HE lies.
HE has lied to his business associates, his followers, and his wives.
HE has lied about Americans and about The Press.
HE has lied about America’s Democracy and Freedom by making up enemies out of whole cloth and by demanding from defense and security officials (and possibly military officers — remember Colonel Vindman — as well) loyalty not to the Constitution of our nation, but to himself.
Yeah, well, a couple of days ago, HE had his minions hot on dead voters with mail-in ballots.
Since yesterday: rigged voting machines!
Whatever.
The main thing for Trump is that HE bend reality (for HIS fervently hopeful faithful) to make it look like HE — and THEY — were cheated and HIS seizing office through THEIR violence (with help from HIS government’s forces) would be just.
Enough with “HE”, “HIS”, “THEY”, and “THEIRS” — you get the diabolical picture.
While Trump may develop his own private media empire, he would have other options as a Putinesque dictator. He could, for example, simply have an assign mention to a publisher — or a publisher’s confidante — a preference for the hiring of one editor or journalist over another. Word gets through (from The Boss), and that’s that.
In the fashion of television drama, Trump’s kind of slick underhanded power (remember–and give it your best smoked gravel voice: “it’s only business”) might help an ambitious journo miss a career (and potentially history-altering) meeting (“you know what I mean?”).
Peter Pomerantzev’s book tells of a world in which Power designs and orders “reality” — or its perception — sufficiently to keep Putin & Co. in loot while the public has its thoughts, which then matter not so much.
If you’re in with power, life’s good!
Or at least it will look good.
If you’re out of the “systema” — as Russia’s hoodlums refer to it — not so great . . . and the reality on the outs ain’t about looks.
Related on BackChannels
“A Note on the Far Right’s Epoch Times” – 11/9/2020.
“Fake News! Genuine Fake News! The Real Fake News! Get Your Fake News Here!” – October 23, 2017.
“FBI, ANTIFA, and Swamp Gas” – 7/1/2020.
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