Anderson Cooper and CNN
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Anderson Cooper was trying to do damage control for his network about the town hall event with Donald Trump two days ago. It didn’t go well.
What Anderson apparently doesn’t understand (and I always thought he is a smart man!) is the psychology of the masses — that the broadcasting of an event with an audience that loudly agrees with Trump’s misogynistic ramblings when he is confronted by a single sane person — a woman — will itself infect other people. Suddenly it becomes OK to jettison the norms and values of decency since clearly so many others are OK with it.
This is the background: Trump created among his followers, starting with free media events like this in 2015, a thorough disdain for our entire institutional framework, for our Constitution, for our system of laws. It has already affected the views and the reflexive thinking of millions of people. I’m baffled that CNN decided to give him the megaphone again in front of an audience of his followers.
This is exactly how the Third Reich happened: masses of people jubilated, applauding every single uttering of a madman. Then undecided, conflicted, uninformed people, who were not followers initially, found it quite heartening and uplifting to be part of the big event, to be part of a mass movement that surely would solve all problems.
The fact that neither CNN as a network, nor Anderson Cooper, the prominent anchor, appreciate this aspect: the propensity of town hall event as a contagion, is in itself frightening. It means the USA is not equipped for facing 2024.
By coincidence I had just started reading the chapter on “Distorted Communication” in Claus Mueller’s book “The Politics of Communication” (Oxford University Press 1973) — a book which should be freely distributed to all Democratic officeholders and Democrats seeking public office. In it I found the following quotation relating to the effects of propaganda in the Third Reich:
“If a lie comes from all sides to me, if the number of those persons on my side who doubt it becomes smaller each day with no one left at the end, then I will be overpowered by it as some time too . . . Propaganda which has been recognized as lies and boasts, will be successful if one is energetic enough to perpetuate it.” [Klemperer, ‘LTI’ Die Unbewältigte Sprache, p. 226]
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This entry was posted in Blog and tagged anderson Cooper, Claus Mueller, CNN, Constitution, Hitler, Nurnberg, rally, Swastika, system of laws, The Politics of Communication, Third Reich, Trump. Bookmark the permalink.
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