What we used to call the ‘public sphere’ has been almost entirely replaced with social media, the space where…

What we used to call the ‘public sphere’ has been almost entirely replaced with social media, the space where we now transact all of society. Public policy is determined by what’s ‘trending’. That in turn is usually determined by activists. Activists are gangs. /1

To go back to the schoolyard again, activists are standover gangs bullying their way to higher status and domination over others. Nearly always with the claim they speak for ‘the people’ or ‘the community’. /2

There is no such thing as the people, or the community, as some unified group. It’s a con, just as politicians speaking of a ‘mandate’ is a con. I see a lot of this playing out in the battles over renewables. /3

Because everybody believes ‘the people’ is real and is also democracy, politicians caved and now renewables roll-outs are bogged down in endless ‘community consultation’. But the idea the community has problems with renewables is an artefact of anti-renewables activists. /4

Just as the idea that ‘people won’t tolerate more Covid action’ was an artefact of anti-vax/anti-public health activism. Polling showed that in fact the majority consistently supported action against Covid. /5

It’s just that the anti-public health gang was better at being a gang, bullying the wider community into submission. This was the story of both Puss in Boots and the Emperor’s New Clothes. Sleights of hand disguised as community belief. /5

I’ll repeat my view, that ‘the public’ as we thought we knew it is not, nor will it ever be, just a group of people mobilised in some way. It’s a construct of public institutions, set up to create and maintain a society. It’s a continuous calculation of need. /6

Because we live in a kidult culture, assembling large groups of people like a rock concert is mistaken for public action. It’s activist gangs, that’s all. A con. /end