reflectivepundit

Brexit Vote and Populist Failings There and Here

By Brigitte L. Nacos

This weekend, as I was leaving Dublin, the Irish Times’s only front page story was an excellent commentary by Fintan O’Toole  titled “Brexit fantasy is about to come crashing down.” Here are the opening paragraphs of O’Toole’s dissection of the equally surprising as shocking referendum result and its likely consequences:

“Did you ever see a slightly drunk man trying that trick with the tablecloth? He thinks he can whip the cloth off the table with a fast, clean snap, but leave all the crockery perfectly intact. He gives a sharp tug and stands back with a triumphant flourish as the plates and glasses come flying to the ground and shatter all around him.

That’s what Brexit is like. Those who have driven it have successfully pulled the cloth off the table – the underlying fabric of modern Britain has been whipped away with a shocking suddenness.

They stand in triumph, sure that they have pulled off the trick of removing a whole layer of political reality without disturbing all the family tableware. They have yet to notice that so much that was on the table is now at their feet, broken, perhaps irreparably.”

In the Brexit case the imaginary trick that O’Toole describes was not performed by drunkards but by opportunistic populists whose major appeals were not based on fact and truth. The public perceptions they strove for were that an EU exit would mean quick fixes for all the ills in the U.K.--most importantly, a stop of the transfer of huge sums of U.K. taxpayers’ money to Brussels and of the flow of foreigners onto the British isle.

One English woman interviewed by a TV reporter lauded the vote as a return to “normalcy” and to “things like they used to be.”

Ah, well. It took merely hours or days for some leaders of the Exit movement to admit explicitly or implicitly that nothing would change in the near future or perhaps not at all.

As Steven Castle reports in today’s New York Times, the most prominent Brexit populists Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, and Nigel Farage, leader of the far right Independence Party, along with others began to backpedal on their campaign promises that were all along based on misinformation.

The Brexit advocates expected to lose the referendum and win political capital among the divided conservative camp. As their underhanded tricks become increasingly exposed, they are in a pickle. As Castle put it, “Having now ousted Prime Minister David Cameron, they [the Exit leaders] face a political vacuum, with their base demanding that promises be kept. Mr. Johnson, the front-runner to replace Mr. Cameron, has not made any further pronouncements since a subdued statement on Friday that was restricted to generalities. If he does become prime minister, Mr. Johnson will face the task of carrying out a British withdrawal without provoking a backlash from those who believed campaign slogans or sentiments that he certainly appeared to endorse.”

In praising the Brexit decision and comparing its core demands to the fuzzy agenda behind his “Taking Back America” slogan Donald Trump will continue to copy the metaphorical table cloth trick of his British soulmates—regardless of the consequences.

The Orlando Massacre: Terrorism or Hate Crime?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Terrorism experts have long recognized that the next terrorist act in the United States was a question of when, not whether it would happen. To the counterterrorism community it did not come as a surprise that another lone wolf or lone actor, presumably infected by violent online extremist propaganda, struck last weekend in the most horrific way killing 49 persons and injuring several dozens.

Donald Trump’s post-Orlando claim that he was right in predicting more terrorism within our borders is childish--at best.

What, then, was the most deadly mass shooting in this country ever and the most lethal terrorism strike within U.S. borders since the catastrophic 9/11 attack?  

In my view, the attack in Florida was an act of terrorism perpetrated by a self-declared jihadist who most likely believed that he killed in the name of ISIS and his religion.

While it is wrong to blame Islam and cast suspicion over all Muslims here and abroad, it is also wrong not to recognize a powerful strain within Islam, in more recent times especially espoused by Wahhabism, as potent fuel for terrorism against non-believers in their violent religious fanaticism.

Young Muslims in the Western diaspora, especially those with problems, such as social isolation, mental health issues, and criminal records, are particularly susceptible to jihadists’ hate propaganda.

