Distraction techniques

I’m sure everyone has seen the latest internet sensation ‘Ibiza final boss’ Jack Kay, with his legoesque head, bully beef haircut, thin beard and gold chain.

Something to laugh at right? Another distraction to take our minds off the horrors around us.

That’s exactly the media’s intention. They feed us nonsense to keep our eyes off what’s really going on in the world. They are trying to avert our gaze from the crimes of imperialism; like the genocide being carried out in Palestine and the insane arrests against people who support Palestine Action, a group whose actions are directed at interrupting the horror being committed against the people of Palestine, and who are rewarded with prison sentences whilst the genocide continues.

The media isn’t doing this by accident. They are not impartial, as much as they work hard to make us believe they are. They know people’s opinions can be swayed and they understand how to whip up emotions: anger, joy, ridicule … and they direct it wherever they please.

Take the migrant issue. We are bombarded with coverage of ‘illegal’ immigrants arriving on small boats. The government dumps many of them in deprived working class areas. The result of this is the frustration of people in those deprived areas turning to anger, which the media then directs at the immigrants rather than the real culprits, the ruling class who create the mess of poverty and division.

Let’s be clear — it’s imperialism that has ripped apart whole nations, forcing people to flee. And it’s the ruling class who exploits them when they arrive, driving down wages, jacking up rents, and using division to keep us all weak.

What can we do to turn the tide?

As socialists we cannot just align ourselves with this reactionary thinking, we must act. We must embed ourselves deep within the masses and educate them, strip away the propaganda and expose the lies. We must explain how we are being emotionally manipulated by the ruling class and their propaganda apparatus. We need to remind people that when the capitalist media points one way, it’s because they don’t want us looking in the other direction.

It’s not easy but it can be done. We need to be brave, speak up and organise. The more we speak effectively and plainly about who benefits from this corrupt, unjust system, the harder it will be to keep pulling the wool over our eyes.

By Paul McCord.