A friend of mine who is a little different in his political thinking has been posting a lot of stories from Newslogue lately. I am browsing through and find it a refreshing change of pace out of the rabid Trump pro/against news cycle of late.
So this article on there is a little wacky, but I pulled down the memo it referenced - and yeah it is kind of old - but it is … it’s interesting. It’s like, what if instead of are the Breitbart followers right or the NPR fans, what if they are both being pwned?
Be interested to share with Happy Mutants their thoughts on THE MEMO not so much the news report.
I read the article and skimmed the memo. the memo read like about what I’d figure a campaign strategy would read like, I guess. I don’t really know Podesta or any or the names it was sent to, though, I don’t follow news or politics very closely; I admit my ignorance.
The ideas in the article don’t seem very controversial to me, although hinging the proof on this leak seems like reaching, because the tone of the memo didn’t seem conspiratorial. the memo seems like it said “echo chamber” twice and … yeah. but that these people would want to emulate a tactic they saw work for the Bush admin doesn’t seem controversial simply because [clutches pearls] THEY’RE DEMOCRATS! i.e. “the good guys.” No. They’re scum. They ran a candidate that voted for Bush’s war and they have the nerve to say they represent “progressive politics.” Whatever.
I wonder how far they were able to “create” an echo chamber effect. I’m sure they damn well tried but I feel like people in either faction totally want one anyway. For any issue, the internet enables an echo chamber for those that want one or at least do not actively think critically about sources etc, and that seems like most people.
The memo reads like every media strategy for politics, a product intro or a brand written in the last 13 years. The DNC strategy has been mobilize the reliables, motivate the middles/undecided, and not waste time on the right wing. Which is sensible, and looks like a bubble. But everyone lives in a bubble, because nobody has time to both consume and process the vast daily production of news, commentary and reaction. We self-select for media, friends, jobs, neighborhoods, politics because most of us spend some time evaluating the whole, figure out which ones work for us, and move foreword. We all curate; refusing to recognize that is a blindness to human nature.
The commentary… sigh. Does he really think that the news media, who compete with each other, every book and movie and TV show, and every game from candy crush to WoW, would consent to cooperate well enough to implement intentional collusion to deceive? And that none of them would decide to scoop their competition by exposé-ing all those other media houses? If so, I have a bridge and a gold field and an original, signed First Folio in Shakespeare’s own hand, with a tavern bill enclosure signed by Kit Marlow, that I am willing to part with, relatively cheap.
I suppose even Russia and Wikileaks apologists think they have a coherent train of thought.
