The Brainwashing of My Dad: How the Media Was Used for a Right-Wing Revolution

 A summary (it was originally in Finnish, so a few odd bits of grammar and vocabulary may remain).

Jen Senko's book was published 2021 and went unnoticed by many. After all, there were dozens of books in the wake of Trump's term that described the MAGA movement and Trump supporters. However, this book focuses more broadly on how the 2016 election came about, and how Fox News played a central role in it. They started their propaganda against the left some twenty years ago with a cable TV program that looked like a news channel. The movement was also helped by Rush Limbaugh and talk radio hosts like him. Rush could talk for hours on end without any guests.

The book describes the author's dad Frank in the midst of all this. His whole character became angry and racist for a long time. However, reading the book is rewarding, as Frank finally realizes his mistake at the age of about 90. The film of the same name, produced by Jen Senko, is available to watch on Amazon or YouTube. Frank's change began just when Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his program to the entire national network. Frank did not discuss politics much with the family when he was younger and had always voted Democratic before that.

Now he had changed his mind almost immediately after retiring. There was time to listen. The whole talk radio industry was taking off from the mostly uncontrolled radio broadcasting that Reagan had allowed by the FCC. The technology was ready to broadcast AM broadcasts across the country, and Limbaugh had many competitors. Everyone was chasing the same audience, white males who had time to listen, and daily life might not have been so interesting. Limbaugh pointed out who was to blame for their situation: liberals, feminists, and foreigners. Rush also began to hate science, so there was no evidence that nicotine was a drug, or that smoking was a risk. He preached this and more to his followers.

The Democrats did not have a similar radio show to incite hatred against the right. The Tea Party was in full swing in politics, and libertarians even went as far as Congress to declare that the federal government had too much power. The book describes the target audience of Fox News. Cable television or satellite dishes reached all rural areas, and it became the only source of information for millions. Frank in the book got more content to follow in his life from Fox News. His wife had to flee to another part of their house while he spent hours blasting the programs.

The book emphasizes Fox's role during the pandemic. The misinformation it spread about vaccines and disease treatment reached Fox viewers, who tended to believe everything they heard. The Fairness Doctrine of radio and television was intended to give all parties a voice to broadcast, but here it was clearly detrimental to society. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch had gained quite a bit of power at that point. The Telecommunications Act, passed by Congress in 1996, allowed the same company to own newspapers, television, Hollywood film production, Internet news, everything possible under one roof. They could each have a CEO, but Murdoch controlled them all. When the target audience is the same, the company is in a monopoly position.

Much of the country has other channels available. But when news channels started reporting what Trump said on Fox, for example, they unknowingly boosted Fox's ratings and revenue.

 Senko's book focused on this single Fox News viewer. The role of the media in manipulating well planned political concepts was made clear in the book. But what makes people believe in conspiracies in general? Jan-Willem Van Proojien has written a book on the subject called “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories”.

The short book goes through familiar examples from the right and other more violent single-issue groups. The general idea is of our own group and its opponent, a powerful and secret conspiracy that controls our lives. Humanity has always had a tendency to do this. We look for some kind of factor, an “agent,” if we cannot otherwise explain some events. Fear is also always present when conspiracies are invented. Something in life makes a person afraid of an external entity that they can do nothing about. People who preach the threat of conspiracies spread fear. If the conspiracy is not stopped, the victim/believer is depicted as committing some type of violence themselves.

The left may have its own conspiracy theories. It happens in South American countries, for example, where there is a dictatorship, and everything negative that happens in a country must somehow be blamed on the dictatorship.

Looking Ahead to Somewhat Hopeful 2026 and Later Elections

The situation

Trump is heading into Season 2 as President, but just a president in a reality show. Not a fully functioning one. He only thinks about how he looks. Polling may have some influence, but can also be dismissed as "fake." This is my take, based on four years of Trump. He could be much more dangerous, but his main concern is loyalty at the top, so my hope is that he will be less functional at ruining our lives. But there are some concerns, listed below.

We had an election and 49% of voters heard something they agreed with from Trump. But other than the general "we will raise tariffs" or "we will remove all the illegals," there were no specific solutions offered. He just presented them somehow with a determined voice. So here we go again. We did this once already. Why was it confusing to MAGA folks that Trump handled most things badly, including the pandemic? We don't know. They will have expectations, and their feelings will turn to apathy about politics sometime. It is quite unusual Trump lasted more than eight years.

