|
Bolsonaro: a Monster Engineered by Our Media
Cook, Jonathan
http://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/02/bolsonaro-a-monster-engineered-by-our-media/Date Written: 2018-11-02 Publisher: CounterPunch Year Published: 2018 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23072 Jonathan Cook explains why the plutocrats and the mainstream media spokespeople much prefer a far-right populist like Jair Bolsonaro, or Donald Trump, to a populist leader of the genuine left. Abstract: -- Excerpt: The guardians of the status quo refused to learn the lesson of Trump's election, and so it will be with Bolsonaro. Rather than engaging the intellectual faculties they claim as their exclusive preserve, western "analysts" and "experts" are again averting their gaze from anything that might help them understand what has driven our supposed democracies into the dark places inhabited by the new demagogues. Instead, as ever, the blame is being laid squarely at the door of social media. Social media and fake news are apparently the reasons Bolsonaro won at the ballot box. Without the gatekeepers in place to limit access to the "free press" - itself the plaything of billionaires and global corporations, with brands and a bottom line to protect - the rabble has supposedly been freed to give expression to their innate bigotry. |