It’s absolutely clear what’s going on here. It’s The Voice Mk 2. Senior LNP politicians have even said it. A…

It’s absolutely clear what’s going on here. It’s The Voice Mk 2. Senior LNP politicians have even said it. A stunt designed to create a massive shift in voting intention, in a short time. The most important question here is the one we’re not asking. WHY does this work? /1 https://t.co/t472O587WF

We don’t know yet that it will, for Dutton. But the fact he’s trying reveals that they know the strategy can work. The strategy relies upon the TOTAL disconnect between reality and politics. THAT’S WHAT POPULISM IS. /2

What I Tweet about. How our entire culture runs on popularity now, as a giant high school. Literally, not by analogy. High schools created and extended this culture, across all adult life. Social media dramatically accelerated this shift. The economy of likes. Popularity. /3

The spoils of this game are ultimate power. We set up a mechanism that made the doorway to power the winning of popularity contests. Elections. All of these factors are combining to create social collapse. Dutton doesn’t care he’s trashing Australia’s future. /4

Nothing can get in the way of winning an election. Of winning at the team sports. And once you win, it, what happens then? Nothing. Everything gears up to…winning the NEXT election. It’s a self-referential dumb lethal loop. Nothing but endless popularity. /5

Was just watching Yanis Varoufakis on UK TV talking about the ongoing ‘rise of the Right’ in Europe. As if those idiot political categories mean anything. It’s the rise of populism. All of history and politics is the battle against populism. The SOCIAL dynamic of culture. /6

Whether it’s parenting kids or running a business or country, the *entire* job has always been to do what’s needed and right, and not what’s popular. Those who follow me know that I often reference research that shows all that breaks us out of this bubble. /7

Catastrophe. Natural disasters, world wars. Nothing else breaks the team sports of our social behaviours. Watch European news right now. The continent is in desperate trouble. And what’s the focus? /8

Euro 2024. The soccer tournament. Team sports. Populism turns everything into a soccer tournament. Questions of energy, immigration, climate change, infectious disease. All of it. Elections were an absolute gift to this social mechanism. /end