Donald Trump appeared on the national scene mostly in 2015. Somehow many things happened and Trump went with his hunches and after quite a mess of nine years (his mess) got elected and here we are. It is not because anyone likes Trump, it is because he was somehow effective with a completely fake strawman argument. If the faithful supporters do have any feelings toward him, it is more the kind when you support the alpha male and somehow think he is on your side. A very small group are extreme followers of simply power. The Mar a Lago crowd and the guys who then somehow burn in a Tesla outside a Trump hotel. Don't ask me. I do not understand them.

A few voters idenfify as patriots. It remains to be seen what kind of patriot Trump is this time. The rest idenify him as the authoritarian and are used to that type of leader. Harris was a difficult figure for many a voter who were used to a white male, even if they were themselves from another group.

The Onion summarized the the two types:

Looking ahead

It will be difficult. And Trump will do a lot of damage in two years. Or even the last weeks before he is sworn in. The Supreme Court may help push extreme small government and social program changes for two years. But we must look ahead, too.

First the January mess. Trump getting his big party thanks to Billionaire money. And we are now moving toward the days when the chaos cabinet for Trump is assembled. A lot of it is putting in department heads to strip down their own department. But Trump is also showing his might over the senate. The senators still worry about re-election in 2026 and 2028. I assume they think they can run Vance in 2028. 

But Vance is nothing, all bluster. Oh, he would run if there is enough support for him in the primaries. But if the MAGA folks are still intrested in politics in 2028, those are all he will get in 2028. It really does not matter if it is he or a more established Republican. They do not have anyone that can speak to MAGA (not the Trump way) and also get the independent voters by scaring them about "losing America."

The economic issues will not be solved. Trump promised nothing directly and the tariffs will not bring income of jobs to MAGA voters. With that, two years may not be enough. In four years MAGA voters will have apathy. Some foreigners were deported. A lot of things were deregulated. "What did Trump do for me?" Nothing.

It disturbs most of us that the 49% of voters would want to give Trump free hand at whatever he does. They may have been frustrated at congress achieving very little. But to most of us that is still preferred to having a dictator. The presidency does not need to be empowered more. And especially by a man controlled by whims and vanity.

I am still sticking to my prediction that we will have a different president every four years. That would also include the prediction that all old candidates are scrapped. Democrats in the primaries will not run Harris or Wlaz. It will be a governor.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I don't have a solution to this. The people Trump captured are not easy to reach via social media, podcasts etc. The strawmen arguments and conspiracy theories were entertaining. "They are eating our pets." Or, maybe just attention grabbing. We have none of that. Just light hearted poking fun at how stupid MAGA voters were.

The four years to 2028 election

The goal is to prevent him as much as possible. Prove that democracy works even here, and that by 2026 we will have this under control. Isn’t this a bit of an expensive experiment? First going to the Trump extreme, then bringing those essential things back. Trump can do a lot in two years. The failures in our constitution are obvious. If the president has the House and Senate and the supreme court, there are only the states and lower federal courts to hold him back.

Because Trump pulled out so many politicians from the house, he won't be very effective the first half year. He will attempt to deport as many aliens with the funds he has. Executive orders for many things. The other problem is what is happening with the budget just before Christmas and the first half year. We just have to see. 

We can sort of make some guesses about Trump. He acts impulsively and will not back out of things he decides: Nippon Steel is not buying US Steel.

What is not guessing is that his cabinet is there merely to destroy the administrative state. Mike Johnson is openly talking about SMASHING it.

Trump starts right off with tariffs. A very astute analysis by this poster. Trump is campaigning. What he does best.


                 

And this is partly the reason for his popularity. He campaigns and takes credit continuously. He makes himself the news.

Biden did none of that, a few speeches here and there. But he was so in the back ground, so presidential, that in this social media world it looks like he did nothing.

And we are still wondering about the 2024 election. What has become bolder is simple racism. Telling immigrants outright to go back where you came from. Immigration is not a trivial change for the immigrant. Some that have made it here and got some kind of job actually feel very much American, and would make good reliable workers. Those are the people that built America. If they have learned English, very few are willing to go back. They are even able to tolerate some hate toward their nationality, as so many of them have nowhere to go back to. There is not a way to make a living there, and they own no property back home.

The New World Order

While we sit and wait for Trump world, there is a claim about our future that looks unstoppable. Capital has reached a point where the average person has no way to stop the way it shapes the world.

The Trump phenomenon with its cultural issues makes it look like some people are getting what they wanted: getting back to "traditional values." But that may just be a trivial effect from Trump, the supeficial part. It of course matters to liberals and multiculture and any individual that does not fit into Mike Johnson's world. But the bigger shift is to a world pretty much run by coporations and wealth. We all have worked for wages, but this is control of us in a much bigger way. The plan is to make us completely dependent on giant corporations that employ us.

