Soon, only rich kids will be able to mouth off, sort of.
That is how it was under Franco's dictatorship: the children of the wealthy business class could get in trouble, but were eventually released all hush-hush. Those without connections could get 6 years in jail on a whim, or worse. Similar treatment was doled out under communist dictatorships, as a Romanian colleague and I were reminiscing today.
The logic of "the bottom line comes first" now applies as well to the many media companies folding and toting the party line in the US. Intellectual honesty has a real price, as many will soon find out.
But the economies of such regimes inevitably suffer under the effects of dictators choosing winners in the market place. No matter Left or Right, once political and economic power are in the same hands, whatever promises were made in the name of a free marketplace or a social justice doctrine are instantly betrayed.
Earlier in history, economic failure could lead to political change. That is dangerously less so in today's world (Trump's not caring about inflation is a clear indicator he feels he no longer needs to pander to voters). Not only is the mediasphere compromised. The shocking truth will soon out: media and banking deregulation, together with packing the Supreme Court with cronies, are nothing compared to having ended the military draft.
While the top brass may still recall that the number one factor differentiating the US from many other democracies in the Americas was the non-partisanship of the military, they now face troops who do not represent the US population fairly, drawn as they are from among the disaffected and the useless, with only a smattering of good citizens thinking of duty. Indeed, recruiting standards are constantly lowered to bring in enough enlistment.
Thus, the applause among the troops for Trump's attacks on the free press is highly concerning. Neither the police nor the military can be trusted to be loyal to the rule of law and the constitution. The one good piece of news is the realignment of trade away from the US, which may help at least some major companies to not kneel and service a monster.
