Some have suggested I make this into a diary, and so I have:
Watched “The Great Hack”about Cambridge Analytica and I agree….they used social media to do bad things. But I contend the table was set long before FB.
In my view, I think the seeds were planted way back in the 1980s. The Rs, hiding under the charm of B actor Reagan whose dog whistles were ignored because many just saw his movie characters, did not hear his content, co-opted those inclined toward authoritarian brainwashing via religion. My college friend and I were just lamenting the craziness. I went to a state college right out of a catholic hs. Back then, 1950s and 1960s, catholics of every ethnic group/pay level could do catholic school cause the very rich churches paid for us. I certainly would not have attended on my parents low income. Anyway when I got to college after years of wrestling with the brainwashing, I met protestants who were to become my dearest and oldest close friends. This was 1964...and then the whole “anti abortion” mentality was seen as a “catholic” thing; my protestant friends saw catholics who believed such nonsensical things as a part of a cult. I was always open to learning and early on even while in catholic school, I resented the sexism. But at least, I rationalized, many in the church were social justice warriors, marching for and with those opposing racism, segregation; opposing war. Of course that church took a right turn in the 1980s (and when I made that clean break from any and all organized religions). At the same time, Reagan/Bush and the right were co-opting the religious right in the south who adopted any/everything their friends wanted in return for what they wanted: a way to keep segregation and racist without seeming racist (charters, religious schools funded by PUBLIC funds).
Media was being monopolized as Reagan/Bush resurrected the robber barons and refused to enforce the anti trust act. So control of media and making it easy for the fundamentalist Elmer Gantrys to grow their empires combined for strange times….GREED IS GOOD; Christian nationalists are the good, patriotic ones; and taking God out of PUBLIC schools was turning schools into dangerous places (as the Rs were cutting and underfunding public ed and pushing R governors to do the same). I remember being incensed as Reagan/Bush aided, abetted and liked the tyrants like Pinochet, Montt et al despite the public murders/disappearing of journalists, teachers, union leaders, indigenous peoples, catholic clergy supporting them the rise of the poor. Still it was like none of it was happening here in the USA. Other than tent cities around colleges to protest investment and support of apartheid in South Africa, it was as if a stupor came over most of this country. Even Iran Contra was either ignored or defended then. I remember watching the short lived series “Max Headroom”which opened with “20 minutes into the future” and thinking how scarily accurate it might be. Reagan/Bush moved the center so far to the right, it ended up making centrist Bill Clinton the D nominee. But that came with the rise of Newt, Delay, Hastert and every evil kernel of fascism you can imagine. Reagan appointee Scalia’s court made sure more and more money available to buy elections. Gaming, reality shows, infomercials all combined to take us away from reality. W was able to steal an election easily with the help of Scotus, FL scotus and of course Stone’s Brooks Brothers’ bullying in FL. 9/11 gave credence to W, ignoring his role in the incompetence, ignoring the lies to get us into yet another war for oil.
Obama was a much needed respite but once again Ds were unwilling to really face the illegalities, the lies perpetrated by the Rs to get out of legal consequences and the “let’s just look forward” naivety of Ds once again deterred us….as it had when Bill Barr squashed the Walsh Investigation into IranContra. STILL by the end of 2015, we STILL were not ready for the amount of lying, cheating, treason being perpetrated on the right. Cambridge Analytica and FB were enabled by decades of giving the right a pass on all they were doing, had been doing for years to destroy the notion OF, BY, FOR the people.
Demonizing the press is not a new thing invented by Trump. The conservatives have been trashing “the liberal media”since Reagan, droning the message over and over that by the late 90s they (corporate media as well as many individual journalists) were bending over backwards to prove they were not “liberal”. I once heard Brian Williams when he was still NBC news golden boy, say on a talk show, when questioned about the “popularity of Rush Limbaugh” that he thought Rush had a legitimate pov. This was AFTER Rush had on been on his radio show PUBLICLY trashing women, even going after 13 yr old Chelsea Clinton with the cruelty of an adolescent bully. FOX news owned by Murdoch who was given his fast track to citizenship by Reagan, had been willing to lose lots of money to grow the propaganda network, letting Ailes (who also worked for Reagan) do his propaganda job amid his sexism, and sexual assaulting atmosphere. Of course when it came to sexism, the the other networks were not much better (see Les Moonvies, Matt Lauer).
My point: Trump did not arise in a vacuum or just because of Cambridge Analytica or FB or Twitter. Yes the Russians helped put him over the top but he could not, would not have even been in the race at all had the far right conservative libertarians not taken over the party in the 1980s. People did not want to hear it. I cannot tell you how many times I had some guys I know, “jokingly” call me a Jane Fonda, whenever I spoke out against Reagan. And the hatred the media stoked against Hillary went back to David Broder (the so called Dean of Washington press) and his hatred of/for the Clintons. MSM had been trashing HRC for as long as I remember…..so the obnoxious, incompetent, stupid, ignorant, racist, sexist sexual assaulting Trump was just fine with the“...but her emails” press. Even now most will not admit their role in giving Trump power. Social media is a tool for sure and we must all be aware, ready and able to eliminate trolls whenever we see them; but it is more than just social media. MSM needs to be called out for both siderism still. We need more voices of women, people of color on air and more diversity in the upper chambers of power in the media. One thing (like dropping FB) won’t change things. IMO, we need to be there to STOP those who use it; pressure those in charge. And all out, block, report the trolls on all platforms. We must listen to, understand the cautionary tales of four decades to take down the monster mobsters.