Thursday, May 11, 2023

On Profit and Politics in Media

(In answer to Jim Wright here.)

Profit is the excuse; politics is the reason. Trump isn't the ratings draw he was in 2016. (see https://www.politicususa.com/2023/05/11/cnn-trump-town-hall-ratings.html to this point.) But CNN still hosted a Trump campaign rally.

Ever since Marx, it's become customary, on both left and right, to analyze political conduct in economic terms and for the very rich this may be valid. But, as we see time and time again, a major faction of the public acts on identity, not profit.

Time was, the USA, remembering the rise of fascism, had anti-fascist media law and regulation. This was abandoned as part of the Reagan Revolution. I expect that the country club Republicans of the 1980s, much like the German conservatives of the 1920s, felt that the public would then support them, the natural rulers of society. Instead, as in the 1930s, the public swung towards fascists, while the left opposition tries to outwait the rising tide of authoritarianism.

And here we are.

(A version of this has been posted to Jim Wright's comments.)

1 comment:

The Blog Fodder said...

Why Republicans vote against their own self interest. Identity not profit