In the Washington Post on Monday, the headlines read: Musk and Durov are facing the revenge of the regulators. Former US Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, in the British Guardian newspaper, published a piece on how to “rein-in” Elon Musk, suggesting that “regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest” on lines of that which befell Pavel Durov recently in Paris.
As should be clear to all now, “war” has broken out. There is no need for further pretence about it. Rather, there is evident glee at the prospect of a crackdown on the “Far-Right” and its internet users: i.e. those who spread “disinformation” or mal-information that “threatens” the broad “cognitive infrastructure” (which is to say, what the people think!).
Make no mistake, the Ruling Strata are angry; they are angry that their technical expertise and consensus about “just about everything” is being spurned by the “deplorables.” There will be prosecutions, convictions, and fines for cyber “actors” who disrupt the digital “literacy,” the “leaders” warn.
Professor Frank Furedi observes:
There is an unholy alliance of western leaders – Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz – whose hatred of what they call populism is undisguised. In his recent visits to Berlin and Paris, Starmer constantly referred to the threat posed by populism. During his meeting with Scholz in Berlin on 28 August, Starmer spoke about the importance of defeating ‘the snake oil of populism and nationalism.’
Furedi explained that as far as Starmer was concerned, populism was a threat to the power of the technocratic élites throughout Europe:
Speaking in Paris, a day later, Starmer pointed to the far Right as a ‘very real threat’ and again used the term ‘snake oil’ of populism. Starmer has never stopped talking about the ‘snake oil of populism.’ These days virtually every political problem is blamed on populism … The coupling of the term snake-oil with populism is constantly used in the propaganda of the technocratic political elite. Indeed, tackling and discrediting snake oil populists is its number one priority.
So, what is the source of the élite’s anti-populist hysteria? The answer is that the latter know that they have become severed from the values and respect of their own people and that it is only a matter of time before they are seriously challenged, in one form or another.
This reality was very much on view in Germany this last weekend, where the “non-Establishment (i.e. non Staatsparteien) parties – when added together – secured 60 percent of the vote in Thüringen and 46 percent in Saxony. The Staatsparteien (the nominated establishment parties) choose to describe themselves as “democratic,” and to label the “others” as “populist” or “extremist.” State media even hinted that what counted more were “democratic” votes; and not non-Staatsparteien votes, so the party with the most Staatsparteien votes should form the government in Thüringen.
These have co-operated to exclude AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) and other non-Establishment parties from parliamentary business as far as legally possible – for instance by keeping them out of key parliamentary committees and the imposition of various forms of social ostracism.
It reminds of the story of the great poet Victor Hugo’s membership rejection – no less than 22 times – by the Académie Française. The first time he applied, he received 2 votes (out of 39) from Lamartine and Chateaubriand, the two greatest men of letters of their time. A witty woman of the time commented: “If we weighed the votes, Monsieur Hugo would be elected; but we’re counting them.”
Why war?
Because, after the 2016 US election, the US political backroom élites blamed democracy and populism for producing bad election outcomes. Anti-establishment Trump had actually won in the US. Bolsonaro won too, Farage surged, Modi won again, and Brexit etc., etc.
Elections were soon proclaimed to be out of control, throwing out bizarre “winners.” Such unwelcome outcomes threatened the deep-seated structures that both projected and safeguarded long-seated US oligarchic interests around the globe, by subjecting them (oh the horror!) to voter scrutiny.
By 2023, the New York Times was running essays headlined: “Elections Are Bad for Democracy.”
Rod Blagojevich explained in the WSJ, earlier this year, the gist of what it was that had broken with the system:
We [he and Obama] both grew up in Chicago politics. We understand how it works—with the bosses over the people. Mr. Obama learned the lessons well. And what he just did to Mr. Biden is what political bosses have been doing in Chicago since the 1871 fire: Selections masquerading as elections.
While today’s Democratic bosses may look different from the old-time cigar-chomping guy with a pinky ring, they operate the same way: in the shadows of the backroom. Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the rich donors—the Hollywood and Silicon Valley élites—are the new bosses of today’s Democratic Party. They call the shots. The voters, most of them working people, are there to be lied to, manipulated and controlled.
