his article will be a snapshot to remember the events affecting US politics despite the news cycle potentially glossing over the stories for the sake of ratings.
We are inundated by noise, and short memories
This might feel like a barbed piece against mainstream and independent media – and it is, because it needs to be said. Clickbait, sensationalism, and trending seem to be a lot more important than substance. The industry has evolved to be that way. Sadly, it is all about the mighty algorithm, and this algorithm is people’s attention span.
Important stories get buried all the time in the national discourse, while sometimes incidental-at-best attention grabbers get national attention and go viral. This is true for independent media as well as for mainstream media. To be fair, that’s not everybody with a platform – but definitely the majority. Even some with good intentions fall into this trap.
At Half Life Crisis I’ve been writing pieces and warnings about how authoritarian propaganda tactics are becoming more prominent. That is why I am adamant about preventing this misinformation from continuing. Though I have to admit it does feel like I am constantly screaming into a void. Especially when we see a lot of misleading voices having a huge platform.
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April 2024 in the USA
There is a lot that occurred in April 2024. The arguably most significant event is the ongoing hush-money criminal trial against former U.S. President Trump. This trial is less about his infidelity and more about the misuse of campaign funds and hiding information about his character. The substance on those would have been key attributes leading to the 2016 presidential election. Yes, accountability for these criminal proceedings took many years to reach the bench!
On a related Trump situation, the US Supreme Court conservative majority seems to agree with awarding former US President Trump unlimited power through immunity! Think about this for a moment, they actually are arguing giving the president the power of executing (as in murdering) political rivals, or anybody Trump would find inconvenient – as an official function. And that insane rationale comes behind a myriad of demonstrable criminal charges against Trump.
Also, there is a civil war inside the GOP as they disagree on policy and personalities. The so called MAGA Republicans have been losing traction over great swats of the country, but their loyal followers are still very vocal and have been advocating for violence should Trump be defeated again. They are clinging to the “big lie” that perpetuates Trump’s inaccurate assertion that he won the 2020 election. He did not, Trump pursued more than 60 court cases across the country and won zero, because there is simply no evidence for the 2020 election being rigged.
Also, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson was saved largely by the Democrats from being kicked out by his own Republican party, an effort led by MAGA Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Keep in mind that she was mostly against the economic support for Ukraine’s defense, which by the way it is a world-wide and National Security concern she at the very least does not seem understand, and many around the world pray she is not trying to directly sabotage. By the way the GOP has a one-person majority on the House of Representatives right now, let that sink in.
Also, the impeachment investigation against incumbent US President Biden has unsurprisingly yield zero evidence against him. The chairman of that committee Republican Representative James Comer has not been able to provide an iota of proof for a Biden-related crime, and despite that they continue to spend an undisclosed amount of taxpayers’ money and elected representatives and staff man-hours every single day for the last few years. Let that sink in too!
Finally, there the tensions at the geopolitical level, and the conflict is expanding exponentially – and has been already reaching American soil. Perhaps not kinetically, yet, but the propagandistic narratives and indicators are in full swing. From toxic masculinity to rampant misinformation, to misleading distractions and dehumanizing rhetoric against several groups of people, and everything in between. That is why I am writing so much about it. We are losing sight of what is important, and that is convenient to those who want to divide us.
Meanwhile many prominent platforms seem to be more interested in chasing ratings rather than capturing what is truly important. And that is understanding that our very futures are at risk as dark chapters in authoritarian history are repeating, while their core audience is asleep at the wheel. HLC