With all this "noise" about fake news, there must be a "signal" we can call the truth in it somewhere. I think I found it. The truth is similar to pragmatism's claim that the truth is what works. And what works is being forced upon us by those for whom is works.
In simple terms, the confusion is the message. Keep the great unwashed masses confused and you can get away with just about anything. For instance, claiming a tax cut for the rich will be revenue neutral and then claiming the national debt has risen because of Social Security benefits and not because of the latest tax cut for major corporations who already don't pay their fair share of taxes.
When money doesn't come back into society (like from taxes) and it's kept out of circulation, society gets to a point where it simply can't function. Here's some news that has been proven fake for forty years: Keep taxes low on the uber wealthy and benefits will trickle down to the rest of us.
This is not politics. This is history. Don't believe me. Do the research.
Yoni Varoufakis, an academic economist and past member of the Greek parliament, explained our economic woes in a TED talk I watched recently. He called it the twin peaks of Debt and Cash. We can't pay off the debt because the mega-wealthy are taking the cash out of the system, refusing to pay taxes, and refusing to invest it on the programs that will employ people, which would increase the tax base and consequently pay off the debt.
Then I watched another talk by mega-wealthy Nick Hanauer, who says this situation is the result of neoliberal economic policies in practice for the last 40 years. What are neoliberal economic policies, you ask? Think of "trickle-down" economics and you'll have the gist of it. (This may be confusing to some. Neo-liberal economic policy has nothing to do with liberal or progressive politics)
According to Hanauer, a billionaire himself, two specific policies stick out: The reduction in the balance of power between labor and capital has left the workers' futures at the whim and fancy of the employer. Check out the quality of life in the right to work states. And the seeming eternal myth that increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs, which has been proven wrong over and over again.
Tie this all up with the fact that corporations are really running our government and the foggy fake news laid down by spin doctors begins to clear up. To the government, to the corporations, to the mega-wealthy, we're all expendable cogs in the wheels of their progress.
When you decide who to vote for next time listen for how your candidate deals with these topics. And keep in mind the old adage, "we get the kind of government we deserve." If you've paid even a minute amount of attention to the national narrative, you would know that the Republican Party is the party of the wealthy. What you may not know is when you vote for them, that doesn't make you wealthy too.
Robert DeFilippis
