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Donald Trump & Manufacturing Chaos
While the 2016 election may be seen by some as an error or fault of an outdated electoral system, Trump’s reelection revealed something far more insidious…
No, this may actually be what people want.
For many astounded liberals, Trump’s rise and continued success in the highest of offices is a shock to the system. How could someone like him, a total outsider to the political game, penetrate the status quo?
Noam Chomsky’s seminal work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, co-authored with Edward S. Herman demonstrates the various mechanisms that the news uses to manufacture consent in the general population. And their arguments are extremely relevant nowadays — especially when the news appears to have a ready-made opinion on events that haven’t even begun yet.
But how could we make sense of Trump — a man who has evoked such a collective rejection by mainstream media and somehow came out on top? Is Trump an exception to Chomksy’s manufacturing consent? Or have the rules of the game changed?
But first, what is manufacturing consent? Simply put, it is the process by which mass media institutions act as propaganda that compel viewers to anticipate and accept certain political decisions. This is through several filters…
