Political Correctness in the West; a Step Forward or Leap Backward? And, Will It Spread to Indonesia?
I have been living in Indonesia for more than eight years (and before permanently moving to this beautiful country I had been visiting Indonesia frequently since late- 1998). But although I’m currently far away from the West, I’ve never been following Western politics and Western media closer than I am doing now - and with Western politics I mainly refer to the political and (interrelated) social developments in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US).
And, seeing the developments on the ‘other side of the earth’, I have to say I’m glad and grateful that I was able to move away (from the EU in my case) because it doesn’t seem heading in a good direction. Radical left ideology, especially the use of identity politics, has been rising to quite alarming levels in the West. And the presence of this ideology is clearly undermining the social fabric - the glue that holds society together - in the West[1], while also starting to undermine liberal democracy as well as free market capitalism; two systems that helped to make the West a good place (in terms of prosperity and justice; although it is certainly true that both these systems are not without flaws).
Besides the education system (where a clear over-representation exists of teachers who vote for left-wing, in fact quite far-left, political parties), the changing role of the mainstream media – albeit there are indeed a few exceptions – has been crucial in allowing the flourishing of radical left ideology in the West. Several decades ago, privately-owned mainstream media in the West (especially newspapers back in the pre-Internet days) acted as a watchdog, tasked to check and verify whether national governments were doing a proper job, and report their findings to the people. And so, the mainstream media played an important – even crucial – role within societies and democracies by keeping forces in balance. Moreover, because they seemed to do a decent job, most people had confidence in the accuracy (and intentions) of the mainstream media (actually, today the mainstream media are still regarded ‘most trustworthy’ by most in the West).
In pre-Internet (and pre-alternative media) times it also meant the media essentially had a monopoly on the distribution of information (well, together with the state, but most people seem to be aware that state-sponsored news is not the most objective source of information). So, media have always had a position that brings tremendous responsibility because properly functioning media basically determine whether a democracy is just and righteous (because, ideally, peoples’ votes in elections is based on the accurate, factual, and objective information they obtain from the media).
However, over the past two decades or so, a clear change can be detected in the role of the mainstream media within Western society. While these media remain free to critically discuss ‘less important’ government policies or programs, they aren’t so much when it comes to the important issues related to the globalist agenda (such as the environment, immigration, and a range of topics related to identity politics). On these topics the mainstream media merely voice the vision and ambitions of the government, and considering Western governments have aligned their targets and visions with each other and with supranational institutions, it is essentially the voice of the ‘globalist, supranational elite’ that is heard in the mainstream media (this is partly caused by media concentration since the 1990s, referring to the ownership of mass media by fewer individuals or companies, mostly via acquisitions).
Note:
[1] While identity politics (in particularly issues related to race) have a longer history in the US, it is a fairly new phenomenon in the EU where decades of mass immigration has now resulted in significant communities of non-caucasian communities (and therefore their influence on Western societies has grown).
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