We are getting a media system that promotes consumption and political passivity, while at the same time new legislation such as the Network Enforcement Act and the Digital Services Act is creating a kind of censorship by private internet corporations.
Prof. Dr. Michael Meyen expressed this opinion at the Congress of Clear Words in Munich at the end of last year.
In his keynote speech, Meyen emphasizes how this "inverted totalitarianism" undermines the traditional role of journalism as a neutral and autonomous fourth estate. The intertwining of the state and corporations promotes a media landscape that is less focused on monitoring power structures and instead reinforces consumerism and political apathy.
Meyen sheds light on the critical role of leading media, the power of definition and the media landscape changed by digitalization and media concentration
You can see the recording of his lecture here. A contribution to understanding the cognitive dissonance that more and more readers tell us about when consuming media. For them, reports often contradict the reality they experience.
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6 Responses
I very much appreciate Michael Meyen's analyses. However, I find Wolin's term "reverse totalitarianism" unfortunate, unnecessarily complicated and contradictory, to say the least. Either something is totalitarian or it is not. In this respect, it is more akin to the famous modern doublethink and obfuscation. The inverse or opposite of totalitarianism is in itself a liberal pluralism. However, it is probably more about a new sublime totalitarianism that is not recognizable as such and the protagonists are not even aware of it. I tried to analyze this in my article on a 'new' authoritarianism that comes from the left and presents itself as enlightened, pursuing the 'true and good':
https://einfachkompliziert.de/krisenpolitik-und-autoritarismus-des-guten-und-wahren/
... could also be due to the virus on the hard disk.
Of course we have lost our minds. That's easy for a society without tradition and history. When there are no more patterns and no true values for people to follow, neither gods nor authorities, then chaos breaks out and everyone is out for themselves. The idiot and the genius are then on the same level, there are no more differences, only people. And no one is illegal... What we have seen for two centuries is the long rise of the precarious, underprivileged and non-achievers to the top of state and society. They have now arrived in the chaos of their own making, "the terrible children of modern times" (Sloterdijk). Promoted there by the well-meaning, aka socialists, who want the good and achieve the bad because they simply don't realize that people are different and that no amount of money can turn an idiot into a genius. In the words of Sloterdijk: 'The release of the masses into supposed freedom has triggered an entitlement inflation that no system in the world can redeem. Western states are responding by printing worthless paper, lowering standards and establishing an authoritarian state to protect the system from reality. The end is well known: Rome in the time of the Caesars, ..., USSR, GDR...
This time, too, you will lose the war against Russia!
The "intertwining of state and corporations", the waving of the fence post "reversal of the burden of proof in civil service law" after the operetta coup of 2022 or the overture of 2020 ("Storming of the Reichstag") and more recently "Wannsee Conference 2.0" to finally break the supposedly independent judges - or the last contingent of a few decent people - so-called "chancellor rounds" with de facto circumvention of the legislature (which, after all, is just a bunch of misery), official (police and unofficial (so-called antifa) cudgel troops on the streets. Chancellor rounds with de facto bypassing of the legislature (which is also just a pile of misery), official (police) and unofficial (so-called Antifa) cudgel troops on the streets and bought media/censorship (Network Enforcement Act), denunciation (Whistleblower Protection Act): The list is not yet complete. - Shall we stop kidding ourselves and call it what it is? Fascism?! (But that can't be - we are "fighting against the right" ...)
Policies are being made in my name and with my taxes that I don't want.
Helpless like the other sheep, I have to watch everything that had value and importance in my life fade away.
Democracy, freedom of opinion and tolerance were the unshakeable basis for me and my pride when I looked at Germany.
My thoughts get stuck when I see our politics. Never again war is still ringing in my ears today, what happened, was I asleep?
Did I get lost in consumption?
Taking to the streets against the right instead of against war, have we lost our minds?