When an angry mob stormed the Washington Capitol on January 6, 2021, the reaction was widespread. The carnivalesque costumes of some of the attackers caused hilarity, but their aim was no joke: they wanted to prevent election-winner Joe Biden from being named president; a heart attack by the world’s most powerful state, which opened the ban on aftershocks like Sunday’s in the Brazilian Congress, which was ambushed by thousands of radical Bolsonarists.
The investigation to clarify the events of that day and the responsibility of its main perpetrator and beneficiary, who watched the attack of his supporters live from the White House without lifting a finger to stop them, is still open. But what no commission or court will explain is what went through the minds of these angry citizens to convince them that breaking into the temple of democracy by force was the only way to save it.
Trump reiterated that he had won the election and denounced an alleged mass fraud without evidence, but his excuse of being a bad loser would have met with no echo if it hadn’t fallen on the fertile soil of a population intoxicated for years from an overdose would be from lies.
The last book by Ignacio Ramonet, The Conspiracy Era. Trump, the cult of lies and the attack on the Capitol, puts American society on the couch and analyzes how it has slid down the slope of paranoia to the brink of civil confrontation. The slogan “It’s the economy, stupid” from Clinton’s campaign against Bush Sr. in 1992 could now be changed to “it’s the frustration, stupid” to explain why millions of poor and impoverished citizens supported a Trump whose tax policies included potentates like benefited him and harmed the majority.
For this to be possible, what the former director of Le Monde Diplomatique and president of the Spanish edition called “the end of the American dream” had to take place: the economic debacle of the white working class, identified in the 20th century with the prototype of the enterprising and successful American. While the rubble of the Lehman Brothers collapse hit African Americans or Latinos harder, they didn’t feel like they had been robbed of what they always thought was theirs. For Ramonet (a citizen of the world, born in Redondela, Pontevedra, sociologist and semiotician, PhD in social sciences from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris), the epidemic of antidepressants and opioids sweeping the United States is the consequence of the ruthlessness of the pharmaceutical companies, but also a symptom of a deep social malaise. “Affirmative action” in favor of minorities has served as an alibi to feed the sense of identity of some white workers, who attribute their decline to their race rather than growing inequality, and who interpret Trump’s “Make America Great Again” as a promise to go back to the good old days .
Demonstrators in front of the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. Kent Nishimura (Los Angeles Time
Against this background, social networks have emerged as the preferred channels for the transmission of information. Far from multiplying social interactions, its algorithms create fragmented audiences, encouraging users to only receive messages that confirm their biases and creating closed circles with no contrast to the outside world. Where once society as a whole was subject to mass media bombardment, now each group receives feedback from its own sources, often toxic.
The doctrine of “alternative facts” asserts that all versions have equal value, whether they are true or not. It doesn’t matter that a message is false if it confirms a higher truth: the one felt in their guts by those who feel abused or victims of injustice; for example, stealing Trump’s elections. The speakers who should guide society amidst confusion and uncertainty (journalists, politicians, academics, scientists) are discredited. They are no longer viewed with reverential respect, but with suspicion and even resentment.
The conspiracy mentality claims that the media, political class, economic powerhouses and cultural figures form a corrupt caste responsible for all ills. His word is worth as much as that of a charlatan or a witch. The scientific method inspires less confidence than a spell. It goes back to the Middle Ages, the world before the Enlightenment.
Conspiracy theories claim that a cabal is secretly pulling the strings of the world. The members of this elite are powerful; But those who believe in this theory also feel special: they can see what others cannot see, their eyes are open in a blind world, like in the Matrix movie. In this ecosystem triumphed Pizzagate, the story of an alleged cult of satanic pedophiles led by Hillary Clinton, with its epicenter in a Washington pizza joint. After gaining millions of followers in the virtual world, one of his followers crossed the real world boundary and shot at the restaurant on December 4, 2016.
The pizza parlor attack and the Capitol attack have shown that hoaxes, however insane and outlandish, are not harmless. Trump was ousted from the White House and lost the speaker of the major social networks. But Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, invited him back. Although the offer has decreased for the time being, racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic discourses are circulating again on the great information highways and not only on side streets.
The Age of Conspiracy
Ignacio Ramonet
Intellectual Key, 2022
208 pages. 19 euros
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