Sometimes an article just needs to be read.
This is one of them, and yes, it is in The Guardian.
I think its author, Dr Johnny Ryan, is right:
Fascism does not arrive in a military uniform.
It used to arrive in a suit.
Now it appears online.
We need to wake up to that very fast.
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It makes a very valid point. However, to what effect? I seriously doubt that Ireland will do what it needs to. Hopefully, the EU / UK do force through the necessary safeguards.
However, like many others I’m sure, the only way to combat the right-wing propaganda and the embedded algorithms is to be very selective in what you are subject to…I, for example, immediately switched-off my Twitter account when Musk took over, virtually never use Facebook, etc. How many are willing to forego the (apparent) convenience of the tech platforms to mitigate against their invidious messaging?
The point? Unless something is said nothing happens.
It only takes good people to be indiffernt for evil to happen.
Thanks for the link to the Guardian article Richard. Truly frightening. It feels like WW3 is well under way – tech influencers paving the way for subjugation of the masses. As well as turning off algorithms maybe teachers and lecturers could offer classes – teaching people of all ages to be more aware and critical when they’re online. Defence Against The Dark Arts
Given that fascist thinking is online, should we be abandoning twitter etc. ? Shouldn’t democratic thinking and the Left continue to be online because that is where the fight is?
I understand the dilemma. It is the same for the remaining members of the Labour Party. Those staying to support real socialism and fight are severely undermined by the exodus … and there will doubtless be a tipping point when it becomes impossible to achieve anything.
However, there is power in numbers and ‘walking away’ leaves an open playing field for fascist ideas and the far right.
A good example was in Iraq when the Sunni muslims boycotted the US devised elections (2004). All that happened was a government exclusively dominated by Shia forces.
I use Blue Sky
I no longer post on Twitter, although sometiems I have to look at it
You probably get fed up with me providing these links, Richard, but this segment from Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday evening – about Trump’s threats to Harvard (other universities have already been targeted) – is a must listen for ANYONE who values democracy, however flawed it is. He ties this piece into what Trump now says about deporting US citizens (not just people they claim are illegal) to prisons in El Salvador.
You’ve said it on here many times so I shan’t repeat it all but you know the score: ‘First they came for ……’ and here, within a year, I’ll say you’ll be able to enter any type of person you want, because it’ll simply be anyone who Trump and his cronies see as a threat. That’s the way these things go.
Watch and be very afraid if you’re a US citizen, or plan to visit the US.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-on-trump-attacking-the-rule-of-law-we-are-all-harvard-we-are-all-abrego-garcia-237412933750
Watched
Thank you
As far as I am concerned these links are very useful Ivan, thank you.
Dr Ryan’s article doesn’t work for me. He misunderstands investment and conflates that with spending but that’s not the main issue. The big issue with the article is that he sees the increasing electoral success of the far right as due to foreign interference, algorithms controlled by oligarchs, speeches by American politicians. European voters can’t think for themselves is the suggestion. Big bad tech made me extremist.
Could it just be that people can think for themselves and the high costs of energy, housing, high taxation and paying for a drawn out foreign war between two fascist countries where the front line hasn’t moved more than 5 km average in a year is influencing people to vote for start-up political parties. Not according to Dr Ryan.
The evidence does not side with you
And which start up parties are you talking about? Farage’s fascist Reform party?
You make a fair point about things being too expensive and pushing people to fringe parties, but I don’t agree that people are good at thinking for themselves. We’re extremely easy to program, it’s our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. For example, I hear people talk about small boats all the time. Never just boats. I always try to ask where the dividing line is between a small boat and a big boat, and if people arriving on big boats are fine. No one ever complains about big boats, or even boats.
Social media is generally horrible and great at programming people – if all you see is hate and scapegoating you’re being programmed to hate and scapegoat. And when it comes to voting, there’s usually a shadily funded party (US right/Russia) spouting the same messages.
A very fair article. I regard the various social platforms as fans – you need some embers (and stuff that burns) to get a proper blaze going – using a fan.
So yes having some controls on socail media is very important. But.
Ireland: rising elec prices directly due to … more data centres. Current political response – zero.
Portugal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca3Rx22xJxw (big big housing problem – political response – zero). Spain/Barcelona – same. Go round Europe – lots and lots of social problems – close to zero political response.
A total political failure – leaves space for grifters with simple solutions that morph into fascism. Controlling social media is fine – but getting to grips with underlying social problems is key. As we can see in the UK, current political structures (& it is a structural problem) are unfit for purpose.
