We've been waging the wrong war

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan. It's not the spaceships or the colorful aliens, I'm good with all that. It's the princess and the hidden messiah figure that are the universe's only potential saviors. I don't know anyone like that, and I don't think I'd like them if I did.

At least Dune had the decency to make its superpowerful messiah character into the villain. And if you didn't get that, go back and watch/read it again.

But there's a scene in the third Star Wars film—the one with the teddy bears, I don't care how George is numbering them this week—that keeps seeming more and more relevant. It's the one, near the end, when it becomes clear that the guy we've followed through all these films has only been wading around in the shallow end of the pool.

That moment ... it's way too close to how I've been feeling lately.

Because it's only been in the last few weeks, and especially the last few days, that it's become painfully clear we haven't understood the scale of the fight we're in. We're still straining to lift pebbles. The other side is slinging lightning bolts.

For years now, we've treated what's happening as if it's just politics—bad politics—but politics that wouldn't have been so incomprehensible to John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, or even Abraham Lincoln. People get motivated by fear of the other. Shiny objects distract the masses. And voters have an absolutely reliable ability to begin feeling resentful of the person who just pulled them out of a pit and resume looking fondly at the person who shoved them in.

Over that same period, we've also understood that bad politics were being made worse by an incompetent and fearful national media. In 2016, it wasn't just "but her emails." There were endless articles speculating on Hillary Clinton's health and false reports that she had filed for divorce. Wild claims that she had ordered the murder of a DNC aide were featured on national media for months.

And, because I will never let this go, there was the Associated Press series that accused Clinton of showing preference for those who had donated to the Clinton Foundation in her role as Secretary of State. AP manufactured this story by cherry-picking incidents and steadfastly refusing to release the raw data so that no one could check their conclusions. That story not only contributed to the prevailing media narrative that Clinton was somehow corrupt, but contributed to a drop in donations to the Clinton Foundation that ultimately cost lives on multiple continents. Good work, AP.

For anyone who follows politics closely, the fact that the media regularly ignored Trump's vilest statements and spent endless days dwelling on the smallest details of his Democratic opponents comes as no surprise. It was less obvious that this was an extension of a theme that had been playing out for some time, first on AM radio, then on the 24/7 "news" channels, and in the vestigial remains of news operations on broadcast networks. The majority of news has been simply replaced by screaming pundits who are more interested in creating anger than providing information.

As one of my geology professors used to say, "It's immediately obvious to those of meanest intelligence, or patently obvious to the most casual observer." And it really should have been. News is gone. Opinion is all that's left.

It's just as obvious that what the pundit media describes as right-wing populism is a manufactured movement ushered into existence by how that same media has, at best, failed to refute hate speech and conspiracy theories. At worst—and worst is the usual state—that media has actively nurtured both the hate and the conspiracies. Why not? It gets good ratings and the owners approve.

America isn't divided through some schism that developed spontaneously ex nihilo. It's divided because the billionaire-owned pundit-driven media dug a trench down the middle and kept on digging. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

And, just like the man with the lightning finger says to Luke, we're all fools, only beginning to grasp the true scope of the trap we've entered.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to an official involved with the planning of the event.

They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials

That happy trio sitting next to Trump as defacto members of his cabinet just happen to be the three richest people on this planet.

They are also the owner of The Washington Post and the owners of two of the most vital social media platforms. The Post endlessly hectored President Joe Biden, gave a consistently dark view of the American economy, allowed Trump to lie with impunity, and refused to endorse Kamala Harris. The social media platforms operated as unchecked sources of lies and hate fostered by neo nazis and foreign agents set on harming America.

Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg didn't let that happen; they made it happen.

These are men who, just in the last two weeks, have declared that American companies need to be more misogynistic, instituted a plan to replace journalists with "star creators," and declared that the California wildfires are a plot by transnationalists out to destroy American industry.

How is it possible that so many millions of Americans could believe that Donald Trump represents an acceptable leader for this nation? Because the richest men in the world have devoted significant fractions of their fortunes to telling Americans that hate equals strength, progressive policies can't be trusted, and that the economy was so much better under Trump.