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month will provide the perfect backdrop and place [for appointing a] candidate, not the voters’ candidate. Democracy, no. Chicago ward-boss politics, yes.
The problem was that the revealing of Biden’s dementia had pulled the mask from the system.
The Chicago model is not so very different from how EU democracy works. Millions voted in the recent European parliamentary elections; “Non-Staatsparteien” parties chalked-up major successes. The message sent was clear – yet nothing changed.
Cultural War
2016 represented the onset of cultural war, as Mike Benz has described in great detail. A complete outsider, Trump had crashed through the System’s guardrails to win the Presidency. Populism and “disinformation” were the cause, it was held. By 2017, NATO was describing “disinformation” as the greatest threat facing western nations.
Movements designated as populist were perceived as not simply hostile to the policies of their opponents, but to élite values too.
To combat this threat, Benz, who until recently was directly involved in the project as a senior State Department official focused on technology issues, explains how the backroom bosses pulled an extraordinary “sleight of hand”: “Democracy” they said, was no longer to be defined as a consensus gentium – i.e. a concerted resolve amongst the governed; but rather, was to be defined as the agreed “stance” formed, not by individuals, but by democracy-supporting institutions.
Once re-defined as “an alignment of supporting institutions,” the second “twist” to the democracy re-formulation was added. The Establishment had foreseen a risk that were a direct info-war on populism pursued, they themselves would be portrayed as autocratic and imposing top-down censorship.
The solution to the dilemma of how to pursue the campaign against populism, according to Benz, lay in the genesis of the “whole of society” concept whereby media, influencers, public institutions, NGOs and allied media would be corralled and pressured into joining an apparently organic, bottom-up censorship coalition focused on the scourge of populism and disinformation.
This approach – with the government standing at “one removed” from the censorship process – seemed to offer plausible deniability of direct government involvement; of the authorities acting autocratically.
Billions of dollars were spent in raising up this anti-disinformation eco-system in such a way that it appeared to be a spontaneous emanation out of civil society, and not the Potemkin façade that it was.
Seminars were conducted to train journalists on Homeland Security disinformation best practices and safeguards – to detect, mitigate, dismiss and distract. Research funds were channeled to some 60 universities to found “disinformation laboratories,” Benz reveals.
The key point here is that the “whole of society” framework could facilitate a blending back into the policy mainstream of the long timeframe and largely unspoken (and sometimes secret) bedrock structures of foreign policy – on which foundation many key élite financial and political interests are leveraged.
An outwardly bland ideological alignment focused on “our democracy” and “our values” would nonetheless allow for the re-integration of these enduring structures to foreign policy (hostility to Russia; support for Israel; and antipathy towards Iran) to be re-formulated as the appropriate rhetorical slap in the face to the Populists.
The war may escalate; It may not end with a disinformation eco-system. The New York Times in July posted an article arguing how The First Amendment is Out of Control and in August another piece entitled, The Constitution is Sacred. Is it Also Dangerous?
The war, for the moment, is targeted at the “unaccountable” billionaires: Pavel Durov, Elon Musk, and his “X” platform. The survival or not of Elon Musk will be crucial to the course of this aspect of the war: The EU’s Digital Service Act was always conceived to serve as “Brutus” to Musk’s “Caesar.”
Throughout history, self-regarding and self-enriching élites have become dangerously contemptuous of their peoples. Crackdowns have been the usual first response. The cold reality here is that recent elections in France, Germany, Britain and for the Euro-parliament reveal the deep distrust and dislike of the Establishment:
The alienation is worldwide, against the postmodern West. Europe will either distance itself from it, or become embroiled in the detestation of the ‘privileged ci-devant.’ The end of the dollar is indeed the analogue of the abolition of feudal rights. It is inevitable, but it will also cost Europeans dearly.
An eco-system of propaganda does not restore trust. It erodes it.
Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation.
