Deceptive Hymns from the Altar of Fox News: Unmasking the Array of Propaganda
Dear readers,
Subtly subsisting as a bitter herb in a well-dressed salad are the headlines spanning across any unbiased user's screen on Fox News. Just one glance and you can discern the stirring blend of biased hyperbole, fabricated narratives, and calculated erasure of pertinent facts. It's a rich broth, indeed—a special brew of far-right Christian-fascist propaganda. This stupefying cocktail preys on the susceptibility of its viewers whilst propagating messages fueling division, hate, and fear.
Take the recent splashy headline “Nearly half of states balk at new global pandemic agreement in warning to Biden administration”. Alas! No thoughtful analysis here. Instead, it's a brazen attempt to stoke fires of discontent and mistrust against a democratically normative system. Are they questioning the administration's ability, one might ask? Oh, but the aim is far more insidious. It's coded language meant to incite resistance against a global collaborative health initiative, an embodiment of the ethos of dominionism, a toxic form of Christian nationalism.
The exploits of Fox News narratives are bountiful, feeding into the dangerously misguided Christian-theocratic ideals. A perfect specimen, "‘Star Wars’ creator has hilarious response to critics who say saga isn't diverse enough" stands tall. This seemingly innocuous piece of news carefully spins the diversity debate into grand entertainment, effectively mocking and undermining real issues of representation and inclusion. Such narratives set the path for the hateful logic that birthed a dogged push for a homogenous and exclusive nation, controlled by religious fanatics and the affluent.
Every inconspicuous, every virulent headline is a brick in the theocratic wall they strive to build around our beloved republic. A world where LGBTQ+ individuals, varying religious identities, and the perceived antagonists of the Christian right face untold peril.
The bleak narrative spun by "Billionaire who ditched Trump reverses course" shows the dangerous manipulation of the power imbalance that reinforces the agenda of the ultra-rich. It portrays the facile conversion of funds into influence, and by extension, the power to steer socio-political climates, lifting the veil on the existential threat the ultra-rich pose to America's democratic ethos.
Fox News, in its theatrics, hopes to deafen us with the clamor of their dismay, aiming to bring about an American theocracy. Their sneaky, subliminal BMI - the Biblical Misinformation Index - is off the charts.
It's a poignant reminder of how far I have wandered from the tribal simplicity of received truth and discovered light in the labyrinth of cognitive freedom. It is also a stark warning of the insidious nature of such propaganda, how it sows the seeds of division, breeds hate and anchors power in the hands of the few.
Let's not remain blind to their designs and call a spade a spade - a propaganda mill by any other name is still a propaganda mill. We must draw awareness to it if we are to extinguish the torches of hate, intolerance, and theocracy.
Yours truly,
Lilith Goodman