You feed the monster. Monster gains strength. You cut off the supply of food, oxygen, water. Monster grows weak, withers and dies.
Now tell me, how do we handle rogue foreign owned far right media governed by megalomaniacs?
Why does supplying content, engagement and revenue to them equal furthering their cause and strengthening them? Advertising their logo for free?
Why do we feed the monster?
Why do organisations and institutions continue to advertise the X logotype on their web sites and in their newsletters. Why do they create content for the monster to devaour and create engagement, traffic and profits?
In their current cost/benefit analysis, there’s benefit, but no cost.
In their current cost/benefit analysis, there’s benefit, but no cost.
These actors either lack awareness or are amoral.
They act out of opportunism. The covet the likes and retweets. They will not stop for moral reasons or to save democracy.
But if it starts being uncomfortable they may act, or their conscience may start emerging little by little.
The people who are the decision makers whether to “be on X” are marketing people, not humanists or guardians of democracy. So we need to speak their language. Tarnished reputation, loss of popularity and decreased brand value.
They think they’re communicating with “their audience”, but they’re communicating with an amoral elite, with trolls and with bots.
They think they’re communicating with “their audience”, but they’re communicating with an amoral elite, with trolls and with bots.
But the group of people who don’t approve of their elected officials, newspaper journalists, household brand names, being active on far right media and feeding the monster, vastly outnumber the number of people who are there.
We’d need coordinated e-mailing.
One week we all e-mail a certain politician or institution in a concerted effort. Then the next and so on.
There will be a reputational/brand cost if their choice to feed the monster is continuously questioned. That will change the cost side of the equation. That will make them stop advertising the logo all over their web sites. That will stop them legitimising X with their brand presence. That will make them stop feeding it with content that generates traffic and revenue.
