Originally Posted by
swaledale
I really don't buy it, I think your perception is coloured by the predominate theme that is churned out by many media sources, a trope that is pushed by Government, the right wing establishment and its media, that somehow the left controls the cultural narrative.
In the United Kingdom, the spectre of a Marxist takeover is also invoked across the right wing spectrum, including the current attorney general. Conservative commentators like to claim that the left in Britain “controls almost every institution”.
“Control” cannot refer to representative government: winning elections and forming governments that promote leftwing principles and policies. It cannot mean that because, when it comes to political representation, the left in Britain has been in opposition for the best part of the last 100 years. Even in the few cases in which it succeeded in winning elections, it did so while relinquishing traditional leftwing commitments, promoting an image of itself as competent and pragmatic, neither right nor left.
When the right claims that the “left is in control”, they know the left has no political or economic power, but claim that it nonetheless pervades society and culture.
For the right, those who question the legacy of the empire or making efforts to decolonise university curriculums have created a situation in which “the very underpinnings of western liberal democracies are being subverted and destroyed”. Instead of asking why so many of the songs we sing, roads we walk down and statues we pass contain traces of an injustice whose legacy continues to shape the present, Conservative MPs are urged to be “the vanguard” of the opposition to the left’s “remorseless cancel culture”.
But the left that has neither adequate political organisation (in both Britain and the US, the leading progressive parties, in opposition, are run by their centre or right factions) nor any kind of significant control over the economy to be culturally hegemonic. Ideas and discourses do not float in the air, they reflect wider societal patterns. The same ruling elites who shape politics and the economy also shape the intellectual debate.
Look at the evidence, the economy is unthinkingly covered in much of the press from the point of view of asset owners, its large corporations who play a determining role in producing culture and the arts. The fantasy of leftwing hegemony in rightwing countries is not about principles, but tactics. Very successful ones, where many of those with little influence and control, thats around 94% of the population, are somehow convinced there is this left wing plot to subvert society, it feeds into the very real fears of people about changes to society, their lives and the ability to control their destiny.
But instead of punching up and asking why it is that Britain's richest 1% have accumulated as much wealth as the poorest 55% of the population put together, why is the gap between rich and poor increasing, why jobs are more insecure and why an institution like the BBC is under threat, there is a "punching down" against immigrants, against changes in thought on injustice and disadvantage.
By trying to realise the false notion that “national values” are at risk of disappearing at the hands of powerful leftists, the right can mobilise support for those in power – despite the sorry state of the economy or disastrous outcome of public policy.
In short yes your being lied to, but not by some mysterious powerful left wing force, but by the right wing elite of this country who are pushing this theory so that you and others can completely ignore the fact that over the past decade, the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer, health inequalities have widened, basic services have been cut, the amount the richest pay into the national pot has reduced, tax avoidance is a far greater loss to the economy than benefit fraud, society is less fair and corruption, money laundering and nepotism has increased.
The very fact that you and others feel there is an issue about BAME representation in the media and entertainment demonstrates how successful this left wing conspiracy theory promoted by the right has been!
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