"But my own conclusion is that both of those things [post-pandemic inflation and sexism/racism] were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now.
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Grump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Grump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
As actor Walter Masterson posted: “I tried to educate people about tariffs, I tried to explain that undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes and are the foundation of this country. I explained Project 2025, I interviewed to show that they supported it. I can not compete against the propaganda machines of Twitter, Fox News, [Joe Rogan Experience], and NY Post. These spaces will continue to create reality unless we create a more effective way of reaching people.”
Letters from an American Historian
And I'd even have to add the example of the liberal prestige press, NY Times/WaPo and NPR, regularly reporting consumer frustrations with inflation, higher prices, horse race style, with very little if any basic context. For instance, that the whole world experienced inflation generated by supply-chain disruptions after the pandemic. Or that no other developed nation brought down the inflation as fast or as well as Biden and the US economy. Or successfully avoided a recession that most expected as inevitable after the Fed's spike in interest rates. Or even reports that much, nearly half, of the inflation was actually caused by corporate price gouging. They cultivated the opinion, instead, that Biden was to blame for the inflation and rising housing costs, and as if Trump's economics could bring back the prices of 2017. This is disinformation too.
Indeed, by contrast and as a matter of fact, nearly every credible economist tells us Grump's own plans for 20% tariffs on foreign imports and the forced deportation of immigrant labor in the tens of millions would be crazy inflationary.
At this point, the mainstream and right-wing media are propaganda arms for "free market" corporate rule. Their disinformation might make Billionaires freer but it makes workers less free, little more than wage slaves. And, sadly, these oligarchic market arrangements are usually impervious to reform until they mess up so bad they crash the economy like in 2008.
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