scape-goated 3rd-partiers, & millions of basement-dwelling Sandernistas<\/em>\u00a0sitting on their hands, trying very hard not to say, \u201cwe told you so.<\/em>\u201d Though the post-election chaos has subsided, a rift continues to grow between those\u00a0who want\u00a0to reform\u00a0the democrats\u2019 party & those\u00a0who want to destroy it. Democrats, progressives, & other 81-Percenters, however, are not the only ones with something to lose in this conflict\u00a0\u2014\u00a0nor are they the only ones with something to gain.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Theatre of the\u00a0#FakeNews<\/em> Media<\/h1>\n

Whatever else we disagree on, Donald Trump\u2019s supporters are right about one thing \u2014 the mainstream media does, indeed, seem to have it out for them. From\u00a0pushing Clinton\u2019s genius idea that most of them were\u00a0racists\u00a0to clipping half-sentences from\u00a0video of Trump so that\u00a0his\u00a0comment sounded worse\u00a0than it was, a number of news-outlets willfully manipulated the public image of Trump & his \u201cbasket of deplorables.\u201d The obvious neoliberal-bias of the media partly explains why\u00a0a surprising number of independents & Bernie Sanders\u2019 supporters ( who were also burned by the major outlets<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0) find they can relate more easily\u00a0with Deplorables than liberals. Trump\u2019s supporters, at least, do\u00a0not deny the collusion of the media\u2019s commentariat with corrupt democratic officials.<\/p>\n

THE MEDIA ATTACKED SANDERS
\n& TRUMP\u00a0<\/em>FOR DIFFERENT REASONS<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>While Sanders & Trump have both been attacked\u00a0by\u00a0the neoliberal news-media,\u00a0the reasons they were attacked\u00a0were never\u00a0the same.\u00a0From\u00a0the #PodestaLeaks<\/strong><\/em><\/a> & #DNCLeaks<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, it is\u00a0clear that the media shaped their\u00a0coverage of Sanders\u00a0at the behest of the Democratic National Committee which maintains\u00a0close ties to influencers\u00a0in the news industry. The\u00a0motive is obvious \u2014 party loyalists in\u00a0the media were simply\u00a0defending the status quo of their masters by containing the\u00a0voter-insurgency\u00a0instigated by an\u00a0outsider. The Sand-Man gave them hell \u2014 but, in the end, the corporatist-DNC was built to crush dissent.<\/p>\n

The public perception of Trump, however,\u00a0was being shaped for very different purposes\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Behind the Curtains of #TheResistance,<\/strong>
\nThe Democrats Remain\u00a0Resistant to Change<\/em><\/h3>\n

In the alternative reality that MSNBC & other neoliberal sock-puppets live in<\/strong>, the US political apocalypse is a simple battle between Good & Evil. On one side, the racist\u00a0horde of disgruntled ex-coal-miners led\u00a0by a stingy\u00a0orange despot secretly backed by the Russians and, on the other, a diverse & inclusive coalition of liberals called the Resistance\u2122 \u2014 if you can swallow that<\/em>\u00a0Kool-Aid, picking a side is easy. For people who no longer trust the major US news-outlets \u2014 which recent polling says is most of us<\/em><\/strong><\/a> \u2014 things are less simple.<\/p>\n

\"Media<\/a>
MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow explains the racist Trump-supporters are also\u00a0Putin-lovers who\u00a0have betrayed the USA to the Reds\u2026<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MSNBC\u2019s fairy-tale, of course, leaves out the part where they helped the democratic leaders, or \u201cthe good guys,\u201d to\u00a0intentionally elevate \u201cthe bad guy,\u201d Trump<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0as part of the DNC\u2019s campaign strategy.\u00a0 Just a minor detail, right? To prop up\u00a0the 2-dimensional\u00a0story,\u00a0democratic politicians star in each puppet-show & the party is cast as the voice<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of what they portray as\u00a0a unified\u00a0Resistance\u2122 behind them. The progressive, independent, socialist, & other voices which are\u00a0also raised\u00a0in protest \u2014 such as the water protectors at Standing Rock \u2014 are lost in the noise. Just as they did in the 2016 primaries, the DNC & their propagandists in the media are silencing\u00a0progressives & other left-leaning independents. That\u2019s\u00a0why the polls show their approval has now fallen\u00a0lower than Trump\u2019s.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

To the neoliberal-democrats, preserving the\u00a0platform of their wealthy donors is\u00a0more important than\u00a0winning elections<\/em><\/strong>, even if it\u00a0throws us all\u00a0under the Trump Train\u2026<\/p>\n

The DNC Sided with\u00a0the 1%<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>\u2014
\n<\/em>But So Has Donald\u00a0Trump<\/em><\/h3>\n

As the 81-Percenters\u2019 disdain for\u00a0establishment democrats grows, many have turned to\u00a0third-parties\u00a0and others have called\u00a0to \u201cDraft Bernie\u201d &\u00a0form a new one. Any path\u00a0outside the two-party system would be\u00a0steep, however, in\u00a0an electoral system that looks as if it were\u00a0designed to suppress any challenge<\/strong><\/a> to the\u00a0publicly-funded duopoly. Frustrated by a system\u00a0that limits their choices to a spectrum of lesser evils, some now declare Trump to be less evil than a\u00a0complacent & inflexible DNC. That fact alone says a lot, really. The shared experience of media-persecution between Sandernistas & Deplorables, it seems, has\u00a0built a few uneasy\u00a0bridges \u2014 bridges that the right-wing, of course, aware of. During one of his stump speeches<\/strong><\/a>, Trump even appealed directly:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo all of those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates, we welcome you with open arms<\/strong>\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Veterans of the\u00a0political revolution \u2014 progressives, greens, independents, & other leftists \u2014 have very\u00a0real & unaddressed grievances<\/strong><\/a> with the democrats. The corrupt establishment, however, is not likely to\u00a0be fixed by the billionaires who benefit from it. The enemy of an enemy is not always a friend \u2014 sometimes, the enemy of an enemy is just\u00a0an inside-out cantaloupe in a toupee that\u00a0slashes taxes for its\u00a0rich friends.<\/p>\n

Trump is Not Anti-Establishment<\/strong> \u2014
\nHe is the Establishment\u2019s Messiah<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
\"Trump\"<\/a>
And that\u2019s why you should always check your melons before leaving the store\u2026<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CNN & MSNBC cast\u00a0Trump to play the villain in most of their plays and, to be fair, he usually\u00a0plays that role pretty well. Listening to the grave analysis of their experts & the talking heads, it seems that Washington DC is burning down every day. If\u00a0all of the breaking news & the exclusive reports were added up \u2014 from Putin & Russian Hackers to the scandals & racist pasts of cabinet nominees \u2014 it might even\u00a0look like the established order is in danger of coming apart. While liberals run for cover, however, Trump\u2019s fans\u00a0appear\u00a0to\u00a0think the noise is just more proof that the real-estate mogul is raging against the corrupt machine \u2014 but what is really happening, here?<\/p>\n

In spite of the commotion, there is\u00a0very little evidence<\/em> that any actual raging has occurred, as of yet. Since he was sworn into the presidency, Trump has:<\/p>\n

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