The People’s Think Tank: Taking back America for the people

To save our democracy we must flood the zone with facts. Starting this week I’ll produce briefs that contextualize the issues. Your job is to share these resources as widely as possible.

So many are asking, “How did America get like this?” Millions cheering the constitution’s demise, driven by hate and fear, as the 1% hoard wealth and consolidate power.

We got like this because the very rich mounted a decades-long, divisive public relations campaign designed to make the system work for them—not the people.

The Wealthy Conservative Strategy: Think Tanks

The strategy was simple: Shift public opinion towards the conservative elite agenda by flooding the media with propaganda. By 1995, media references to far-right think tanks outnumbered references to center or left-of-center research institutions by 7 to 1.¹ Far-right think tanks provided the raw materials for a cultural revolution. Today those raw materials are pumped directly into the social media apps on our phones via memes and pundits.

The goal was clear: Sway policy in their favor and form a “counter-establishment…to undermine—and redirect—academia, Congress, the judiciary, executive branch agencies, major media, and even philanthropy.”² Manufacture culture wars and exploit the resulting division, distraction, and cynicism at the ballot box. Think CRT, DEI, and “wokeness.”

...[they] had workshopped a pitch to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, for a project to create “a modern-day Death Star” to wage “ideological warfare” on the “enemies of modernity”; their plan involved writing coordinated op-eds and promoting anti-woke content… - New Yorker

In 2018, while watching Trump’s State of the Union speech, billionaire operative Steve Bannon said the quiet part out loud when he told author Michael Lewis “the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

Public Enlightenment’s Counter-Strategy: The People’s Think Tank

Our counter-strategy is simple.

Do what the think tanks that destroyed our society did—just in reverse—by flooding the zone with facts. All it takes is you buying in and spreading the word. You can literally fight fascism from your couch using the phone in your hand.

The conservative billionaires achieved their anti-democratic goals by disseminating hateful propaganda and disinformation throughout the media. You’re going to disseminate facts and context to your networks to dilute the propaganda.

We don’t need to hire operatives to generate our raw materials. Fact-based, pro-democracy newsrooms are already doing our work for us every day. We just have to spread it.

You and me, and millions more, overwhelming the algorithms and family group chats with facts. This is the vision. What’s stopping us from helping everyone, especially our MAGA friends and loved ones, be better informed? Only cynicism.

So Stay On Your Couch and Do Something!

Starting this week I’ll be producing briefs (under the banner of The People’s Think Tank) that provide context to the issues of the day. We live in a fragmented media environment so I’ll be sure to include something for everyone—articles, social media posts, podcasts, memes. Your mission is to access them, consume them, and then share them as widely as possible on social media and in group chats.

We know that fascism only exists where propaganda is strong and journalism is weak. If we replace the toxic information our fellow citizens are consuming with healthy, pro-democracy information, we will fight. And we will win.

Be a node in the pro-democracy propaganda network that will save America.

And you don’t have to wait for my first brief to come out tomorrow. Just take some time to share fact-based, pro-democracy information right now. Find a ton using my Bluesky lists here.

1. https://ncrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Moving-a-Public-Policy-Agenda.pdf

2. https://ncrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Moving-a-Public-Policy-Agenda.pdf

Additional sources:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/29/the-myth-of-the-powell-memo/

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1829&context=jssw&

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1081180X00005004006