Manufacturing consent for the government crackdown on protest

[danny la rouge]

They may be another general thread, but this is about a specific angle and I think it deserves its own.

I’ve not watched television news for many years. However last night I caught the beginning of the ITN late news as I’d been watching something else beforehand.

I was amazed and alarmed at the way the anchor framed the piece on Sunak’s “crackdown” on protest under the guise of supposed public disgruntlement at Just Stop Oil protests.

He said something on the lines of “There may be many people who agree with the aims of Just Stop Oil but surely most are against their methods”. An opinion from the anchor without providing evidence. This was new to me. I was used to bias being done more subtly. But this was in-your-face being told what to think bias.

I find it alarming not just that protest is being eroded in this way, but that the “need” to do so is being presented to us in this way.

Discuss.

 

[DotCommunist]

In the context of the powers they've given themselves recently and starmers poorly concealed hard on for crackdowns and locking people up, yes I've been getting worried too. There are clearly no plans afoot to do anything about the ongoing overlapping crises in waves at everything so its bullshit and crackdowns ahoy

 

[danny la rouge]

In the context of the powers they've given themselves recently and starmers poorly concealed hard on for crackdowns and locking people up, yes I've been getting worried too. There are clearly no plans afoot to do anything about the ongoing overlapping crises in waves at everything so its bullshit and crackdowns ahoy

Exactly. The “opposition” is saying “longer sentences for these people”. Ffs!

 

[danny la rouge]

Reproduced from the Keir Sturmer thread for reference:

 

[DotCommunist]

Marr here salivating a bit as well. Restore the authority of politics. Low turnouts because neither party has anything but shit to offer, big crackdowns for trying to apply any pressure from below,

https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/andrew-marr-keir-starmer-authoritarian-streak-chimes

'The shrivelling of authority goes far further than Westminster. Scandals in the Metropolitan Police and other forces suggest law-enforcement can no longer be trusted. We’ve had scandals in hospitals, prisons, asylum centres and now in the fire brigade. Universities and museums are turning inwards to culture wars; that involves a loss of authority too.

Problems, problems, problems. But the return of the strong state offers one obvious, huge advantage to the centre-left. Historically (and the history of the New Statesman itself reminds us of it) the left has been comfortable with democratic state power in a way the right never has been. This is a moment to reclaim the old language and try to restore the authority of politics.'