Fake News!

One of the contributions that President Donald Trump has given what is now known as “the Anglosphere” is the term “Fake News”. Now there will be many BG readers who would wish us to point out that Mr Trump did not invent the term and we duly oblige here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news
Of course, it can be said that there is a degree of fakery in so much of the news and that this has always been the case. There is a dishonourable tradition amongst the monopolist state funded broadcasters in states such as Belarus, China, Cuba, Russia and the UK that fakery is routinely employed to the benefit of the rulers of that state or in the case of the UK, the politically correct elite by broadcasting in such a way as to “propagandise” the news.
Of course, for us in the UK salt is rubbed into the wound by the imposition of the TV tax – the “so-called” television licence fee!
When people in the USA first learn of the existence of this tax in the UK, they are quite literally flabbergasted!
In 22 days time, we will more than likely know the result of the US Presidential Election that will be held on Tuesday, 3rd November. The uncertainty is due to the facts that there might be a legal challenge and also the possibility of the death of one of the candidates – although thankfully, this would appear extremely unlikely.
One of the principal jobs of these propaganda perpetrators whenever there is an election is to overstate the support the favoured candidate is getting as this serves to encourage supporters (of that candidate) and discourage the supporters of the opposing candidate/s.
On learning that this is a routine tactic deployed by such propagandists, many thinking persons comment: “Wouldn’t it be more effective to understate the support the favoured candidate gets so as to encourage those supporters of the favoured candidates to encourage all their fellows to support them and vote for them?”
However, when dealing with ordinary human beings that constitute the vast majority of the electorate (the politically active members being a small minority) this tactic actually works due to a deeply engrained trait in the human psyche.
This trait is to support the winner!
Now this might appal the vast majority of thinking persons but this is a fact and there is a powerful evolutionary logic to it. Human beings are social creatures and like pack animals there are contests to establish hierarchies which can either be violent or non violent. There is a natural evolutionary logic for all of the creatures not actually involved in the contest to fall in behind the winner of the contest!
I myself have been a direct witness to this: A long time ago in the 1980s I contested a local council election and went canvassing – for myself. Knocking on the door of a bungalow, the householder, a lady, opened it and to my question that would she be voting for me replied, “No. I always vote for the winning candidate and the Tories always win here.” I then asked if she was a Tory supporter and she replied, “No.” And shut the door.
What this means is this: One cannot rely of the BBC’s reporting of the supposed lead Mr Biden has in the polls. Now I don’t doubt that the BBC is accurately reporting polling data that shows Mr Biden ahead. However, there are always many, many polls.
So all we can do is to wait and see.
The one thing we in the UK can be sure about is that the result – whatever it is – will affect all of us!