To underscore their intentions, Bezos has since revamped The Washington Post to make it clear that journalists need not apply. Zuckerberg has been touring America's hate-hubs preaching the gospel of disinformation. Musk has been ... actually, Musk made his break with reality months ago. He has moved on to promoting literal Nazis (including inviting one to the inauguration so they can see how it's done) and trying to continue his hot streak by taking over other governments.

You can show all the charts you want of job growth under Biden, provide tables of how Democratic presidents are better for small businesses, and pull out Energy Department reports showing America pumping more oil than it did under Trump. But you (and I) are holding up a PowerPoint presentation in front of people who have spent years being drenched in a daily audio-visual extravaganza telling them that we are liars under the control of the sinister "them."

They don't believe you. They don't believe me. They believe in Jewish space lasers.

How could anyone think that Donald Trump is an acceptable option to lead this nation? How could they not when everywhere they turn they are being told that things are awful now, were better then, and Democrats hate America? Maybe Joe Biden isn't a pawn of the Chinese government who runs a child-sex ring on the side, but then, could Fox News, Newsmax, One America Network, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, and an unending string of far-rights sites who never seem to have trouble finding investment, keep saying these things if there wasn't some truth to it? I mean, Biden must be selling off at least a few kids, right?

And again, they are told these falsehoods because that's the message the richest men in the world want them to hear. On their televisions. On their computer screens. And even in print, these men have captured the media. It says what they want.

Being a billionaire means deciding—not once, but every day—that your personal wealth is more important than sharing with the workers who created it, more important than helping those in desperate need, and more important than addressing any of the crises that threaten humanity.

By definition, it means being a sociopath.

What's finally obvious is that these sociopaths are using their control of the media to destroy faith in expertise of all kinds, attack sources of impartial facts, and keep America divided and angry. The way Trump was advantaged in the media was deliberate. The way social media has been turned into a stew of sickening hate was deliberate. The hallucinations of AI search engines that make them unreliable isn't a bug, it's a feature.

It was Trump who declared "I love the poorly educated" and Kellyanne Conway who gave us "alternative facts." But Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and other tech bros have weaponized ignorance and confusion. It helps them pull up the ladder against anyone who might prove competitive. Most importantly, it keeps the peasants from getting organized.

“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

No one said they couldn't read. And now they get to bask in their victory.

"President Musk" may be a joke, but only because presidents have far more constraints on their power than Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg. Trump can spend the next four years frothing about Greenland and pressing his Diet Coke button. What actually happens to our nation will be decided by the oligarchs of disinformation. The same group will provide the propaganda on what a good job they are doing.

So what are we going to do about it?

First, we have to understand the nature of the fight. As hard as Musk and others may be pushing for robots to take over the workforce, the fortune of these men is, for now, dependent on the labor of human beings. That makes organized labor (which had spectacular wins under Biden), more important than ever.

Support organized labor.

Ignorance and confusion are the weapons billionaires have chosen to keep people in line. That makes it critical to encourage reader-supported news sources like The Guardian, fact-based resources such as Wikipedia, and even humble upstarts like Uncharted Blue. Many areas have local or regional papers that are not under the thumb of the billionaires and are still devoted to reporting facts. Look for them. Longtime journalists are heading off to start new ventures after shaking free of corrupted outlets. Help them.

Support independent journalism

Social media sites are increasingly falling into that soup of hate and ignorance, amplifying rumors and deepening the divide. Select the sites where you devote your time and energy carefully, but don't let them drive you into silence. At the same time, look for real-world opportunities to both help and organize. The need for help and local leadership is going to be greater than ever. We may all be just dim lights in the darkness, but those lights must not go out.

Stay in the fight.

Since I started with a Star Wars reference, let me give you one more at the end. This is a short speech from a character in the series "Andor," a series that bypasses those princesses and storied messiahs to focus on what it takes for ordinary people to rise against a fascist force that far outstrips them in wealth and power. Anyone who has watched that series knows this speech. It's the speech.

Should we all be expected to make that level of sacrifice to break the hold of the billionaires and restore democracy? God, let's hope not.

But the odds of a messiah coming along to save us are ... not good. We're going to have to do this thing ourselves, and that means most of us will have to work harder and do things we'd rather not.

The billionaires think this is already over. They're shrugging off what remained of their disguises and moving on to spread corruption elsewhere.

It's the perfect time to organize that rebellion. And may the facts be with you.