Part One can be read here:
The Political Establishment (cont.)
So unlike the USA, where there is only really a choice between the Republicans (right-wing) or Democrats (left-wing), us voters in the UK do sometimes actually have some kind of choice when it comes to voting at elections.
It is not uncommon when looking at a ballot paper to have a plethora of candidates to choose from, which should of course be seen as a “good thing”. But The Establishment would very much like to maintain the “status quo”, and thus it has ways of ensuring that most of the populace only ever put their cross in the box of the ‘main’ Establishment parties’ candidates.
Many people would look at a list of up to twelve candidates, yet they have a perception that there are only really two they can choose from – either Labour or Conservative – so they will vote ‘tactically’ rather than choosing the candidate from the party they most align with.
One party (Labour or Conservative) will govern for a period of time, then voters will get ‘fed up’ and vote for the ‘other one’, because they somehow believe that things will ‘change’ and all will get better. After a number of years, voters get fed up again and vote for the other party, yet nothing really changes, the rosettes have different colours, the cabinet ministers may change, but nothing ever seems to improve.
It’s a bit like switching your broadband – you may be unimpressed with your Sky internet dropping out all the time, so you switch to PlusNet, only to find the same thing keeps happening. After a period of time, Sky tempts you back with a ‘bargain offer’ that you accept, but you still have shit internet.
Whether you have Sky or PlusNet broadband, the network connection is still the same (both are provided through the BT network). But you have a ‘choice’ right?
Same applies to politics sadly, you think you are voting in a ‘different’ party, but the Establishment is still there underlying everything, but giving you the ‘perception’ that you have a choice, and that your choice will make a difference. It’s a ‘fake democracy‘.
So how does the Political Establishment maintain it’s strangehold over the general electorate?
The Media Establishment
Other writers including myself will refer to the “mainstream media” or “MSM” when it comes to the ‘Media Establishment’ and it is not hard to see why.
Not just in the UK, but across the world, despite the seeming plethora of media news outlets, what many people don’t realise is that most of these are owned and controlled by just a few people.
If the Political Establishment exists to maintain the ‘established order’, it uses the Media Establishment in order to cement the ‘current narrative’ in the minds of the populace. With just a few people controlling the news outlets around the world, it is probably no surprise when ALL the news outlets repeat the same narrative in lockstep, the below video is from the USA but you’ll see the same pattern repeated all around the world:
Is there such a thing as ‘independent media’ any more?
Well yes, but such outlets get immediately dismissed as spreading ‘fake news’ or ‘disinformation’, especially if their journalism does not ‘conform’ to the mainstream repeated narrative that other ‘trusted sources’ are parroting.
There are some supposedly ‘independent’ news outlets that are unfortunately actually are guilty of spreading fake news and misinformation, but again this is all part of the main aim of ‘controlling the narrative’ – lets face it, if the ‘mainsteam media’ is ‘guilty’ of spreading misinfo/disinfo on a grand scale, it stands to reason that they would also like to spread more ‘disinfo/misinfo’ amongst the ‘alternative media’, in order to make those trying to counter the narrative look ‘ridiculous’.
The ‘current news’ is merely pushing the ‘current thing’, and there is a narrative that everyone should be adhering to. There is very little ‘original’ investigative journalism nowadays, the ‘mainstream news’ is nothing more than ‘parroting’ from news agencies such as Reuters, AP or AFP, or just repeating ‘press releases’. That’s why every single news TV channel or website just carries exactly the same stories, worded in pretty much the same way.
The mainstream media exists in order to ensure the majority of the populace is conforming with or going along with the “current thing”, thus maintaining the power that the Establishment holds over everybody.
Anyone who disagrees with or has any valid counter-point to the “current thing” gets dismissed as an ‘extremist’, and anyone who dares to challenge the poltitical status quo by starting a new party looking to represent the interests of the majority of people, rather than the interests of the wealthy Elite, gets denounced as being “far-right”, simply for refusing to follow the “agenda” or the “narrative”.
Representatives from smaller parties that sit outside the Political Establishment rarely get invited to appear on BBC political shows now, and when they do, the aim is usually to attack or belittle them.
And of course, when it comes to election time, the media focus is mainly on Labour or Conservatives, with some lip-service paid to the likes of the LibDems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru etc. Despite the choice of candidates that may be presented to you on your ballot paper, the Media Establishment will condition you into thinking you only really have a choice between Conservatives or Labour.
The Media Establishment helping to maintain the Political Establishment.
Social Media
The Media Establishment is also used to ‘social engineer’ people, psychologically manipulate them into accepting current narratives and ensure ‘behavioural change’ in order to progress the current agenda.
Here are a couple of forum posts that make interesting reading on this subject:
- COVID Coercion: Boris Johnson’s Psychological Attack on the UK Public
- MINDSPACE – Influencing behaviour through public policy
Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc) has become a very useful tool for the Establishment, as it involves sharing of content and ideas with close friends and other ‘followers’.
The Grumpy Owl doesn’t ‘do’ social media – I’m not on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or even YouTube – I do have a personal Facebook account, but I don’t do much with that now, apart from just having a general browse at what people I know, or pages I follow, are up to.
During the Covid pandemic, I saw the worst of what social media was all about really – people sharing propaganda, and arguing with others who had different opinions.
Going back to what I said earlier about “divide and conquer”, its all about getting people to argue with each other, and to divide people into ‘squaring off’ with each other as to who is wrong or right.
I do get tired of reading in the news media about ‘Twitter storms’, where someone will post some controversial opinion, and others will ‘pile on’ to attack them, and then that itself ends up becoming a ‘news story’ somehow.
Social media is full of bots and trolls, and other ‘agent provocateurs’ all stirring up shit. I do occasionally browse through Twitter and it just appears to me like a negative shitfest. That’s why I don’t get involved and try to stay well clear.
An old saying is that you don’t need a shepherd if the sheep are shepherding themselves. That is exactly what social media is now for. “Peer pressure”, virtue-signalling, getting others to ‘conform’ with the narrative, and accept whatever is the ‘current thing’.
If you have a different opinion, or are unwilling to ‘conform’, then whatever you post will be ‘fact-checked’, or your post will be removed for ‘breaking community guidelines’, or you may find yourself ‘unfriended’ or ‘unfollowed’ or worst, you end up ‘deplatformed’ when your account gets suspended or deleted.
The Establishment exists to preserve and conserve itself, and it doesn’t take kindly to ‘loose cannons’ giving people new ideas and ways to break its stranglehold over us all.
