One thing among so may that echoed with my own experience here in the "Free State of Florida' was when our Governor began manipulating and suppressing statistics and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. He did this because the facts were contrary to the rosy scenario and effectiveness of the state's handling of the crisis. He fired people for publishing statistics he did not like. He directed that timely death counts from all counties not be aggregated by the state meaning that only by contacting all of the individual county health departments could one discover how many people were dying on a daily basis.
Even as recently as his presidential campaign he has relied on these manipulated statistics to claim he has been one of the most effective governors in dealing with the pandemic. He deliberately sought out a state health director who was a vaccine skeptic and discourages people from vaccinations with "quack data" that has long been disproven.
So this is just a miniscule representation how populism works in a single state. Imagine what populists could do with the entire federal government under their control.
A last observation we have seen the "siloing" of media sources in the last few years. My question is we act as if the current media landscape is as free as we like to believe. What does it mean when a reliable source can publish factual, even unbiased reporting, but huge number of people do not believe them and a gazillion social media platforms contradict what they say? Social media has been praised for its ability to gather people to protest and resist governments but it also can be used by malicious actors (individuals, corporations, governments, etc.) to poison the people, too. A lie spreading 5 times around the world before the truth has put on its shoes is no an exaggeration.
Social media has been used to trigger groups to gather to oppose things that weren't really things. For example a supposed "Koran Burning" in Texas that upset people was being inspired from a Russian Troll Farm. There were attempts by foreign trolls to escalate tensions around the BLM protests. How much of the January 6 propaganda is actually being generated off shore?
So much good stuff here. Thanks!
One thing among so may that echoed with my own experience here in the "Free State of Florida' was when our Governor began manipulating and suppressing statistics and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. He did this because the facts were contrary to the rosy scenario and effectiveness of the state's handling of the crisis. He fired people for publishing statistics he did not like. He directed that timely death counts from all counties not be aggregated by the state meaning that only by contacting all of the individual county health departments could one discover how many people were dying on a daily basis.
Even as recently as his presidential campaign he has relied on these manipulated statistics to claim he has been one of the most effective governors in dealing with the pandemic. He deliberately sought out a state health director who was a vaccine skeptic and discourages people from vaccinations with "quack data" that has long been disproven.
So this is just a miniscule representation how populism works in a single state. Imagine what populists could do with the entire federal government under their control.
A last observation we have seen the "siloing" of media sources in the last few years. My question is we act as if the current media landscape is as free as we like to believe. What does it mean when a reliable source can publish factual, even unbiased reporting, but huge number of people do not believe them and a gazillion social media platforms contradict what they say? Social media has been praised for its ability to gather people to protest and resist governments but it also can be used by malicious actors (individuals, corporations, governments, etc.) to poison the people, too. A lie spreading 5 times around the world before the truth has put on its shoes is no an exaggeration.
Social media has been used to trigger groups to gather to oppose things that weren't really things. For example a supposed "Koran Burning" in Texas that upset people was being inspired from a Russian Troll Farm. There were attempts by foreign trolls to escalate tensions around the BLM protests. How much of the January 6 propaganda is actually being generated off shore?
And populist regimes depend on it.
This interview was great and informative. Hopefully you have Rachel Kleinfeld back sometime down the line.