There’s a tendency in this heated political climate to simply reject people who are saying false things and to write off conspiracy theorists writ large.
But as the US approaches the third straight election in which misinformation — and the fight against it — is expected to play a role, it’s important to understand what’s driving people who don’t believe in US elections.
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I talked to O’Sullivan about the documentary, in which he has some frank and disarming talks with people about what has shaken their belief in the US. But he paints an alarming picture about the rise of fringe movements in the country.
Our conversation, conducted by phone and edited for length, is below:
WOLF: What were you trying to accomplish with this project?
O’SULLIVAN: So much of mainstream American politics now is being infected and affected by what is happening on what was once considered the real fringes — fringe platforms, fringe personalities.
And I think really what we want to do in this show is illustrate how these personalities may be pushing falsehoods, but they’re no longer fringe. This is all happening right now. And it is having a big effect on our democracy.
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Okay but playing devil’s advocate, that could just mean politics stayed the same as people moved left.
Does that really jive with what you see in the world though?
I think what I’ve observed is that economic politics has moved right while social politics has moved left… While society in general has moved left completely… I think both parties fight over the social stuff so they can distract from the economic stuff because economically they are basically the same party, working together for the exploiter class. And for every small step to the social left, we have to concede 10 to the economic right.
Granted, but, begging the question… does that mean rightward pressure has been exerted on the overton window such that people’s attempts to move it leftward have been frustrated?
If I’m understanding the Overton window correctly, it’s the range of ideas that would be politically feasible without immediately getting voted out of office… So rightward pressure would mean society at large moving to the right. Since we know society at large has moved left, I think I’d have to argue that the window only works if we live somewhere that what society wants actually matters. Due to mapping and other shenanigans I don’t think the window means anything today. In a direct democracy I think we’d see a very progressive society develop. We live in an oligarchy though, so all that matters is what the rich want, and they want us fighting each other over trans people and guns and abortion rather than fighting them over economics.