“[I]f you want to understand the way any society works, ours or any other, the first place to look is who is in a position to make the decisions that determine the way the society functions. Societies differ, but in ours, the major decisions over what happens in the society – decisions over investment and production and distribution and so on – are in the hands of a relatively concentrated network of major corporations and conglomerates and investment firms. They are also the ones who staff the major executive positions in the government. They’re the ones who own the media and they’re the ones who have to be in a position to make the decisions. They have an overwhelmingly dominant role in the way life happens. You know, what’s done in the society. Within the economic system, by law and in principle, they dominate. The control over resources and the need to satisfy their interests imposes very sharp constraints on the political system and on the ideological system.” —Noam Chomsky
As a sociologist who studies power and social psychology, last Saturday was yet another opportunity to observe the intersections of moral panic (mass psychogenic illness, mass formation hypnosis/psychosis), Hoffer’s “true believer,” and the machinations of capitalist elites in shaping public consciousness—power, psyche, and propaganda on display without having to go to any trouble to see it.
As a citizen, it’s concerning that many of those watching and participating in the “No Kings!” protests don’t recognize that it’s organized and amplified by networks of NGOs funded by transnational corporate and financial interests. The scope of the scheme is truly enormous: some 500 groups with an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue, backing including communist and socialist organizations, calling for “revolution.” Among those bankrolling the simulation is Neville Roy Singham, a billionaire living in China.
As I noted on X yesterday, those who manufacture mass protests have moved to the normalization phase. The focus is on the right to free speech, as if that were in question. Nobody is suggesting that individuals are violating the Constitution by working for protest mills that manufacture illusion and manipulate minds. That’s a red herring. What’s at issue is who is manipulating the public, why they are manipulating them, and why the scheme is so effective.
Whether they understand what they are protesting, many protesters appear to genuinely believe they are pushing back against elite power by condemning Trump. In reality, their attention is being redirected away from the broader systems they claim to oppose and onto a single figure they have been conditioned to hate. They’ve been manipulated into seeing Trump and his supporters as the central problem, rather than examining the larger structures of globalization and transnational influence.
One sign of this dynamic—obvious to those existing beyond the subjectivity that precludes it—is that many of the same NGOs and financial backers involved in these movements are openly aligned against Trump. In effect, protesters are advancing the agenda of the very forces they believe they are resisting—operating within a framework that limits how they interpret power and dissent.
We can know that they’re being manipulated because the NGOs and their financial backers oppose Trump. If he was among the elite, they would treat him as a star. Operating in the fog of false consciousness, the protesters are doing the work of the very elites they say are undermining their future.
It’s a brilliant tactic: brainwash a portion of the masses and send them out into the streets to publicly oppose their own interests and thus serve as living propaganda to sway the masses watching at home. In carrying out this function, they’re grunts for the very power that oppresses them. The depth of the indoctrination is spectacular. They know not what they do.
The subaltern—those who are economically, politically, and socially marginalized, existing outside the dominant power structure and with little to no voice in decision-making—do not operate from a coherent theory of the world. Without a clear understanding of how power operates, they struggle to articulate the underlying causes of their discontent. Yet they are absolutely convinced they’re right.
Attempts to explain these dynamics are often unsuccessful, as such arguments are filtered through preexisting assumptions. Many have also been conditioned to distrust certain lines of critique, quickly categorizing them as bigoted, nativist, racist, reactionary, or xenophobic. Those with whom they disagree are not merely wrong but the enemy. They’re convinced they occupy the moral high ground. And it has made them obnoxious and self-righteous. If you try to provoke a protester to examine his beliefs, he resists, sometimes violently.
Within the subaltern are individuals—the underclass—who have become dependent on government support. Food assistance, housing programs, Medicare, public assistance, and other forms of welfare rob them of the capacity to assess the situation from the standpoint of the independent rational observer. Their primary political role is reduced to voting, and they paradoxically vote for the party that ghettoizes them. A portion of this group includes migrants, whose continued presence in America depends on the very forces that induce them to come here.
Above the subaltern are the cultural managers—educators, journalists, professionals, and public officials—who depend on administrative institutions for employment and advancement. While they have the capacity to understand broader economic and social dynamics, they’re deeply invested in maintaining the system from which they benefit. Professionals such as lawyers, managers, and physicians derive substantial advantages from this structure. Most of them are college-educated, which means spending years being indoctrinated in administrative logic and instrumental rationality.
At the top of the pyramid is the class that owns the means of production and makes the financial decisions that shape how society functions. They select the politicians and the policies that govern the lives of the subaltern and managerial classes.
The subaltern stratum is not monolithic. A large portion of working people are either disengaged from politics or are only partially engaged. Meeting the needs of their families consumes their time. Others, despite being relatively marginalized, do develop an awareness of power structures—such as small business owners competing against large corporations. Through competition, they gain a clearer understanding of underlying power dynamics.
Unlike those closely aligned with institutional structures or dependent on the government—who are more likely to support the Democratic Party—many working-class individuals and small business owners are more inclined to support Republicans. They desire autonomy, individual freedom, and limited government. They work hard and take pride in working hard. They know the Democrats support the global power structures that make their lives difficult and their fortunes precarious.
Such individuals are drawn to Trump because they view him as outside the traditional elite class that exploits and oppresses them. Although he is wealthy, they can see that Trump is an outsider and a maverick. They see this in how the managerial classes and their corporate directors regard Trump. When the elite attack Trump for his straightforwardness, conservatives feel that attack coming their way. When the elites mock and ridicule him, call him a vulgarian, etc., they sense they, too, are being mocked and ridiculed. They are not wrong.
These are the normal people who come home after a hard day of working, turn on the TV, and know that what the culture and media are feeding them is swill. They live in the real world, and not having been indoctrinated or experiencing enough of it to know it for what it is, they keep their common sense wits about them. This is why the elites loathe them and rig the system to keep them from power.
I hear progressives talk about how they’re “for the working man.” It is absolute rubbish. Listen to the way they talk down to ordinary people. Serving the elites, the elitism of those who presume they’re the working man’s betters rubs off on them. They think they have it all figured out. They know it all. And that makes the attempt to reach them with facts and logic futile. The best weapon at the conservatives’ disposal in dealing with such fools is to mock and ridicule them back.
Watching all this, I am struck by how patient and reserved conservatives are. Sure, many are too busy working and raising families to take to the streets in protest. Moreover, they know they could suffer consequences for protesting against the conditions. The vast majority are peaceful and rational and don’t want to cause trouble. Those who oppose collectivism and embrace individualism are less likely to move in masses. They don’t have a network of NGOs to organize them or rich donors to bankroll the NGOs. They’re churchgoers and make their contributions to society through charitable giving. They aren’t attention seekers. They’d rather just be left alone.
But sooner or later, their patience must run out. The common man cannot from the sidelines watch his beloved republic being dismantled by elites and their managers and their obnoxious and self-righteous subalterns.
freedom and reason 