Moodboard: Cults of the Culture Wars (part 5) "Self fulling prophecies, conspiracy theories and the great “Deplatforming” (A.Glass 2021)

 9/12/2024 *update*

As the dangerous surreality of a 2nd Trump win sinks in, in readying for his inauguration, for a second time, on the 20th January 2025.  The Hard Right heavy weights of building Right Wing mythology, from Elon Musk, the everyman Billionaire x100, and bad joker, who does not like a joke made on him, threw over $270 million to get Trump re-elected, which fed into every misinformation campaign one could think of via the digital world, being vouched by Sylvester 'punch drunk' Stallone, in a bizarre rant comparing Trump as a Charles Dickens character, Jesus, George Washington and finally, but the most obvious, Trump's "Rocky" likness, as the iconic mythical boxer who came back from the worst of odds to make many, many and many remakes, while flogging a dead horse.  Except Trump, unfortunately is not a fictional character.  Who will have complete control over American policy, which is pointing towards Fascism.  You can't make this up.

6/12/2023 *update*

The largest democracy in the World, which is India, is now leaning further towards the hard right with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party now ruling over the continent, after defeating the secular party.  So, it is no surprise that the majority of disinformation and support of the Fascist and extreme right wing Israeli genocide, and ethnic cleansing of the 'Palestinian' problem, is coming out of India.

27/12/2023 *update*

Spain, once a bastion of the LGBTQ community in Europe is now ruled by a so called mish mash of Right Wing centralist and conservative parties.  Yes, we have heard that before, when Right Wingers say they are centralist.  Which by its definition refers to the rational technocrat, who only exists in the minds of University Professors, ala bitter relics of the 1960's, who still blame the left wing counterculture and/or the 'postmodern panic' of the 60's and 70's for messing everything up.   When it should, in their view, have been science and rationality that would have guided the way and set us free, and you won't have to protest anymore.  So, put down that bullhorn at Harvard.  And while our 'sympathetic to the Right Wing' academic friends eagerly await, at all costs, the return of the 'Age of Enlightenment'.  Global governments are tipping one by one towards the Hard Right.  Spain in true Right Wing technocrat fashion, as a political science experiment, partially turned off LGBTQ rights in Madrid. To see what would happen?  In the meantime Elon Musk, that wayward multi+ Billionaire via his messy acquisition of Twitter, is delivering misinformation via its seemingly inexhaustible digital channels at a rapid rate.  One should be wary of the extreme Right Wing Paleolibertarian who spouts 'free speech'.

Below article, part of Cults of the Culture Wars (Part 5) series (A.Glass 2021) was written before Musk acquired Twitter, rebranding it and turning it into a private holding company. 

(A.Glass 2024) 

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Self fulling prophecies, conspiracy theories and the great “Deplatforming”.

Lew Rockwell’s and Murray Rothbard’s Paleolibertarianism template to reestablish libertarianism as a more Right Wing orientated political philosophy, before the digital relays of the Internet advanced into the late 1990s, Ten years after the “The Case for Paleolibertarianism” was written, had very little impact before the dawn of the internet.  It wasn’t until the 2008 Financial Crisis that the schism was beginning to form throughout America within its polarized divide, that the basis of Paleolibertarianism became more established on social media platforms morphing into what is now known as the Alternative Right or Alt-right, although not by its intention per se,  but rather the “cherry picked” neoconservatism and fridge elements of Hard Right that were magnified and echo-chambered throughout social media platforms such as Twitter, thus becoming the groundwork of sensationalism to counter a fear that American society was being overridden by socialism via the digital landscape.   Yet, the true schism was revealed when President Donald Trump, an ex-developer, businessman and part time television celebrity became the 45th President of the United States, claimed victory over the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.  When Trump was elected it did indeed cause a shock across the liberal camps, who believed that Clinton, the possibility of a First woman as a President, would be a follow in from Obama’s historic Presidency, but it very much misread in its arrogance of the widening divisions that Americans felt, more so a distrust for the institutionalism of American government after the 2008 Financial Crisis.  

