The general American public has proven itself to be the most obviously gullible of the modern species on the planet. Cause: Television. Effect: Donald Trump. It’s just that simple. The catalyst for this phenomenon is the weaponizing of America’s First Amendment ...freedom of speech, freedom of the press.
This congenital disaster in modern telecommunication history can be traced back to the 1950’s, ‘The Golden Age of Television’, when the advertising industry deflowered this burgeoning virgin technology and never looked back.
Today, we are what we are as a people and what we have become as a society and country pretty much due to the impact and influence of television. Everyone has one, everyone watches it. By “television” anymore I mean any electronic device with a viewing screen, and also any prevailing media outlet including newspapers, radio, magazines and social media ...all electronically produced. Instant information, quick and dirty effectuation.
Television defines us. It reflects our values, morals ...who we are. We, in turn, feed it the raw material of which we are reflected. The question is, is it reflecting or predicting our doom as a society? An electronic ‘Soylent Green’ feeding our desperate collective appetite for information, for gossip, intrigue ...entertainment? Or will television ultimately be our saving grace informing us of our pending doom, giving us a chance to see the error of our ways and make amends?
Television empowers and enables us. It knows us. It’s not even suggestive, it tells us what to do and think. It has not only captured our imagination and free will, but has arguably stifled it. TV justifies our decisions and satisfies our curiosity. It sedates us into a semi-conscious state of vulnerability. In the 50’s an advertised product was anointed and considered sacrosanct if you saw it in a store and printed on the package in bold letters was, “As Seen on TV!” This endorsement superseded any advertised actual benefit of the product.
Today, right now in the middle of America’s 2020 presidential election, television is playing its biggest role. It will determine the next president of the United States more than it ever has before, even more than the Kennedy/Nixon race in 1960. Remember how Nixon sweated on camera and looked unsure, weak ...dishonest? Television predicted the future.
Television can determine the success or failure of any product. The sad part is the product doesn’t even have to be good or have good qualities, you just have to be convinced to buy it. “Put lipstick on that pig”, put it on television. They’ll buy it.
There is a new twist now in television’s influence on us regarding the 2020 election process. “Russian interference”. We hear this news on television and it causes us to flinch. It breaks our American momentum. It’s messing up the whole democratic election process, which is the desired effect. It’s making people question the validity of their vote, while causing some people to look the wrong way.
So, how does this work? Why do we now feel that the rug has been pulled out from under us, from under our American freedom and democracy? Because we listen and obey, and take for fact what our television sets tell us ...”As seen on TV!”
We need to break this spell. Look and listen closer and realize that the television news media corporations and their stars are using this telecommunication technology to their advantage and to our disadvantage. Their advantage is financial through ratings and advertising dollars. Our disadvantage is our gullibility. And now, someone, or some entity (Russia? CIA? Campaign strategists? ...‘Wag the Dog’? ...) is using the media to its politically demonized advantage. We are hooked on their electronic media drug every bit as much and even more so than a junkie is on heroin. If we don’t break the spell, we will sleepwalk ourselves and America right into the hands of those who wish us harm. It may be impossible to antidote at this point because we’ve set ourselves up for a spectacular fall.
How do we break the spell of television news media political merchandising? CNN, MSNBC, and Fox are the worst offenders. How do we rehab and detox our free will and integrity from our “As Seen on TV!” habit? Cold turkey? ...radio? ...read more? It won’t be easy. Radio and print media are just as addictive. NPR, The Washington Post and New York Times are just as pervasive, in fact are often quoted on these television news outlets as being credible sources. Sometimes they are, sometimes not. Television has a strangle hold on us and our enemies know it. We’ve been trained well to be gullible.
“As Seen on TV!”
Consider the old saying, “If someone told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?” The same logic applies to “Russian interference in our elections”. Unless they are actually, magically, technically changing actual numbers in the election process, they are just using psychological propaganda to influence your thinking and judgement, and your vote. So, how dumb are you to be influenced by a paid-for television commercial that you know is designed to take advantage of your gullibility? Are you not smart or aware enough to listen to a candidate speak and make your own intuitive judgement? Are you too busy or lazy to try to understand a candidates’ position and policies? Do you really need that specifically crafted television commercial to tell you how to think and make up your mind for you? If you don't have your head, use your heart!
Regarding our American president, Donald ‘Goldfinger’ Trump, all you have to do is watch one of his rallies, listen to him speak, and your mind should be made up. Convinced, beyond any shadow of a doubt that the man has left his tools on the field.
Here‘s how you figure things out with intelligence and integrity. First, it must be important to you. If it’s not you’ve already lost and have become not only ineffective but a liability to the rest of us and to your country. If it is, then put on your thinking cap. You track clues, like a detective, and put them together in some chronology or logical sequence to form a pattern toward the whole picture. You make deductions and assumptions and continue to eliminate and add information until you can see and understand the cause and effect. The best way to do that is to work backward from the effect. What is the effect? Who benefits? Who loses?
Did the Russians “interfere” for Trump in 2016? Absolutely, yes. Well, that’s the proffered assumption. You can draw your own conclusions. But who benefited? Trump and the Russians did. Who lost? America ...you did. When Trump won, the television news showed us patrons at Russian bars all over Moscow celebrating like their team just won the World Cup. They did! This is just further proof after the fact, that Russia (or some interceding clandestine entity) used television ads and social media, through computer technology, to influence American voters to vote for the Russian candidate, ‘Goldfinger’.
Fast forward to now, the 2020 election. Goldfinger Trump and his “Russian partner” made quick work of Trump’s (and Russia’s) main election threat, Joe Biden, using his son Hunter Biden and a speculative “Ukraine scandal” to get rid of him. Biden is finished. Now, we are hearing that Russia is interfering with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Working backward ...Effect: Who does this benefit? Trump, and Russia, because it focuses on Sanders as being a Russian approved “socialist” -- Sanders has also been referred to as a “communist” -- eliminating Sanders as a viable presidential candidate because now it is perceived that the Russians are helping him win as their perceived “socialist/communist” U.S. president. (Obviously, the Russians would prefer a "socialist/communist" U.S. president to the "moron" U.S. president they elected in 2016). This takes the focus off Trump as the bad guy and brands Sanders, the apparent democratic candidate, as a worse guy, and Trump’s opponent in 2020. Trump can beat Sanders, he can’t beat Mike Bloomberg.
Cause: Television news media. Effect: Russia and Goldfinger win again.
In the end, who really knows for sure what psycho-electronic-media games are at play? It just seems to me that America is at risk, and I see red flags all over the place.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
Some past articles and op-eds
https://muckrack.com/john-kushma/articles
