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Saturday 8 August 2020

The art of the plausible



The most remarkable development I’ve seen since growing up in the fifties has been the increased spending power of the general population and a corresponding increase in the range of information available to ordinary people, especially since the growth of the internet and mobile phones. Of course available is not the same as demanded.

Politics is the art of the plausible - the manipulation of public information in favour of plausible official narratives. The development of the internet upset all that and has kicked off some extreme attempts to control public information by a much more energetic promotion of politically sponsored narratives.

Plausible is the key and the key to plausible is to construct narratives which dominate the public domain, are linked to personal welfare, simple to grasp and authoritative.

Achieve that and the narratives become plausible enough to pass muster with a large number of people.

Achieve that and the narratives swamp alternative interpretations.

Achieve that and the narratives swamp criticism.

Achieve that and the narratives choke off the free flow of information.

Achieve that and job done.

5 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Judging by the stream of information coming my way, I'd say that someone out there is very keen on there being lots of mixed race couples getting really excited about sofas, broadband, or loans to obtain sports equipment and improve their homes. That's commerce. And someone else wants to show how there are all sorts of threats to these wonderful people, and how that's dreadful and needs to be countered. That's the BBC.

I often wonder why they want to tell me this stuff. There must be something important behind it....

The Jannie said...

Sam and I are on the same wavelength re advertising. Not only is it so obviously trying to indoctrinate us that mixed race is everywhere - it isn't: read the statistics. Advertisers are also insulting the intelligence of their viewers at every turn.

Doonhamer said...

Why is the only race mixing that we see black with fair white.
Never any of the other races, particularly black with any other race?
Don't they buy stuff?
Seems a bit racist to me.

wiggiatlarge said...

The mixed race thing is a strange one, they are advertising to a very small percentage of the population, so why, and of course that would never include anyone from the RoP as they frown upon anyone mixing outside of their own kind.

A K Haart said...

All - Mrs H and I keep noticing the mixed race ads which seem to add a sense of political unreality to the ad. So much so that this is what we notice rather than the sofa prices or the washing product. Maybe we do at least notice the ads and this is the real aim.