Donald Trump and Benito Mussolini have so much in common, it’s uncanny. But perhaps less uncanny and more pure planning. “Make Italy Great”, the theme Il Duce trumpeted as he climbed the olive oil drenched pole of Italian power; he even exhorted Italian-Americans to “Make America Great”. True story.
He found an early talent in his twenties for journalism and pioneered “fake news”. He knew that his falsehoods might be disproved, but he also cunningly grasped that the lies would be remembered. Thus it has always been so for us, hasn’t it? A lie is circulated, disproved, and yet takes on a life of its own. And those in the media who did the disproving are branded as dishonest. Hmm. Hmm.
We’ve forever watched figures on the hot seat in this country distract us from their misdeeds and imbroglios, but never at a level with such strategic cunning and such a full court press effort. Leveraging the still-developing social media tools, they’ve managed to keep everyone watching off balance, confused and distracted. But the dust does settle sooner or later and the more dogged members of the Fourth Estate on the reporting side are charting the links, publishing the connections while opinion writers and commentators are beginning to trace out the entire picture. And it’s ominous.
With a blitzkrieg of fake news and tech-savvy manipulation of search engine results they’ve managed to sway the American voting public in a way that would make Madison Avenue jealous, though let’s face it, they’ve helped the pharmaceutical industry and others with similar, smaller scale efforts for years. They continue because they work. Spread the misinformation, spread more to give it legitimacy, and keep the drumbeat going until misinfo and info are difficult to distinguish. And to the less informed, indistinguishable.
But walls of lies, regardless of the height and width, tend to develop cracks and fissures. And the bigger they are the more stress on the structure. Yes, Big Lies can have supports, and in this case many voices vainly trying to shore them up with a grab-bag of alternative “facts”, but over time the supports weaken (and grow tiresome) and the wall falls. The teetering has begun.
Reflex Blue 