European researchers found that among would-be foreign fighters, first for Al Qaeda and then for ISIS, mental health problems, past criminal activity, and societal alienation were more prevalent than in the general population.

According to the FBI, the Orlando killer did not have a criminal record. But his former wife and a former co-worker noted his bi-polar and instable personality, his hate toward others, his violent words and, in the case of his former wife, his violence.      

While we do not yet know about Omar Mateen’s activities on social media, perhaps on the dark web, we do know that he was clueless with respect to the leading Islamist terrorist organizations; otherwise he wouldn’t have claimed at different times his admiration for Hezbollah, a Shia group, and ISIS, a Sunni organization—two deadly enemies.

That the Islamic State now celebrates Mateen as a soldier of the Caliphate does not mean a direct link between ISIS and terrorist Mateen. But to the extent to which he embraced ISIS-style jihadism and the so-called Islamic State’s repeated calls for Muslims to attack in their Western environment, ISIS propaganda may well played a role in the Orlando shooting.   

Trump and Perennial Propaganda Schemes

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Don’t underestimate Donald Trump. He is a natural when it comes to reading his audiences—whether in the world of business or politics. But I would be surprised if he hadn’t read some of the literature on manipulating others and the shaping of public opinion.

Day-in and day-out Trump manages his propaganda scheme as skillfully as the “father of public relations” Edward Bernays prescribed in his writings and acted upon in his public relations projects beginning in the 1920s.

Whether dealing with the promotion of consumer goods, policies, or leaders, for Bernays the “engineer of consent [or call it populist or propagandist] must create news. News is not an inanimate thing. It is the overt act that makes news, and news in turn shapes the attitudes and actions of people.”

Writing about the rise of Public Relations in the 1920s and 1930s  Stuart Ewen noted, “If news had once been understood as something out there, waiting to be covered, now it was seen as product to be manufactured, something designed and transmitted to bring about a visceral public response.”

In this presidential campaign nobody else comes even close to manufacturing visceral news as successfully as Trump. After all, today social media allow everybody to self-mass communicate.

A huge part of Trump’s propaganda success is simply the mainstream media’s eagerness to report whatever he tweets out to friend and foe. If it were not for the mainstream media that he attacks constantly to the delight of his supporters, most people wouldn’t know what The Donald spreads via his twitter account.

The other day, Jim Rutenberg wrote in the New York Times,

It’s time to stop calling Donald J. Trump’s presidential operation “the Trump campaign.” It would be far more accurate to call it “Trump Productions Inc.” But as Rutenberg correctly noted, Trump is “star, show runner and chief content officer” of an operation providing “multiple running plotlines (War With Megyn Kelly; Peace With Megyn Kelly!), shocking comments (A federal judge can’t be fair to me because he’s of Mexican heritage!) and personal insults (Hillary belongs in jail; that reporter is a sleaze!) that keep Americans glued to their screens.”

It does not matter to Trump that the Democratic and Republican establishment as well as pundits condemn his outrageous statements as long as his targeted audience understands and appreciates his words and what they signal.

Interviewing Muhammad Ali

I remember well interviewing Ali along with my colleague Gloria Negri of the Boston Globe at his training camp in Pennsylvania.

As you can see from the photograph (Download BrigInterviewingAli0001), during part of the interview Ali was closing his eyes and pondering the next rhymes to present to us as proof of his creativity as poet.

Whenever he came out with new lines, everyone in his entourage clapped his hand and shouted "yeah, yeah, yeah."

He was very aware whether we wrote down his poetic creation reminding me several times not to miss a word.

Eventually, when he put his hands into a bowl of wax to harden them for his next bout, he was ready to answer our questions.

I have no idea whether he was okay with his aunt inviting us to have lunch with him and some family members. But away from his constant circle of friends, admirers, and hangers-on, he was even more gracious showing us around the training compound and inviting us to witness some sparring sessions not open to public and press.

Memorable interview, indeed.