Plenty
of wisdom from John Hilley about why, as western political systems head
into a terminal crisis of legitimacy, our political and media elites
are so determined to focus attention on "interference" from Russia's
Vladimir Putin.
Hilley:
Every other standard-bearing
Guardian liberal now seems enthused to join in the anti-Russia frenzy.
From 'robbing Hillary' of the White House, to 'bot-shaping' the Great
British Public over Brexit, it all links back to that most damnable
Putin-Kremlin 'interference in our affairs'.
Conveniently, this
dispenses with any serious need to examine the crisis of neoliberalism
that has given rise to Trump and Brexit. Likewise, there's no need to
detain ourselves with the crucial part our liberal class has played in
entrenching that neoliberal 'reality', leading to the populist reactions
and eruptions we're now seeing. Instead, we're all enjoined to rage
against Trump, bewail the 'Brexit apocalypse' and point an all-indicting
finger at those scheming Russians. ...
We can, indeed, but laugh
at the indignant liberal charge that Russia is 'meddling with our
democracy'. Yet, the darker implications of such repeated tropes are now
becoming apparent. The liberal baying against Russia has raised the
stakes for a more punishing turn to online control and censorship.
Twitter has banned RT and Sputnik adverts. Facebook is under increasing
pressure to 'police' 'fake' Russian content. An RT affiliate has been
forced to register as a "foreign agent" under US 'anti-propaganda' laws.
And, in true Orwellian-speak, Google has announced that it will now
"de-rank" RT and Sputnik. ...
The task of hegemony - as in how to
build legitimacy and maintain popular consent - requires an
ever-inventive mobilisation of class forces, political interests and
cultural ideas to help insulate, validate and sustain power. And it's
here that a liberal network, notably its media arm, plays such a vital
role: in normalising the political and economic order; in moderating
dissent and radical options; in managing neoliberalism and upholding
corporate rule as still the only game in town; in repeating the same
elite-based narratives and arguments over issues like Brexit; in
castigating Trump as a crazy outlier, rather than the symptom of a crazy
system; in keeping the truth of climate emergency and corporate
culpability safely detached; in cheering and mitigating Western
warmongering; and in amplifying the establishment's cast of
international villains.
