George Orwell almost nailed it.
He saw the two-minute hate. He saw thought crime, crime speak and double speak. His vision was chillingly accurate, given the technology of his time, he did an outstanding job.
But he missed the concept of hope porn and how it feeds the ever more vicious and frightening two-minute hate that many decent people allow themselves to indulge in repeatedly.
But there’s no two-minute hate is there? I’m talking out of my rear end. Strictly speaking, there is no group two minute hate like Orwell conceived, but there is a mechanism that serves exactly the same purpose – you can call it the 140 character hate if you like – but it serves exactly the same purpose as the two-minute hate.
And hope porn drives it.
I first heard this wonderful phrase when Catherine Austin Fitts used it to describe the Q Anon phenomenon and while it may well fit, it doesn’t fit anywhere near as well as it does with the Mueller Russian Collusion Delusion narrative.
One is an underground phenomenon bubbling below the surface - the other is driven by the full weight of the mainstream media.
Time after time the hopes of the “resistance” are raised by speculative nonsense claiming to be the smoking gun. They celebrate and allow themselves wild speculation about arrests and impeachment. The narrative is fuelled by inane press reports that tease and excite but ultimately disappoint.
This ritual has been repeating ad nauseam for well over twelve months. The links become more tenuous every time. The evidence even less apparent than the beginning – but hope springs eternal when it is constantly fuelled by misinformation.
All that pent up unfulfilled excitement, anticipation and eagerness needs an outlet.
Enter Twitter. It is the perfect vehicle to unleash vile hatred and feel good about doing so. - Particularly when the platform appears to support your political point of view.
The frustrated Russia Collusion believer has an array of Goldstein like villains to choose from.
The first is Trump of course. The deliberate demonising of this man by the mainstream media didn’t cost him the presidency but it did fill his enemies with a vicious sickening hatred that has spawned the term Trump Derangement Syndrome. Otherwise rational people struggle to engage any working synapse other than those in the Lizard section when it comes to Trump.
It’s pathetic. Caitlin Johnstone recently framed Trump as just your average garden variety Republican President. I agree, but would add a touch of Libertarian thrown in for good measure. He is no Hitler, Stalin, Amin or Pol Pot. He’s just a guy from New York who appealed more to the average American than Hillary did. Some people just won’t have that. Their hatred is demeaning, childish and ultimately futile. But their echo chambers on Twitter don’t tell them that.
They don’t stop there. At various times other Goldstein like figures emerge. Bernie Sanders cops a serve. Jill Stein does and of course, Julian Assange is a target of every frustrated “I’m with her” bot on the planet.
They pour their hatred out in vile vicious streams of barely coherent thought and they get some form of validation from their fellow haters.
Then, the next stream of hope porn starts and the cycle of hate starts again.
Meanwhile, the Deep State goes about its business undisturbed.
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My name is Mark Hodgetts. I’m a freelance writer, eking out a crust writing
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