HyperNormalisation

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HyperNormalisation was first coined by Russian-born anthropologist Alexei Yurchak in his book Everything was Forever, Until It Was No More. (It also inspired the Adam Curtis docuseries by the same name).  The term describes the final years of the Soviet Union when the system was failing, everyone knew the system was rotted from within by greed and corruption, yet people carried on, the broken system becoming the new normal. When our government can easily be shutdown by a Kremlin-backed, proudly fascist party, while its leader continues to call for violence, walking free after having tried to violently overthrow our government, and disinformation echo chambers on the far-right and far-left openly mock and attack the victims and targets of that fascism, America has reached HyperNormalisation. And the priority of the business elite is to protect their immorally low-tax rate and hoard their wealth, following in the footsteps of those who helped bring Hitler and Pinochet to power. 

Elon Musk’s X has become the biggest outlet of Russian disinformation, according to the EU. That’s “mission accomplished” for the American far-right and its Russian backers. Formerly reliable so-called “resistance” accounts on Twitter that once led the way combating Trump and Putin have succumbed to self-censorship and catering to Musk’s oppressive algorithms like they’re an authoritarian regime. This causes them to fall silent on ringing the alarm on the stakes to all of us for stopping Russia’s genocide in Ukraine, LGBTQ+ rights that are being scapegoated through genocidal rhetoric, and more. You know things are bad when even Ralph Nader is ringing the alarm of fascism and wants to campaign for the Democrats! 

Since the beginning of the show, the focus has been on grassroots power–the most reliable power we have left. Together, we made 15,000 phone calls to get John Fetterman into the Senate, and he’s leading the way against corruption and greed. To maintain your courage and stay grounded in the truth, check out the Gaslit Nation Action Guide. You can also join Andrea, J. Smith-Cameron, and people across the country in State Fair, a grassroots group with the States Project organizing for the upcoming Virginia election to stop Posh Trump Youngkin from winning a majority in Virginia’s state government and banning abortion. 

In this episode, you’ll hear an excerpt of the August 5th live taping of Gaslit Nation at Caveat in NYC with the Risk! Storytelling podcast by comedia Kevin Allison of the iconic comedy group The State, which launched the comedic geniuses Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, David Wain, and many more. Thank you to everyone who came out! We hope to do more live tapings closer to the election. 

This week’s Q&A will feature the audience questions at the live taping featuring historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the bestselling book Strongmen: Mussolini to Present, and Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman of the Kremlin Files podcast. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! 

Show Notes:

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Join Andrea, J Smith-Cameron, and people across the country in the grassroots group State Fair to help protect Virginia from Posh Trump and his rightwing agenda https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/zjrhpjw/State-Fair

Opening Clip of Tim Gurner: https://twitter.com/FinancialReview/status/1701440109948887057

U.S. Accuses Amazon of Illegally Protecting Monopoly in Online Retail https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/technology/ftc-amazon.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20230926&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=48614702&segment_id=145764&user_id=097a378032011d6e8be1570cdce0a176

Biden speaking at the UAW picket line https://www.c-span.org/video/?530728-1/pres-biden-joins-uaw-picket-line-michigan

Musk’s X Is Biggest Outlet of Russia Disinformation, EU Says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-26/eu-faults-musk-s-x-in-fight-against-russia-s-war-of-ideas?srnd=undefined#xj4y7vzkg

Ralph Nader wants to help Democrats win https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/26/ralph-nader-joe-biden-election/

The Kushner Family is Cozying Up to Nikki Halely https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/the-kushner-family-is-cozying-up-to-nikki-haley 

Republicans Lead Race for Private Equity’s 2024 Dollars https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-lead-race-for-private-equitys-2024-dollars-ba152e12?page=1

@JStein_WaPo: “Hard to find a quote that better summarizes how Obamanomics =/= Bidenomics” https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1706747404756635815

@AriDrennen: “Michael Knowles claims trans kids are the number one thing in voters' minds in the 2024 election and that GOP candidates should focus on that instead of "bread and butter, dinner table issues" https://twitter.com/AriDrennen/status/1706754511581147292

Ukrainian oligarch Pavel Fuks has been linked to Russian Intelligence, employed Giuliani and has newly reported ties to Trump Tower in NYC https://newstracs.com/ukrainian-oligarch-pavel-fuks-has-newly-reported-ties-to-trump-tower-in-nyc/2023/09/18/

The antidote to civilisational collapse: An interview with the documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis on his docuseries HyperNormalisation https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/12/06/the-antidote-to-civilisational-collapse

Elie Mystal on Twitter: “Good job, Merrick Garland. Your weakness has orchestrated the indictment of a private citizen trying to overcome drug addiction so Republicans can try to hit a bank shot off of him to his loving father, all because you were afraid of looking "political" to Fox News viewers.”  https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1702384315806466475

Hunter Biden claims in lawsuit that Rudy Giuliani hacked his data https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/26/hunter-biden-rudy-giuliani-lawsuit-laptop-00118112

Follow-up on last week’s bonus episode: 

“Even back in the 1850s, when an immigrant arrived who was sick, they would be sent to Staten Island to get better. And even back then, the residents of Staten Island didn’t much like being forced to take immigrants who they didn’t particularly want,” Anbinder told me. “We tend to idealize our own immigrant ancestors and think they’re different than immigrants today. But what you find when you look at the 400-year history of immigrant New York is that every generation of immigrants comes to New York for the same reasons, has the same experiences, is hated by the people who are already in New York, and yet always they end up succeeding. And so every group is despised for a time, but every group ends up becoming an accepted New Yorker. We just forget that, generation after generation after generation.”

Source:The Biggest Lesson of the Migrant Crisis https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/the-biggest-lesson-of-the-migrant-crisis.html