Trump Fans Racism to Distract from Real Agenda: Money

Jul 08, 2018

Today we talk about the business of noise. Top down noise and bottom up noise.

Trump understands the business of noise. Occupy people with noise, then do as you like on the side.

The press, aka the 4th branch of democracy, is also in the business of noise. You don’t sell ads publishing articles on unpopular topics. You sell ads publishing articles that ride the wave of trending noises. This will get you the most clicks. (We see this first hand here at The Tilted Glass.)

Trump uses the presidential bully pulpit to create divisions. He fans the flames of intolerance and watches as the resulting noise dominates the trending topics. We see racial wars. Immigrant children pulled from families. School shootings. Anti-women backlash. Gays rights backlash. Religious intolerance. Police shootings. And so on… so much noise screaming loudly for its day to finally be heard in this territory of divisions.

Don't get us wrong : This noise is important . It needs to be heard. At the same time, this noise is exactly the kind of noise those in power want you to spend your time on.

What’s seen as “important political news” rarely is ever about the root of so much evil: aka, money. Important political news is decided by what the president happens to Tweet about when he wakes up in the morning. That’s sad. It means we are easily manipulated.

But this is show business. Politicians set the stage of noise by diving people along wedge issues, then they watch the show unfold. The press is forced to cover the problems of noise, which fans it even louder, or else the press won’t make its budget.

Once people are distracted by all that noise, Trump can then financially reward himself and his friends behind the scenes. People are too distracted by other noises to magnetize around the root issues of money.

The powers-that-be prefer you spend your time arguing for trans bathroom rights, football players taking a knee, or if Mexicans are rapists or not.

The powers-that-be are terrified that one day we might collectively focus ourselves on fixing what is most important to them: money. They want us to ignore classism. Excess financial privilege. The shrinking middle class. And then all the environmental and human rights issues resulting from unchecked capitalism. They are terrified the public might magnetize in its call for a balanced mix of social needs and capitalist needs, done via progressive taxes on the rich and maximum wages.

The Occupy Wall Street movement found success because it correctly understood noise. It understood that the press needs noise to make money. Occupy Wall Street made its noise from the bottom up. The press was forced to cover Occupy Wall Street because Occupy Wall Street sold ads.

Similarly, this is why the NRA has been terrified of the Parkland students’ National School Walkout Movement to call for gun reform. School walkouts is another example of bottom up noise. The press was forced to cover school walkouts because school walkouts sold ads.

It is time to stop fanning noise coming from top down, aka noise designed to divide and agitate us along lines of intolerance.

It is time to start making noise from the bottom up, to call out the powers that be, enact financial reform, and then watch the resulting snowball effects toward environmental and human rights. Once you focus on power and money, how quickly the other issues can begin to resolve.

Progressive taxes on the wealthy. Tax breaks for the poor. Maximum wage. Debt forgiveness. Ending corporate welfare. And checks on power in general, such as voting reform, ranked voting, the elimination of the electoral college, the elimination of the senate, term limits for judges, police monitoring, and the likes.

Cap excessive power. Re-balance unrestrained capitalism.

So come let’s share that noise. Bottom up. Spread it far and wide. Time to fan new flames.