Labour lost for a number of reasons. Remember those cheeky little ads your friends shared? “Do you remember this board game? Did your mum cook this?”
(Now they know your approximate age.)
Remember those photos of dogs, pictured after dog fights or horrible neglect?
(Now they know you care about animal welfare.)
Did your friends share pics of Lee Rigby, reminding you how “your grandfathers didn’t fight for this”?
(You’re a “patriot”.)
Did you do any of those harmless little quizzes, to tell what kind of person you are…what people think of you? Even if you didn’t, did your friends share them?
This is how Cambridge Analytica and other firms picked up information about you…your age, what you care about, your background, your interests.
Next…Targeted messages for people..
Older people were told “Remember the War? Look how disrespectful young people are. They don’t care what you went through or what your parents fought for. They’re selfish and lazy.
Remainers heard “Corbyn’s a leaver. He always has been. He wants to nationalise everything. That’s why.”
Leavers heard
“He’s not respecting the Referendum”
Ex-military “Look he’s a friend of the IRA…Communist..loves terrorists”
Animal lovers..and this is a clever one..Remember those poor dogs?
“Look what muslims do to animals. Halal meat must be banned. Those muslims are nasty but Corbyn loves them. He wants to let millions of them in…all terrorists.”
Jewish people “Corbyn’s an anti-semite. He loves Muslim terrorists, supports Palestine. He must hate Jews. And antisemitic incidents have risen under his leadership.” (They didn’t.)
Small businesses “Labour always bankrupts the country. Your taxes will rise and Labour will ruin your business.”
Anyone concerned about the health service..
“It’s EU migrants. They don’t pay in, they just use it for nothing. Some of them come just for free healthcare!”
Likewise schools..”migrants take all the school places.”
Housing..”Migrants are given houses when there aren’t enough for us..veterans on the streets…”
So there was a message for everyone, playing on their worst fears and prejudices. In some cases creating fear and prejudice, based on lies. Large parts of the British public were radicalised, in other words.
Look on a timeline when you see people spouting bigoted claptrap.
Do they have poppies year round? Help for Heroes banners? Support Cancer Care (Alzheimer’s..etc)
Pictures of dogs (their own, stolen dogs with owners looking for them or neglected/abused animals)
Articles or memes about the “religion of Peace ” with pictures of convicted paedophiles (exclusively brown ones.).
They usually also have details about a local crime. Has anyone seen this &*^*!? He broke into a house down the road.
Support for Israel and condemnation of antisemitism (but not any other form of intolerance).
What I’m saying is the gullible were all given their very own, tailor made reasons not to vote for a transformative, healing and forward-looking manifesto.
All of these paranoias were encapsulated and could be fixed with one, easy solution “Get Brexit Done!”
So it’s counterproductive to start mud-slinging. Labour needs to work out what kind of party it wants to be. I don’t believe it can be “centrist” and socialist. And one side has to give or go.
The JLM and FOI need to be disaffiliated. They are not Labour groups and caused a lot of damage.
Then Labour needs to work out how to counter the propaganda, lies and 21st century social media manipulation.”
Donna Gardner
To report this post you need to login first.
