Politics of Problems: General Elections and Social Issues

Society is as society does. People are set in their own way and some are unable to change. There is often a clear mandate by the people: to humiliate and manipulate, gender and discriminate, isolate and chastise anyone person or perspectives introduced to them. by those in the Whether this is down to human nature or simply owing to a person’s own personality is a discussion for another time. The point is, contemporary society lacks a desire to understand the full stories that dominate the society they live in.

It can be argued that the rise of fact checking within politics and the continual emphasis on subverting the cringeworthy Trumpism ‘Fake News’ is a clear illustration of the opposite. In truth, there exists only a finite number of people willing to research and challenge the information fed to us by politicians or political organisations. Similarly in our immediate real-life social sphere, there is a fundamental lack of desire to question sensationalistic rumours or subvert them if necessary. People are much more likely to accept and back away from problems or problematic influences without fully questioning the authenticity of them. This attitude is seemingly ingrained into the psyche of people and is sadly something that has been taken advantage of by large and influential companies or conglomerates of recent.

For instance, in the U.K. there is currently a General Election based on Brexit. In the last couple of weeks, the Conservative party under Boris Johnson has rebranded its Twitter handle from its party branding, to that of a fact-checking organisation. While broadly satirised by comedic Television programmes such as Have I got News for you (Hat Trick Productions, BBC, 2019.) or The Last Leg (Endeamol, Channel 4, 2019.), I believe the change is symptomatic of something broader and much more serious. In cultivating a brand identity based on truth and our ability as the general public to ‘trust’ these companies or Corporations, it provides them a mode to assert greater authority over what we understand to be ‘true’ in the traditional sense. Indeed, without mediation, the ‘fake news’ epidemic can only get worse.

Consequently, caution needs to be exerted during this general election period and as a suggestible electorate (see Brexit Bus), question what the main parties are saying. Actively engage with the politicians and the politics of our societal problems, and perhaps once we’ve cast our vote on December 12th, we can make a difference.

(Cover Photo: Boris Johnson as The Joker by James Mylne,
Credit: James Mylne)