The corporations and billionaires have supported candidates with very conservative social issues mainly because that is who they can get in. The corporations do not care about trans gender or healthcare. They only want control of taxes and minimum wage and also some trade. Trump is not the perfect candidate for them. Corporations are globalists.

Democratic principles can be thrown out according to Yuval Harari. Our skills are going to be worthless due to AI taking over even a lot of service jobs. Our vote therefore does not count much, and the world where our worth is little is coming.

The irony is that Trump was allowed to present it all as a grand scheme to take us back to the 1950s world. Those male and female roles and values. The manufacture of consumer stuff is in fact never coming back and Trump will never raise the wages of the white working class. Their only power is to support the social issues that he brought to the front of everything. They may even feel good about "owning the liberals."

Having been rather powerless for decades, MAGA folk may not notice much change in the next few years. The rest of us are all yielding our poltical power to wealth. Corporations and billionaires. We have about as much power at that point as people did under communism. The power we had by electing liberal polticians that would allow at least our multicultural nation to exist. And some minimal welfare and regulated health insurance.

The educated classes will be struggling as well, as many of our jobs can be automated but may need some supervision. And the AI collected data and summary may need to be approved by a human before an AI decision takes effect. But we have often changed jobs and skills, so our chances are slightly better.

The PR problem: "government did not do anything for me."

The election we had focused on issues Trump brought up and had the supporters thinking about for the entire year. A good portion did not vote based on any practical issues, such as the economy, but on so called cultral issues. The fact that those issues weighed more is largely due to the fact that the same voters believed that "government does not do anything for me." I will address the issue of Democrats at the end.

The MAGA voters did not think Harris was going to help them. Either the government does not help them but helps other groups (illegals, those on food stamps). Or the things it does are way too far into the future and will not help them one bit (green energy).

Government has not done anything for them, they claim. What was it supposed to do? Most of them don't pay much federal income tax. Their biggest tax is probably property tax, which is local. We just get the feeling they think the government is only doing things for someone else.

The problem came up with actor Craig T Nelson. We know him as Coach.

His famous quote on Fox:

“They’re not going to bail me out,” Nelson said. “I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No. No.”

It was an epic rant, in large part because the actor didn’t seem to recognize the flaw in his observation. Taxpayers helped him out by paying for his food stamps and welfare, but in Nelson’s mind, no one helped him out. As far as he’s concerned, food stamps and welfare just don’t count.

(more text by Steve Benen, google it)

But the working poor know there are some forms of welfare. But it just makes you feel worse, a loser, to take it. 

A good number of people that used to work for a company end up as some kind of independent worker. Lawn care, a plumber retired from industry, electricians. They all get healthcare through ACA if they are undr 65.

Government just is not a business. They do not have the funds to advertise what they did. Only senators and congressmen in their campaign ads on TV. Where the Republicans claim supporting things they voted against.

The government is there to support you in many aspects of life. Things to do with your every day life. Buying a home. Home loans are still guaranteed by the government, and rates are lower. Veterans get benefits.

Elizabeth Warren has passed bills that helped get financial support and protect you in every possible investment situation. 

The government will also help out in retraining for a new skill. Locally there may be support for every high school student going on to at least two years of college.

All of this is actually going to go away if Musk and Ramaswamy do what they plan to do. Strip down every cabinet to a point where they no longer work. Trump is not going to send fire fighters to California fires anymore, because there won't be any fire fighters. They come from 

-U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and U.S. 

-Department of the Interior and others.

Trump will personally need to save the USDA if they go after it. The Farm Bill and that department are essential for rural America. There are issues like crop insurance which will never make it to a national platform. Because they are not as important as transgender bathrooms.

There are countless things in life that the government is involved in that seem a nuisance, but are there to protect you. They are there at all times even if you do not know. Think of goverment as the oxygen mask that comes down when you need it. You can then make a safe landing in a short while.

Democrats

The complaint about Democrats not doing anything for the working class may be true, but on the other hand voters have given them very slim majorities. Social Security reform (actually simple: tax higher income) cannot be done. Compare that to a Republican win. Social issues and scare tactics got Trump elected. The result is giving more power to corporations and the rich. This happens over and over, every GOP president and under Clinton. It is just inching year after year to extreme capitalism. Denial of their own healthcare by profit making insurance companies is one more thing that the MAGA voters voted for.

The other thing that rules politics is money. Many Democrats are forced to be rather centrist. Not their personal view, but they may be in a district that would go to the GOP if they did not have big money to spend in campaigns. To get the votes and the money (big corporations, lobbies) they are closer to the center. They can hold leftist views on social programs but taxing the rich is another matter.