The corporate press and the political elites spend countless hours manipulating public opinion. They create a unified narrative about the world, especially with regards to the issues of the day. The media uses current events to push opinions of special interests and to reinforce the carefully crafted narrative.
Taken out of context, people can easily repudiate and disprove these opinions. However, when combined with all forms of media, the narrative is overwhelming and extremely persuasive. The political elites use everybody from sports stars, actors, scientists, and musicians to reinforce the official narrative. With no easy ways for most people to refute the narrative, public opinion waxes and wanes with the media’s narrative.
Step Out of Line
Enter Nicki Minaj, the famous rapper with more than 100 million records sold1. Throughout her career, she has been an outspoken public figure, including mild commentary on politics and BLM2. Traditionally, her public statements have followed the narrative. However, all of the changed with a single tweet about the COVID vaccine.
On September 13, she tweeted about potential side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine3. She created a firestorm on social media and the corporate press. As quickly as possible, the corporate press denounced her statements and challenged her status as an influencer. Once praised by the same people, now the media machine turned against her. The firestorm continued for days and she was the top tending account on twitter.
During the COVID pandemic, plenty of people have posted more controversial statements but didn’t receive nearly as much as attention. Why? Simple. She stepped out of line. As a popular musician, she has a huge following that looks to her for validation. When she questions the COVID narrative, she risks revealing the carefully constructed and false narrative of the political elites.
Example
However, the media was not strictly aiming their outrage at Nicki. Instead, they used her as an example. The media will humiliate and ridicule anybody that steps of out line. The entire exercise is a shot fired at celebrities to warning them that stepping out line is painful and dangerous.
Within minutes, MSNBC denounced her and implied that she was responsible for the deaths of anybody that refuses the vaccine4. That domino kicked all of the mainstream media into full attack mode. Within hours, the entire media framework denounced her statements. They even asked Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the UK, to weigh in on the faux controversy5.
Sadly, this works. Celebrities have been mostly silent during the COVID pandemic. The list of dissenters is so short that they are easily tracked. In fact, it should be clear that the political elites are keeping track of dissenting voices 6.
Why do Celebrities Matter?
Most celebrities are not experts, so why do their opinions matter? The political elites know that average people inherently mistrust opinions from politicians. But average people readily listen to the same opinion from their favorite celebrities. The media and elites elevate celebrities that give politically acceptable opinions, which in turns builds larger followings for the celebrities. It is a framework of misinformation that reinforces itself with every new aspiring celebrity.
Concordia
In the book, Concordia, There Must be a Better Way, one of the main characters, Emile, experienced a similar firestorm as Nicki Minaj. Emile protested a publics works project that would damn major rivers in Chile’s Patagonia region7. Everything was fine while she followed the mainstream narrative.
However, when she refuted the lies of special interests (e.g. Solar Power manufacturers), the Chilean media machine attacked her. They called her “a Nazi, racist, anti-gay, right wing extremist, and more.”
After the affair, she realized the truth of the media misinformation machine and summarized with the quote:
And I was attacked so violently because being an outsider gave me credibility with the average person, especially since I was against the dams.
Emile Gondos
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Footnotes
- Wikipedia, Nicki Minaj
- Nicki Minaj Is the Political Commentator We Need
- https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/1437532566945341441
- https://twitter.com/thereidout/status/1437557324361633796
- https://twitter.com/onikamajestyy/status/1437801774606323722
- Just 10 Celebrities Who Have Made Seriously Misinformed Statements About Vaccines
- Chile rejects huge hydro-electric project in Patagonia