📰 Civilizational Populism Around the World (A free, 22-page article from 2022)
Tags: #World #Places #Society #Ideology
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/civilizational-populism-around-world_yilmaz-ihsan-et-al
ideology
"Russia has been rightly criticised for spreading disinformation, but pro-Kremlin propaganda has begun to evolve from posting ‘“fake news’” toward seeding platforms with shareable TikTok stickers and reusable audio templates, including techno remixes of Soviet folk songs that have become the soundtrack of pro-Russian war posting on TikTok.
The overwhelming liberal focus on disinformation misreads how digital platforms work: misleading content is everywhere, but the real battleground is over emotion and attention, which is what determines whether information – good or bad – finds an audience. This is why cutting-edge propagandists now focus less on policy messaging and more on massaging vibes.
As traditional centrist politicians desperately try to appear sensible, their opposition – occasionally on the left, but mostly on the reactionary right – run rampant, riding an ideological wave directed only by the febrile attention of an increasingly desperate and extremely online electorate.
The way we do politics has changed and politicians need to wake up to this."
#Propaganda #Disinformation #SocialMedia #Ideology #FarRight
"In a newspaper column, reactionary centrism can seem like level-headed pragmatism. But proximity to power reveals its dogmatism and incoherence. The theory is that validating national populist or even fascist values and moving towards them on policy will capture some of the voters seduced by the promises of parties further to the right. Every time Labour tries this, Reform gains ground and Labour’s own coalition disintegrates further. Yet the party remains committed to the strategy.
An actual pragmatist would evaluate and change course. Someone who understood public opinion might notice that anti-immigrant sentiment responds to media coverage, not objective reality. They might reason that this is not a problem that can be addressed by policy concessions because policy is not what is causing it. They might even consider offering a different narrative and seeing whether that makes a dent. A truly daring politician might consider telling the British public the truth: that they are being lied to by the right-wing press about the cause of the country's problems, and that Reform is capitalising on this for political gain.
The government does not seem inclined to do any of this. Despite understanding themselves as critical thinkers, reactionary centrists are conformists at heart. And they are so unmoored in our current age because, increasingly, there is no social consensus for them to conform to. Affluent countries the world over are balkanising into fascist and anti-fascist factions. One must simply pick a side. There is no longer such a thing as “British public opinion” (if there ever was). Rather, half the country supports socially illiberal parties and half supports (broadly speaking) liberal ones, similar to the split in the Brexit referendum. If we follow international trends, the values of these two sides will only grow more irreconcilable."
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/70966/what-is-a-reactionary-centrist-does-uk-have-them
#USA #UK #FarRight #Fascism #Centrism #ReactionaryCentrism #Propaganda #Disinformation #Ideology
Edited 41d ago
Maybe too "honest", meaning: not holding back. I'm not going to change that (until further notice …).
First of all, I didn't say that I hate #communism. What i did say is that I am not a #communist, meaning I don't subscribe to the particular #ideology.
My thinking is probably "communist" (or at least "#socialist") in many way, starting wit the rejection of #capitalism where the accumulation of wealth is the #ideal. To me, that's sheer evil (talking #morals here).
I believe that a certain amount of wealth is acceptable and that not every last bit of assets or production capability belongs to the #collective but rather that there is a legitimate area where everybody has to decide freely how much he or she wants to keep.
I'm certainly not that well informed about the details of #Marxist theory etc. and I admit that i never cared enough to overly bother. Since Marxism is fundamentally #atheist (not aware of any variant that isn't) or even anti-#religious, I can only accept the good principles of it to the degree that it doesn't interfere with my convictions before God.
This does explicitly not mean that we don't have enough common ground to make it work as long as our economic and social framework leaves enough room for those who have and for those who have not a religious believe that to them is the ultimate guidance. At least, I hope so, that is.
An yes, maybe that was just the "short" answer but I think it's personal enough to be written down publicly and ad hoc.