Exactly this. A real case of the unintended consequences of technological hypnotism re: AI. The notion that Murdochian Dark Arts political nudging units can duplicitously manipulate the existential suffering of generations of political neglect and abuse into being ‘disappeared’ or exploited to instigate more of the same. If in Ireland Sinn Fein do not place bad profiteer’s housing policies, this socially destructive global oligarch’s manipulative mass media hegemon and its structural inhumanity and ecocide as central to their campaign for political power, they will be both foolish and complicit.
Thanks. It’s worrying how fast this is happening.
Check out Karen Stenner’s work, decades of research on authoritarianism, estimated 30% of any population have an authoritarian disposition.
The algorithms tap into activating this group by repeatedly signalling normative threat, without normative threat this group just get on with life.
The effect is one which Mussolini and Hitler had to work to create.
The right have really understood this research well, sadly.
This is why the fight against fascism is the fight against inequality. People feel threatened due to a weakened financial position. The far Right moves in and exploits this feeling of being under threat, directs it at easy targets, and mobilises that 30%, all funded by the billionaires who have caused the entire thing. If we make everyone secure, then those authoritarian tendencies can’t be exploited. We can all still hate each other, but we are all secure enough to tolerate each other.
Certainly anything that can be don to dampen the extremist algorithms should be done – but also agree with others here that ‘leaving the field’ is a bit defeatist.
We can be on Twitter and on Bluesky, in the Labour Party and campaign inside and outside it, for better policies.
I’d love to hear HOW members can campaign to change Labour from the inside?
Starmer controls admission of members, selection of candidates, access to conference, election to NEC (guess where the election software comes from), CLP agendas, CLP Officers, CLP executives, & discipline of members.
Please, let us know HOW this “change from within” can happen.
The only route I can see to change in Labour, is a sudden and sizeable PLP rebellion that deposes Starmer (If he sees it coming he will suspend enough opponents from PLP to prevent it). But who replaces him? (Remember the new leadership rules effectivey prevent a “Corbyn” candidate ever being elected leader again.)
This is Michael Rosen’s poem from 2014
Fascism: I sometimes fear…
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you…
It doesn’t walk in saying,
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”
So much to agree with
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1952) stated, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
Might fascism have come to us disguised by organised fantasies of an escape from the consequences of Neoliberalism and delusional images of “Olde England”?
He was right
I think the author is very wrong. It’s not an informative read. Childlike in some ways.
First of all, the age-old comparison of sovereign nations with a trading bloc called Europe has zero worth. The EU is a trading bloc and currently no more than that.
At the same time, the significant actions being taken by individual EU nations are broadly supported through the statements issued by Europe’s leaders. The totally necessary uparming of European nations by European organisations is sneered at by mentioning share prices and not strategic necessity.
Yes, we need to disassemble ourselves from a facist USA. That’s actually what is happening in front of our eyes. Why not celebrate that instead cast aspersions?
The notion that Dublin is at the forefront of ‘switching off the algorithms’ is laughable, it’s EU-wide legislation. We have a precedent as well: when Ireland were dragging their feet when it came to reclaiming tax from Apple, the EU very quickly sorted that by threatening to withdraw funding elsewhere. The off switch will be found and used soon.
Trump’s recent actions have shocked the world. We briefly stood by thinking it wasn’t real, but some dystopian netflix series.
Now that we’ve understood this s*** is real, the EU could be said to be leading the world in taking immediate action. And that for a supra-national organisation with very little remit outside trade
tarriffs.
But that action is still EU member-state coordination, not that of a sovereign state.
The UK’s kowtowing to Trump is shameful, it’s quickly losing all the goodwill it still has here on the continent. It’s time for Starmer to pretend he’s a statesman, to throw the UK’s lot firmly in with Europe and let America cast itself adrift. They’ll still need European microchips, European luxury goods and non-US foid imports when they’re goose-stepping down Pennsylvania avenue.
You do realise he is criticising the Irish government, don’t you?
Whilst casting doubt over Europe’s willingness to do anything. He could very easily have framed the argument in a manner that puts Europe in a better light.
But that wouldn’t fit into his narrow narrative.
We’ll have to disagree.
The left/liberals have ignored the legitimate grievances of my neighbours for years.
The right have planned carefully for over a decade, done experiments in African elections, and spent MASSIVELY on very sophisticated data collection, and highly granular (sometimes targeted at just a few thousand voters in a given demographic) campaign messaging delivered through social media, esp Facebook. Highly effective in 2016 US elections, in Brexit Referendum, and getting better all the time. Just go back and read up on Cambridge Analytica.
I campaigned on this (digital privacy/data harvesting/use of targeting and profiling both for commercial AND political advertising) for sev years over a decade ago. No one was really interested beyond the digital privacy enthusiasts, and we worked HARD via all available channels.
The right also listened to my neighbours and got VERY good at sounding as though they cared about their lives, so their dog whistles are very well tuned.
We are now reaping the results in a broken democracy.
Agreed