COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON ZERO HEDGE
‘Trump Declares CNN,
NYT, CBS, ABC And NBC Are "The Enemy of The American People"’
Well, of course, it is an exaggeration.
But not such an exaggeration as to be untrue.
Constantly misinforming people about important matters is a
very pernicious practice.
It certainly does not support democracy or respect for
rights or good government. It does support secrecy, bad government decisions,
and a sense of privilege in a class of people.
However, the corporate press only does what it does because
of a long history of encouragement and cooperation with government. There have
even been demands by government at times.
And there has always been a filthy underground relationship
between the press and security services like CIA. Trump has just been stung by
that very thing.
America has a fundamental lack of honesty in all of its
national institutions. Not too much can change unless that underlying reality
is changed.
The reason for that is that every government, no matter
which party, is doing things for which the people never voted. Indeed, it is
often doing things that hurt or disadvantage ordinary people, including wars,
coups, dark operations, and supporting tyrants and monarchs of every
description.
Since WWII the United States has been almost continuously at
war. None of it was about defense. None of it was in the interests of the
American people as a whole. None of it brought any benefits to ordinary
Americans. All of it wasted immense wealth and plenty of lives. And all of it
was about the insider ruling establishment enjoying the game of pushing people
around all over the planet.
We all know the clichéd stories of Europe’s privileged
classes in the 17th or 18th century. A peasant who was in
the road in front of a Duke’s carriage became “roadkill.” What too many
Americans do not in the least understand is that that is exactly how their
government behaves abroad. Exactly. That’s why the same flag many Americans
honor at home is literally hated abroad as a symbol of violence and oppression.
What the press has done has helped this all to happen, but
it didn’t happen because of the press. It happened because of government after
government serving the narrow interests of the power establishment. But that is
the environment which helped “grow” the terrible press that America has.
And that utterly bent press has treated Donald Trump with
that same attitude carried over. He has been viewed as a threat to the power
establishment and its dirty little insider games of re-ordering the planet for
its benefit and to its liking.
You cannot have it both ways, be a world empire and a decent
country at home. The two realities are utterly incompatible, and I’m not sure
that most Americans truly understand that.
It will be an immense task to change enough in America’s government
to even begin to undoing the behavior of the press and other institutions.
