A concept that's gained increasing recognition in the past 10-20 years is horseshoe theory or the Horseshoe Effect. The basic idea is that on some matters the left and right extremes will have more in common with each other than with the center. It's true in as far as you'll often see elements of the right and left agreeing with each other, whether or not they can see the resemblance themselves. But in practice people using the term tend to put their thumb on the scales. The implication is that the extremes are truly, well, extremist, and that the consensus in the center has been arrived at through reasoned debate. But I think that if we're being honest, we've all seen consensus at one time or another formed through deception and coercion.
This article looks at Ukraine through the lens of horseshoe theory and what can I say? Thank God deception and coercion never come into play during times of war.
2 comments:
I wasn't familiar with the Horseshoe theory, although I do see what they're getting at with the wikipedia article. The theory I'm more knowledgeable about is the Overton Window hypothesis as it appears to be a more straightforward explanation of how modern political theories gain and lose acceptance. It's stated in the description that opinion can be shifted by deceptive means, but that is wrong to do so. Oh, really?
It's certainly true that public opinion is being manipulated to an outrageous degree here in the West. Russian media is barely allowed any space anyway and the Chinese government doesn't bother to stoop to subterfuge because they call the shots and shut down any information sources they don't like.
We're afraid something similar is happening here considering the evidence of what we're no longer allowed to watch and read. One person who left an early comment on the Unherd article made a short list of the things the government and media has sworn to be true this last couple of years that have all turned out to be outright lies.
I read an interesting piece on Strategic Culture yesterday that begins with this statement: How are we, who are denied credible, alternative news sources, supposed to divine between right and wrong, between truth and propaganda.
Oh yes, the Overton Window I'm familiar with as well. There have, I'm sure, always been efforts to limit what can be said in the public square. But the Overton Window has been getting manipulated so intensely and so blatantly in recent years that it's impossible not to notice. And I'm sure there will be some kind of backlash from the public, because there has to be.
That's an interesting contrast as far as Russia and China go. Russia's incursion into Ukraine has got some people in this country and elsewhere openly calling for World War III. Meanwhile China flattening the native populations of Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong et al is met with a shrug. And the strange thing is they don't really try to hide the truth but just don't want anyone talking about it.
A lot of stories told by the government and media over the last two years have turned out to be lies, it's true. And it's not like I don't think the government never lied before COVID. But it used to be more a matter of polishing around the edges. Now there are half a dozen gaslight campaigns gong on at any given time.
That was a brisk, interesting article at Strategic Culture. On this side of the Atlantic we don't usually get coverage of world events from an Irish perspectiive.
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