The Right Wing galvanized the politicization, ensuring that Trump, with his slogan in tow, “Make America Great Again”, that the issue of all America’s social upheaval and societal turmoil, has, as Rockwell stated in The Case for Paleolibertarianism is the cultural change that the Leftist are attempting to implement.   Trump, aware of the power of social media feeds, particularly Twitter went to work to strengthen the resolve, with a barrage of daily reactionary posts, aimed at defining the Alt-Right as a political groundwork for spreading misinformation.  But, more importantly it was building off the now cultist hashtag catch cries, which were already devised by elements of the Libertarian Right and Alt-Right at the cusp of his Presidency, that socially there was a dramatic shift towards a social “Marxist” agenda, mainly spurred by, once again, cherry picked so called Left Wing hashtag activism of celebrities, that when looked at objectively were designed to source larger markets or followers online, rather than any sincere groundwork of activism.  Yet, it was enough to feedback into the Alt-Right conspiracy that American traditionalism and values were under attack with a President who attempted to play the media as a co-conspirator in the spread of Left Wing dominance within America.   With a pandemic showing no signs of abating and tardy irresponsibility by all aspects of politics in its rushed mannerism of returning to what is deemed as the new normal, in what could be considered a poorly coordinated response to Covid-19.   The ad hock closing and reopening of local economies throughout the American States, with constant baiting by a obstinate President on Twitter, the fear that Statsim via lockdowns to contain the virus only evoked these Alt-Right followers that a full blown socialist takeover has been instigated.  After being rallied by President Trump, once again, via Twitter, on the 6th January 2021 they amassed around the Congress in Washington, eventually storming the building.  A mix bag of conspiracy theorists, libertarians and Right Wing extremists, but even with their idealisms that had already been set in stone by the integration of Paleo-Libertarianism merging into the Alt-Right, Four people lost their lives on that day.  Vehemently believing that postmodernism and widespread liberalism aim to bring down Western civilization, remove freedom and enslave the populous, that the pandemic and its inoculations is a fabrication and front used to control the world.   This so called Alternative Right, whose popularity has been predominantly fixed on social media feeds, has now emerged as a physical presence with the storming of Congress, revealing itself and morphing into a Cult persona, rather than any political structure.   And like all cults, its self fulfilling prophecy are unfolding.

Former President Donald Trump, who lost out to Joe Biden, a Democrat, was banned on the 8th January 2020 from Twitter at the dawn of handing over his Presidency to the Democrat leader.  And more importantly as an example of digital cultism, was Trump’s instigating and fueling the storming of Congress by right wing extremists before Joe Biden was sworn as the 46th President of the United States.  Trump’s constant media antagonism and his ability to use his Twitter feeds as a crusade in promoting the cult of personality, was mainly incited by the former President as an enmity towards an hysteria of liberalism.  Used as a podium, although at times the antagonism was also fueled back at Trump by various media outlets – to which Trump played the discord very well, which was of course was in lieu of an overall self fulfilling prophecy that, in particular, Silicon Valley social media giants are all but run by Left Wing liberals.   And he would eventually, like the lessor players on Twitter servicing a reloop of Alt-Right conspiracy theories, be banned from the platform.  This decision by Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to begin clamping down on  extremist dialogue and cultist aspects of what is known as the Alt-Right was far from a immediate response, rather it was a belated and drawn out action to deal with the spread of misinformation and cultist appeal in light of a viral pandemic that had claimed, at its peak, over 3000 American lives a day.   

The Alt-Right now morphing into a various extremists groups, has now firmly set itself with the Cultist foundation, with podcasts and proponents of Right Wing extremism being banned from social media platforms, what was known as “Deplatforming” was, as mentioned,  probably slow and a little too late, it took a very dangerous incident of a storming of Congress to instigate the process of now removing the podiums of Right Wing cults from billion dollar earning digital platforms.   Whether any cultist aspect of Left Wing dissension via social media is seen as unbalanced in comparison to the Deplatforming of extremists of the Right, it would be no more than a celebrity hashtag ‘activism’ in expanding broader markets of the so called social inclusions. Very opportunistic and capitalistic in its venture, not implementing “Culture Marxism” that some of the apparent 'intellectuals' of the Right Wing have proposed.   The aggressor backlash against so called liberalisms by these Cults of the Culture Wars have created mountains out of molehills, motivated by Paleolibertarianism inspired commentators and a former President who used his own cult of personality to polarizes a groundswell of the disenfranchised,  who in all retrospect, have been manipulated, from the plethora of lesson known players all prescribing to the belief that their society is being overrun by socialists.  An echo-chamber of conspiracy theories, that, despite the social media De-platforming that has occurred, one should not dismiss this collective of Right Wing cultist ideology as a just a passing phase in its sociological division, as it would be unwise in doing so.  In comparison to elements of the more, so called, extreme Left Wing are akin to being post graduate college students,  which in this current time frame and measure, are likely to disperse overtime, it is the Right Wing cults that are more organized and vastly, with the incident on the 6th of January of 2020 is to go by, much more dangerous.

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Authored: A.Glass (2021)

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The final of the 5 Part "Cult of the Culture Wars", now the world awaits Trump Redux in 2025.